Maritime Museum

Sunday 29th July 2012:

As I said on the way back from the river cruise we stopped by the Maritime Museum and Brian went in and had a good look around while I sat relaxing and enjoying the warm sunshine.

Sunday 29th July - 2012 - river cruise

River Cruise was the order for the morning, we decided on Saturday that we would see more if we did a river cruise, we found one that included morning tea - why not I say. Once again a sleep in and as we were going to go on the crusie at 1030 we decided against breakfast, so a nice lie in once again getting up and having our showers, bags packed and taken to the car as check out was 1000am.We left the car still in the carpark and walked back down to Southbank to where the boat cruise departed at 1030 sharp, it was a nice old boat and once all aboard and the ship shape rules etc out of the way we were off on a nice relaxing trip departing from Southbank and up stream as far as the Gateway Bridge and back again. It was such a beautiful day and a nice way to relax and see place we would never get to see. Once we arrrived back on Southbank we headed toward the Maritime Museum where Brian spent an hour or so and had a chat with the staff and taking a look at the communications room on board the HMAS Diamantina. The large metal bridge structure is the Storey Bridge if you are feeling very energetic you can do a bridge climb however I think you would need a good head for heights, the last photo of the bridge is the Gateway Bridge that you need to go over to get from Brisbane and Sunshine Coast if you wish to head to the Gold Coast and onto NSW. We made our way back along Southbank and called in at the nice Italian Cafe where we stopped yesterday for a coffee however today we stopped and had an authentic Italian Pizza topped with Buffalo Mozzerella cheese, tomatoe and fresh Basil, it was very warm and the only table available was out the front in the sun  - oh well we had a fantastic view of the river and surrounds, from here we made our way back to the car for the 1hr drive north and arrived home around 1630pm nice and relaxed and said we must go away more often. Enjoy the photos of the river cruise.

Mummy - Secret of the Tomb

Saturday 28th July 2012:

Mummy of Nesperennub

Egypt, around 800 BC
The mummy of the priest Nesperennub, discovered at Luxor in the 1890s, has recently been the subject of a ground-breaking experiment. Non-invasive X-ray and Computerised Tomography (CT) scanning techniques have made it possible to look inside the mummy without disturbing the wrappings in any way. This has provided a unique insight into the complex process of mummification and life in ancient Egypt, and it has even been possible to reconstruct Nesperennub's likely appearance.
Nesperennub was alive around 800 BC and died aged approximately forty years. His skull shows a small unexplained hole above the left eye, which might indicate an illness which could have proved fatal. After death Nesperennub would have had his internal organs removed, except for the heart, before being embalmed with resin. Next the corpse was decorated with pieces of jewellery - the X-rays show rings on both hands - as well as amulets. The body was wrapped, then placed inside its painted cartonnage case, which was in turn put inside a wooden coffin. The text on the cartonnage case reveals that Nesperennub and his father worked as priests in the great religious complex of Karnak.
The 3D images of Nesperennub show that, very unusually, he was mummified with a shallow, irregular-shaped bowl on his head. This does not belong to any known ritual aspect of embalming and was probably part of the embalmers' working equipment. Perhaps during the embalming process the bowl was placed on the head to catch surplus resin. This may then have hardened unexpectedly quickly, cementing the bowl firmly to the skull. Damage to the skin at the back of the head may have been caused by attempts to remove it. The embalmers may then have decided to carry on with the wrapping of the body, hoping that their mistake would pass unnoticed - which it did for nearly three thousand years.

So who was Nesperennub?

Nesperennub lived nearly three thousand years ago in Thebes. Thebes was one of the greatest cities in ancient Egypt and was full of temples and grand palaces. Nesperennub himself worked as a priest in the greatest of these temples, Karnak. He was also a fan-bearer to the King, so was an important man.
Nesperennub's wooden coffin has his face painted on the outside. He wears a wig, and his headband and collar are made of lotus petals. The hieroglyphs down the centre are a prayer asking for 'life, prosperity and health' for Nesperennub. Inside the coffin a goddess holds her arms open to protect his body.

