April 2009

Firstly the garden

I went to the ABC garden expo in Brisbane. Big trip, up at 5am, shit,shower,shave and shampoo and then a bus to Landsborough and a train trip to Brisbane. I arrived at about ten to 9 there were already a lot of people queueing up to get in. But the organisers refused to open the gate before 10am. Fair enough I thought, until nearly a thousand (my guesstimate) crowded in to a little grassed off area with one old fig as shade. Hundreds were left standing in the sun, some for nearly an hour. Old people were getting groggy from the heat, but none of the organisers seemed to care. Jerry colby wotsisname form the ABC telly show hadn't given his speech yet, so no one was allowed in.

And finally let in with a mad crush. The plant and seed stalls were tiny, yet there was so much unused space at the back of the expo - - why ABC? It was a garden expo so I expected a lot of plant and seed stalls, there weren't that many and those that were there were so crowded with plants and seeds the "walkways" in the stalls were one person at a time, so if someone was curious about plants no one else got in. And the little old ladies. Pushy, rude, no idea of queueing, no idea of people skills.

Colby's talk on survival gardening was boring so it lasted a few minutes for me, and again some people had to stand in the sun because there was not enough room and seats set aside for those who were interested in what he had to say.

Got a sub-tropical apple - anna - and a wampi, some day lilly bulbs and a pack of redland pioneer beans.

I almost got a coffee there, but nearly $4 for a cuppa is not beyond me at all, but I just refuse to pay that much for a cuppa in a plastic or cardboard cup. I almost bought a hamburger, haven't had one for ages, but the stink of rancid old fat being used really put me off. If you went there and ate, and felt crook the next day, food poisoning is my bet.

And then went home. Luckily I timed my dummy spit when I did. Walked up to some main road near the show ground and got a bus to Fortitude Valley and a train home. when I got there I thought you beauty, timed it well, a train to Caboolture was only four minutes away. It was the all stop slow train and would mean a bus to Landsborough, but it was a train, And then the semaphore board changed and added the Nambour express only 9 minutes away. Yahoo. Home by 1pm.

Planted everything yesterday and am suffering today - back aches, hip aches....etc etc etc. Broke my back playing rugby (and it wasn't diagnosed for 25 years), found out this year I'd lost about 10% of my pelvis - tore my hamstring in an under 16 rugby league game and my dear dead old dad - being a "strapper" reckoned there was no need to go to a doctors, he knew all about hamstring tears and would massage the lump out. The lump was about a kilo of pelvis bone. No wonder I walk funny.

edited the family out

Too much drama, but that's life.