How Ya Goin'?

"I Spy" the Brisbane Temple! The white spire with angel!

How Ya Goin'?

That's just a normal greeting, on the phone, or when you meet someone!  We are so enjoying the delightful accent and idioms of the language here.  I hope our accents are as interesting to them as theirs are to us.  I'm afraid to ask!!  So, here's a  blurb for you to translate:

TRAFFIC REPORT:

A bingle at broady. Towies on site; it's chockers out that way!

Shimmering Brisbane City from "City Cat" Catamaran

It's a true report my friend Sister Tarr, pronounced Tah, told me about at dinner last Wednesday as we were all together at a Senior Couples Conference with the Mission President and our Area Authority Seventy, Elder Walker.  The translation is: There's a wreck at Broadway.  The tow trucks are there on site.  Watch out because traffic's crazy there!"  Case in point:  We finished a lovely full day of meetings and activities on Thursday, highlighted by an evening ride down the beautiful Brisbane River which makes a huge "W" meandering through the center of downtown.  Our river cruise was over at about 9:30, and we thought surely we'd miss the horrible traffic on the motorways (freeways) en route home.  No such luck!  The side roads and motorways were jammed because of a huge soccer (football) game letting out at the same time! Roads are TINY  and narrow here as well.  Why not welcome another post-midnight retiring time and enjoy the views!  David's doing so well adjusting to the backwards driving.  I'm the navigator, along with our mute GPS.  Don't leave home without a map! So, another clever senior Elder Richins coined a new word, stating that his wife was the "NAG-I-Vator!   Well, sometimes we  "nagivators" just have to holler, "Turn right here!" or we'd be toast! 

Brisbane is truly a beautiful and well-kept city.  They have done a magnificent job capturing the sites of the city and the river at night.  Our boat ride in the evening of Thursday was breathtaking.  Bridges are lit up like candles in the night, and all the skyscrapers cast their glowing lights shimmering across the water!  We took dozens of photos and one winner is: 

Appropriately named, the splendid "Storybook Bridge"

The gorgeous STORYBOOK BRIDGE! Hey, granddaughters, how would you like your princess carriage to carry you across this dazzling bridge?  The local people told us as we were on the boat that the bridge often changes colors! They will decorate and light it up 

differently for different holidays and occasions.  I can hardly wait to see what they do for Christmas!

We were told that we'd not need a coat at all in Brisbane.  Hmmm.....

Who said we'd not need a coat? Pass another layer, please!

 

David exceeded his kilometer quota this week.  On Tuesday we drove up to Redcliffe, a lovely more rural area on the ocean, to do some training with a Self-Reliance Specialist newly called there.  We observed the training, mostly, as we ourselves aren't fully trained.  There's a COSTCO up nearby Redcliffe, which we wandered through like a homesick puppy!  Ah, American Brands! At least a few. The normal shops (grocery stores) here are neat and well-stocked, but many familiar foods don't exist here!  Maple syrup for one.  Bisquick or any equivalent for another.  No problem for us because we rarely eat pancakes.  

I had to make a cake for one of the Senior Conference desserts and chose a carrot cake.  I had to laugh because every step of the way I ran into roadblocks.  Powdered sugar to make with a cream cheese frosting? Cream cheese?  Butter that is really butter and will melt and act like butter in a recipe!  Their powdered  sugar is called "icing mix."  Of course, its ingredients weren't listed.  Then trying to guess the grams and milliliter equivalents!  I'm a rookie cook over here, folks.  Oh, and my oven is in centigrade, naturally.  And we had no internet at home and it was late at night.  Oh, for the math memory to remember the formula to change centigrade to Fahrenheit.  We guessed our best and at least knew that toothpicks in the center of cakes work just as well in Australia as in the US!  The cake somehow turned out deliciously.  Whew!  

Wild Turkey with a Sideways Fishtail!  

The next three days we had to drive all over Brisbane for several conference meetings and activities.  Driving all the way through the whole of Brisbane is like driving from Spanish Fork to Layton in the worst tangled mess of traffic imaginable.  The drivers are good and courteous, except for driving on the "wrong" side of the road.  Yesterday we were headed to the Mission home and Bertha, our GPS, took us on what was called an airport link.  Suddenly we plunged into the darkest tunnel for about 6 kilometers!  Wahoo, when  we reached the light we later found out we had gone BELOW the Brisbane river!!!  What an engineering feat, for sure.  We arrived early to one venue near the Temple, and had time to take a daytime river walk along the banks of the Brisbane River.  The wild turkey pictured here was one interesting critter!  His tail isn't like a normal turkey's tail at all!  Get this---it sticks out of his behind just like a fish's fan tail!  Yup, it sticks straight out instead of being upright and fanning out like a normal turkey!  Maybe when hot, all the turkeys line up and fan each other with their waving fish tails!  

Which is the "REAL" hibiscus?  Not a dye job, either!

And for the plant of the week, note this crazy plant that blooms two different  colors on EVERY single branch!  And it's not a flower that opens and changes colors as it matures.  No, no grafting guru could pull off this trick!  I've seen the same on other plants here,  but this is a classic example of a little hibiscus that couldn't decide to be orange or yellow!  I love its style!  Be your own kind of beautiful was the advice it took as nature taught it how to be truly unique---like each one of you!

If you made it to the end of this blog, congrats! You deserve a medal for perseverance.  And it's time to sign off and let you know that the mission is great, fulfilling, challenging and most of all,  we see how we can be of service to the beautiful people that surround us.  Now our job is to LEARN all we need to as quickly as possible. You are all in our prayers that your lives may be filled with good experiences and positive outcomes each day from your worthwhile efforts.  We have ever-growing testimonies of this most important work of Self-reliance.  Take care of yourselves in every way, every day!  

With much love to you and yours,

Elder and Sister Yates

Dad and Mom

David and Marsha