Kangaroos, Communion and Cock Roaches

Kangaroos, Communion and Cock Roaches

We have a park not too far from our apartment where the kangaroos come out every afternoon around 4:30. Today we were able to get some up close pictures. They were very curious and stood up on their back legs to check us out-when they do that they are pretty tall. It was neat.

Our first Sunday back at church after being gone for two months caught me off guard. As usual we had communion. I am usually reminded by the server that wine is in the cups on the outside circle and grape juice is in the cups in the inside circle. Forgetting this bit of important information, I picked up a cup from the outside circle, threw my head back, gulped down what I thought was grape juice and promptly began to spit, sputter and cough uncontrollably for the next five minutes. After church the server came up to me and ask me if the wine was ok. They had heard be coughing and were just wondering.

On Wednesday I went to lunch with some ladies from the complex to celebrate Chinese New Year. We had a banquet meal consisting of Prawn Crackers, Beef Tips, Prawns (shrimp), and Broken Chinese Noodles for good luck.

It has been raining non-stop (see pictures of flooding close by) here for a week but it did clear just a bit on Thursday, for Australia Day. Norman and I took the train into Brisbane to attend our first ever Story Bridge Cock Roach races. There were about a thousand people in attendance. It is a fundraiser to help needy children in the area. Last year they raised over $30k. They had several races, each called by a different name and each time the cockroaches were escorted into the arena with a bag pipe band. The roaches where then released onto a plastic mat and allowed to go in any direction to cross the lines around the edge of the mat. Trophies and prizes were given to the top three sponsors of each winner. It was interesting to say the least.

We also rode the river taxi, strolled around the river walk and came across a rather large river lizard.

Well that is all for now from “down under”.