The Mummy Case:

Inside Nesperennub's coffin is a case containing his mummy. The case is made of cartonnage - layers of linen covered with glue or plaster, then left to set hard. It is brightly painted. At the top the scarab beetle with a falcon's head is the sun god Ra. His wings are stretching out over Nesperennub's chest. Under this the god Sokar is shown as a mummified falcon.
Lower down, a yellow dome with two feathers coming from the top is a sign of the god Osiris. Osiris and Ra both hold the key to life after death. The hieroglyphs below the knee tell us that Nesperennub and his father both worked at Karnak.

This truely was a most amazing experience and one that we are both so pleased we decided to make the trip to Brisvegas and if you get the chance to see the exhibition it is well worth the money and guess what, all seniors get a concession  - even better

Saturday - July 28th 2012

For once we had a sleep in as we are usually up and ready to open the office back home by 0800, we had a cuppa in bed and watched some of the replay of the opening of the Olympics on TV coming in on the final team to enter the stadium Great Britian. With our showers over it was time to go downstairs for breakfast in the small dining area, a buffet breakfast for us of fruit juice, bacon,eggs,sausage and tomatoes finished with a cuppa all very nice and all we needed. Today was the day we were booked to go and see the Mummy Secret of the Tomb, and as we were booked on the 1500 showing we had the morning to take a stroll to Southbank and just made the most of the beautiful day. Where we were staying was only about a 15min walk to Southbank which meant we did not have to use the car to get around which was great as we don't know Brisbane at all and were told that parking was really expensive therefore our car remained safe in the hotel carpark and a saving on fuel and good exercise for he and me hahahaha. We walked down and had a look through the fence of the Maritime Museum and noticed a very familiar Pink sailing boat - yes it was Ella's Pink Lady that the young Sunshine Coast girl Jessica Watson sailed single handed around the world, Brian decided he would go back on Sunday and have a good look at the boats they had in the dry dock. It was time to head back to the hotel and make a cuppa before getting our Museum tickets to the show and walking down along Southbank to the Museum - no photos were allowed to be taken so I have nothing to show unfortunately. The only photos shown below taken at the museum are the whales that are suspended from the entry to the museum, Brian sitting waiting for me - hehehe and the bronze statues of the Pelicans and the fountain, the big wheel is actually along Southbank.

A weekend in Brisvegas - July 27-29 - 2012

The weekend had finally arrived for us to head to Brisbane or Brisvegas for the weekend  - we had booked to go and see the "Secrets of the Tomb" show at the Brisbane Museum. Sue a friend of Kerry that works in the office during the week had offered to work our Saturday so that we could have the weekend there rather than driving down and back the same day. We didn't leave until around 6.30pm on the Friday night waiting for the peak hour traffic in Brisbane to go before we headed in getting lost, which we did anyway even with the GPS. We arrived at the Diana Plaza Hotel around 8.30pm, the hotel is in the area of Woolongaba and hotel is just along the road from the famous GABA sports stadium. We decided dinner was needed and rang down for room service as it stated 24hr room service to be advised NO ROOM SERVICE ummmmmmmmmmmm ok off next door to a lovely little Thai restaurant and purchased some yummy food and brought it back to our room. A bit of TV watching and then into the slab of a bed, Brian was soon asleep however I was woken with a helicopter landing on helipad atop of the Mater Hospital and dejavu we had same thing Saturday night hahahahaha. Ok so what did we do well read on and enjoy and if you get a chance to see the Mummy - Secrets of the Tomb at all it is well worth going and having a look. Below are just a couple of photos of church spires/domes one daytime and lower a late afternoon/evening shot and the middle picture is the archway covered in Bouganvillia leading into Southbank.

