Here We Go Again - Chapter 36 - Cairns Day 4

Its raining again, in the middle of the dry season. It rained most of the night and we awake to overcast and mild conditions. Still not miserable enough to make us think of home and less than 10 degrees.

Today will be a family day. We are catching up with Beth and Carmen, mother and daughter nieces of Robyn. Robyn has found a pancake parlour where breakfast will occur. After that – who knows.

Carmen and  Beth are already at the meeting place. Carmen, dressed for warm weather, is suffering little. She has ordered a hot chocolate in an attempt to warm up. The menu allows kids a variety of options which includes a “spider” breakfast, including a pancake, ice cream, chocolate and banana. What more could a kid want in a breakfast?

Being a Sunday morning, parking is easy and we have parked very close to the restaurant and have all hit the place at the appointed time, even if I had to relodge income tax returns of three entities because of Tax Department queries. Robyn and Beth talk around Beth’s employment with the Victorian Government. She is chief of staff of a Victorian Government minister and the conversation centres around his portfolio which includes Aboriginal Issues.

They are aiming to visit lots of family today, so getting through breakfast is only one of the many activities of the day. They do suggest that they are wanting to do the Skyrail and given we are doing it on Tuesday, the day they go home, they will aim to join us. Given our experience with getting booked, they will need to move quickly to secure a seat. It would be nice to have them with us.

With breakfast over its back for more of the cleaning and laundry day. Silver Leader has an issue with his new battery and comes looking for a drill bit, which I happen to have, to secure it better in its brackets.

I feel its a requirement to set out the plan for tomorrow. The only thing that is on the agenda for now is Silver Leader needs to be an Atherton at 2.20pm for is Covid jab. There are roads in what is something like a big arc around Cairns. Forbsy has gone to spend time with friends he has in the area. He will pick up Silver Leader after this jab and the 2 Cruisers will head home via several sets of falls he has pointed out.

Before that though there are places to go and vistas to see. Silver Leader and Rose both pop in for their 2 cents worth on the plan and by the time we are done, everyone is happy with the plan.

Its been a lot over the last few days and a nanna nap is in order. 

Robyn decides to clean the floor in the van and the mop decides to give up the ghost, after only its second use. She does it by hand. Just as well its not a big space.

When I wake she is watching “One Chance” (2013 Syco Entertainment) the story of Paul Potts an opera singer who won Britain’s Got Talent. The story is inspiring, lots of hurdles to overcome with an ending that jerks the tears.

Tonight is the Rugby League State of Origin Game 2 and it is not a coincidence that movies like Invictus (2009 Warner Brothers) and Remember the Titans (2000 Buena Vista Films) are on the TV. Robyn has also found a Facebook post of a speech given by my nephew Daniel Farrant about passion and learning. I send the link to all the teachers in the immediate family and a message of support to Dan as well.

“Invictus” the story of the South African win in the Rugby Union World Cup just after the fall of Apartied and the struggle Nelson Mandela had attempting to bring his country together is an inspiration of its own. Then coupled with Remember the Titans with Denzel Washington, again looking at integration of peoples that should not require integration, the friction of hate, defused somewhat by sport.

But State of Origin is different. “State against State. Mate against mate” is the slogan. Yes its marketing but is it an inciting of something different. At a “normal” level it is a but of fun, but when you see the parochialism that gets around both New South Wales and Queesland at this time of the year, you start to wonder.

Both the movies are “entertainment/fiction” but the stories are very real. It is sickening to see what man can do to man. 

A brick comes through a window and instantly the response is to grab a gun. This is USA. But all jokes aside it could so easily be Australia. We only need to see what we did to our first inhabitants to become ashamed of what we can become given a little incitement to riot.

TV commentators, sport and news alike have a great responsibility they tend to like to abuse. They are there to report, not impose their beliefs on the public. Editorial input seems to be a big thing, what with the Murdoch versus the rest mentality. Its one thing to be parochial its another to incite.

History will show NSW won the first half. The second, similar in its intensity also went NSW way. No points were scored by Queensland. The intensity in defence of the NSW side prevailed.

A nice sleep tonight knowing our team won