Day 191-193: 8/25Radiocity, Brisvegas and Elke neckalces

It's been a big few days. After visiting Radiocity on Friday for my 8th treatment, I met Cazy at home and we headed for the airport to fly to Brisbane for a weekend to celebrate Ben Crogan's 40th Birthday, catch up with family and friends and for me to meet up with a work colleague from UQ. After a debacle getting the hire car back to it's home base, we thankfully made our flight to Brisbane in good time, albeit a bit frazzled. We had a smooth flight and caught up with Paulie, Geeta and Jai at the other end to pick up our hire car. We felt like a bunch of hoons in our pumpkin orange Holden Commodore which were allocated for the weekend.

Friday evening we had a lovely night catching up with our special family friends Lucy and Sean at a Turkish Restaurant nearby the hotel. Clearly, they pull out all stops on Friday nights with traditional music and belly dancing, which was a entirely new experience for Jai, and something Sean was willing to take part in! Despite the cacophony, we enjoyed our meal and spending time with Lucy and Sean.



Saturday I met with UQ colleague Nicole George, wearing the gorgeous earrings she'd sent me from Sweden when she was there on sabbatical. It was great to hear about Nicole's travels and to plot out some future research plans which I hope will eventuate.

Before lunch, Ree and Millie came to meet us at the hotel and to take us over to Ben's birthday lunch. It was so great to see them and to hear about their recent travels, to the US and Japan respectively.

The main purpose of our visit was to attend Benny's 40th birthday party; in true Ben style, he wanted something low key and a pub lunch with close family fitted the bill perfectly. He's a gorgeous man - such a special son, brother, uncle and cousin, and that was made very apparent on the day. We were so happy to have been able to be there and catch up with everyone including Suzie and Pete, Sammi and Jodie and their gorgeous kiddies, Margie and Gary, and Katie Kelly, the Paralympian in the family, just back from a gold medal win in Canada. We were missing Lindy who was caught up with obligations in Newcastle.

Cazy and I had an uneventful flight home and headed straight to Matt Kelly and Nat's place to say farewell before they head to Edinburgh for 6 months with their three gorgeous kids for Nat to take up a position at Edinburgh University. I was very envious, wishing we could have our time over again in that fabulous city.

It was lovely to get home and see my boys. Robbie is exhausted after his stressful time in New England; dear Aunty Beryl is unlikely to recover for pneumonia which is very sad and distressing for everyone.

This weekend I've been wearing my good luck earrings along with necklaces that were gifts from Robbie - one for completing my book, another for my birthday. Both are made from a combination of marble and silver - I love them both and wear them often.