NZ trip fast approaching

We are currently getting organised for our approaching trip back to NZ. We are flying into Auckland and overnighting there before flying the next day to Rotorua where we will collect a rental car and drive through to Turangi where we will stay for 8nights in one of the Police Holiday Homes for the next 8nights so that Brian can go and do some long awaited Trout fishing  - he misses his fishing alot and thought this would be a great idea and time to do it. We will then fly out of Rotorua to Christchurch where we will stay for 7nights before heading home again to the Sunshine Coast in the middle of September. Well folks that's about all for now so will add some other snippets soon as we are going to catch up with some of the Moyse clan this Sunday so know doubt there will be some photos to add here - cherrio folks.

Coffee Club at Cottontree - Marrochydore

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning and Brian decided we would go for a drive to Cottontree, where they have a Sunday market and it is directly opposite one of the most popular caravan parks. We have stayed at Cottontree along with our wonderful friends Helen and David. We had lunch at the Coffee Club which was so nice then made our way home again after walking across to the caravan park and sitting on the beach for a while.
Enjoy the photos:

Coromal arrives at Bribie

The weekend of Fri June 8th, Sat 9th and Sunday 10th saw us escape for the weekend to Worrium with our little van "Poppy" she is a Coromal 15ft van all the comforts we need and this time with the new moderfications that we have had done to the sleeping  arrangements, we had the van taken back to single beds, the main reason with my bad back I was over climbing in and out and over Brian each time I needed to get in or out it was such a pain and also making the bed was a real chore. So a guy from my work did the beds for us and made a cabinet for between the beds where we now have room for our early morning cuppa and books, glasses etc all in all a great success - I love it, we both have a window that we can either have open for some fresh air something we never had before, the above bed lamps were still there from the original way the van was when manufactured. Converting the beds has given us so much more room it is amazing how open the van is now  - we love it. Unfortunately the weather was not very good for us and we were not able to sit outside at all due to drizzly damp stuff but we were on the site right next to Terry and Patricia so all in all it was fine. I finished work on the Friday around midday and we headed down to Bribie early in the PM arriving there mid arvo, taking no time at all to set up we were soon sitting down to a cuppa, we all headed to the Blue Pub for dinner that night which was great.

Heading home on the Sunday we paid to leave later and luckily we were heading north as the traffic heading south was dreadful bumper to bumper see photo of gridlock on the M/Way which is a common thing on a holiday weekend. The following weekend once the weather had cleared Brian decided that the roll out awning needed a good clean, hence the spruce up We had a great time and cann't wait to head away again next year for a longer journey, the van is currently in at Suncoast Caravans getting some more moderfications and a few minor repairs done for the trip ahead  - but more about that another time.

Enjoy the gallery of photos:

Moyse Family arrive on Bribie 28th May 2012

Monday 28th May arrived it was a beautiful day and we had planned to meet Terry & Patricia at 1000am at the paddock where they have the old Zephyr van stored for 9mths of the year when they head back to NZ.Brian takes some tools and the pump for the tryes as they are always a bit flat after sitting for a while in the paddock, I take the lunch and this year it was a Bacon & Egg pie and flasks of hot water for a cuppa. While the lads were doing the tyres, Patricia and I set to  - to refold the tarp that had been covering said Z van for the last 9mths to keep some of the QLD weather off her. Once the tyres are up the old lady comes out of the paddock and soon enough we are heading in convoy down the road the approx 3kms to the caravan park at Worrium. Once at the van park the Moyse clan check in and we move the old lady Z onto the site where she will be parked up for the next 3mths. Once she is in the correct spot we set to in relays to unload her as all the belongings are loaded inside when T & P head back to Christchurch. We unload all that we require to make room and get the annexe set up first - with this done it is lunch time done picnic style and the weather was just fantastic, after lunch the lads decide the TV has to be organised and set to working order - this did not go to plan, first the antenna did not work properly and they could not get the huge quantity of channels they wanted - eventually they managed to get something all be it not what Terry wanted but it was his turn to play with it while we set to head back northward to home. It was a nice day warm and sunny and in a weeks time we will head down with our little Coromal for the weekend - more about that next time.
Enjoy a read and the photos.