SOME people take holidays at Christmas and a ‘well earned rest’ (give me a break). Being one of three people left in Australian campgrounds that still pitches a tent and tarp, I just get two weeks hard labour.
The sentence includes various levels of physical and psychological torture.
The mental anguish begins early as the long range forecast turns hourly as forecasters , deliberately toying with my fragile mind.
Then you’re finally there raising a tarp and one of your kids decides to walk away from their critical corner pole role at a critical moment. When it’s up the pain has just barely begun as the wind picks up.
Flapping, snapping, sagging, leaking, tautness… hopeless. It’s a full-time job in futility. I can’t go at gazebos. Yes it’s all too easy but as I tell anyone who will listen when they walk past my site – ‘mate a storm comes through and we’ll be right’.
Then it never comes. But if it did I’d be sitting sweet as.
STADIUMS
DO people want a new Gabba stadium? I know I do. I don’t care what it costs. Those suggesting QE2 is an option are not thinking straight. You need a mass transport system and that’s what the Cross River Rail will deliver.
QE2 is also in the middle of nowhere. Sorry but Mt Gravatt is no place for an Olympic stadium. I still remember the days of seeing an Origin there once. It was a nightmare in and a nightmare out and nothing has changed in terms of transport options.
The Gabba as an inner-city top grade stadium close to everything, simply has to be the pick.
And while the three weeks of the Olympics will be a nice cherry on top, it’s more about long-term planning and having a stadium for the AFL, cricket and concerts that the rest of us can enjoy for many years to come.