Jennicki In Brissy - Day 1 - 27 May

In the two years and seven months that I have known Jenny, I have never seen a smile as big as hers. And I can remember the smile from when I first met her in person. She was smiling ear to ear. This time, her head was close to falling off.

That's what you get when you spend 12 days in a country you have been dreaming of since you were a kid. And I feel like AM the luckiest guy in the world to be part of her motivation to follow through on the act, and to escort her around Brisbane with the help of many of our friends.

I'll never forget waking up at Sparrows Fart o'clock on Sunday and getting myself dressed to pick up Jenny from the Airport with Mum. The trip was entertaining in itself. Mum and I driving down the highway, little idea what we should be looking out for, when suddenly I looked ahead and said to Mum "The Gateway Bridge, it's a bit close isn't it?"

Sure enough, it was. So over we went, and down the other side, through the e-toll gate and over the overpass, and back through the e-toll gate and then back down Southern Cross way, which Mum actually recognises.

That was when I started to Panic. Jenny was going to be at the airport, wasn't she. She was going to be waiting around looking for me and starting to think "He has forgotten about me and abandoned me" or something like that. She's going to be freaking out.

But no, it was half seven when Mum and I arrived. I bolted straight to the gate while Mum waited in the loading bay, the both of us thinking she will be fine waiting for a half hour or something.

A few minutes later, Mum calls me. "I can't wait in the loading bay, what should I do?"
"Go park, Mum"
"I don't know where it is!"
"There are signs, Mum. Should be one just as you leave the loading bay, or just as you come back in."

Sure enough, she quickly got her parking spot and joined me at the gate. Jenny hadn't come out yet, and it was past 8. I was panicking again. Have I missed her? Did she come out and I can't find her in the throng of people here? Or is she still in there and is lost since it's a very different place to America?

Turns out, her and the rest of the plane were held back, Quarantined, so to speak, because someone was Ill on the entire 14 hour flight from LAX. (One could not blame them. The smog will take your childrens lives, given the chance.)

Clever old me decided to make the announcement on Facebook that Jenny was finally here, and that she was Quarantined for a little bit.

Little did I know, that offhand comment caused a flurry of laughter and, more stressfully, worry. Jennys Mom and her Brother didn't quite understand the little joke, but luckily were easy to relieve after I told them what had actually happened.

It was a nice Sunday, and Jenny had about 3 hours sleep over the past 24+ hours. I had only had about 5 hours myself, which usually puts me into Zombie mode if it weren't for my excitement. But Jenny and I got to mine, I introduced her to the house we would (mostly) be staying at, and we crawled into bed for a couple hours of nap.

She couldn't sleep though. Why? Because she thought that someone was whistling outside the window.

"What?"
"Can you hear it? Someone's whistling!"
"I don't know wha-"
*Bird Whistle* (I'll get back to you on what bird it is)
"Ohhhh, that's a bird, babe."
"REALLY?!"

Back in the 'Zoo, you don't get that sort of background noise. I always knew something was off when I visited there, just something niggling in the back of my mind that something was missing that made Kalamazoo different, but little did I suspect that it would be the bloody birds.

Little did I realise before that day was that there was a festival on at Mcpherson Park. Every fourth Sunday of the Month the Miniature Steam Trains start running on the rails that were set back in '94, and the B-Ridge Central Lions Club run them along with a bunch of stalls and, much to my surprise, a concert stage. I thought it was perfect for such a nice day to go for a walk and get some lunch, since it was about 1pm before Jenny and I got up from our Nap.

It was an easy choice: Go to the Fish and Chip shop. Jenny wanted to try more fish, and she hasn't really had something like Fish and Chips before. Luckily, the shop around the corner from my mums place has the BEST fish and chips I've ever come across. And Jenny Agreed, between nibbling on her Crumbed Cod and taking photos of the Steam Trains as they circled around us.

She also took photos of all the unfamiliar birds, such as the Dumpster Ducks and the Willie Wagtails, to the Butcher Bird and even the Pigeons.

"Cool Tree!"

But on top of increasing her knowledge in Ornithology, she also dabbled in Botany starting with our own local plantlife. Gum Trees, Paper Bark trees and this one tree that I just couldn't Identify, though I think it's a small Paperbark with a bush that started growing at the base of its trunk. Cool though, and it's been there since I were a lad.

The sun beating down, Jenny was getting hot and cooling down when the wind blew her way, while I got a little chilly but braved it as best I could. We continued walking around, finding more interesting trees, houses and even got a few shots of Lorikeets as we followed the footpath around my old Primary School.

Now I wasn't sure if we were allowed, I don't think we were, but I stopped her for a moment to ask if she wanted to have a walk through the School. She was very keen, and very surprised.

"Why's that babe?"
"Well school at home is very enclosed, we have everything inside a building and it's not often that we go outside."
"Is that because only about 6 months of that time it's safe to go outside, and three of those months are School Holidays?"
"Exactly, so seeing your - What is it? Tuckshop? - and everything so open and in the sun, it's really amazing."

There you go, kiddilywinks. Appreciate the sunlight.

Mum gave us a mission before we had left. She wanted me to get ingredients for Dinner: A stuffed potato. I told her to write down the list of things we need because I'm either A: Bound to forget something, or B: get everything.

We slowly weaved through the aisles as she took photos of interesting things, and we discovered something as she took a photo of me holding a packet of Meat Pies.

"Matt holding his meat...pie. Meat pie."

*Jenny makes sound*
*I look up at her*
*She takes photo and starts laughing*
"Oh my god, I'm sorry!"
"For what babe?" I'm a little clueless
"I make that sound at Taz too when i want to take a photo of him."

She assured me that I'm not a puppy dog (though I do like a good petting) and she promised not to do it again. (She still did it though)

After that funny little episode at Woolworths, we got home and I gave Mum the groceries for her to start dinner. So she started it all off, and look at everything in front of her and thought 'There's something Missing'.

"Matt?"
"Yeah, mum?"
"Did you remember everything?"
"Pretty sure I did"
"What about Potatos?"
"..."
"Matt?"
"I'll be back in a few minutes, Mum."