Category Archives: Newsworthy

Australian Olympians ticker tape parade – 19 September 2008

My son and I made the effort to get into the Queen Street Mall to see the Olympian’s parade (wearing as much Australian green and gold clothing as we could find).

And I must say, I’m so glad we did.

I’m a regular to these kinds of events, but this one seemed extra special.  It may have been because I was able to share the passion for sporting accolades with my little one.  But it could also have been that we appeared a lot closer to the action this time round.  I’d say we were one to two metres away from the stars as they drove by on the top of a shiny 4WD ute, or walking by.  Walking was generally for the lesser known athletes or, heavens above those who may not have won a medal.

It was hard not to get emotional as they went by with my three year old on my shoulders yelling, ‘Well done, you did really really good’.  It was really a special moment.

The big hit with the crowd – around us at least – were the explosive streamers the Olympians seemed to have in ample supply.  I assume they had plenty.  We were standing around 40m into the procession, and there didn’t appear to be any rationing going on with them being shot off every few seconds.  My son got an impressive collection of streamers to dangle proudly around his neck like his own little medals.

In stark contrast to Channel 7’s Olympic coverage, Stephanie Rice only passed us once.  We half-expected her to go past in every second car.

At the request of my son, which I supported whole-heartedly, we avoided the presentations.  This also made us miss our Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman giving today’s hero Ms. Rice the keys to the city. 

Instead we made our way around the massive crowd to the little one’s new favourite place in the city, the Brisbance Square (City Council) library. On the first floor they have a great space for children to be themselves while accessing some great resources.  Despite the mass of children’s books on display, my boy prefers to walk past a more grown-up section on the way in and grab a handful of magazines devoted to people with far too much interest in model trains to be healthy.  It keeps him happy.  And I’m always able to find enough mags to keep me entertained.  On top of all this there are loads of spots available to read with good views of the Brisbane River to conjur up some daydreaming.

It’s always a good day in the city when there’s a memorable occasion such as today, particularly when Brisbane turns on its best weather.

What a Father’s Day present!

After an attempted exit on Friday afternoon, we had to wait three long days at the Royal and Women’s Brisbane Hospital awaiting our second son to show himself.

Lewis eventually arrived Sunday night 07/09/2008 just before 8pm, becoming an unbeatable Father’s Day present.

It was around 30 food-deprived hours after the first discussed plans for my wife’s caesarean, but you can’t knock Queensland Health and the fine people who work for them.

And yes, someone has already coined the potential nickname for Lewis, in “Wally”. We saw that one coming Myles (or “1.6 km”) away.

Our latest little guy’s quite big, coming in at 4.105 kg (just over 9 lbs). So Mum is thankful in some ways avoiding delivery the natural way. Mum and he are doing extremely well. In fact Lewis had his happy, inquisitive-looking eyes open at the first sign of light. And perhaps a testament to his happiness, he weed – with quite an impressive gush – all over the poor lady trying to clean him up.

It’s been a very different experience having a slightly over-term baby, compared to Myles who arrived at around 33 weeks. For one, he has those fantastically wrinkly hands and feet (Exhibit A) that look like they’ve come from an extremely tiny 90 year old. And he’s also ready for action. He was searching for milk less than 30 minutes post escape. And he’s been drinking impressively ever since. I should add, “ever since” here means a little over 24 hours.

My first son was at my parents’ for the birth. He met his little brother this morning, which was just beautiful. As he arrived he was straight to the point. He asked to cuddle and hold Lewis, and if he could see where they cut Mummy.

Newborn ETA very soon

The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital

RBWH

My wife and I have spent most of the last two days at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.  Yesterday afternoon she started getting the first signs that our baby’s coming.  So off we went.

After a wait in one room, then another room where a few traces could be performed she was admitted to the ward.  The labour was not forthcoming, so they thought it was a better venue than our place for playing the waiting game. Unfortunately this didn’t turn out to be entirely correct.  Amongst the three others who share the same ward, two are very loud and constantly talking about their issues with what appears to be their utter moron partners or relatives; and the other snores EXTREMELY LOUD, all night. 

Hopefully the prescribed sleeping tablets will do the trick tonight, as tomorrow morning is showtime!  My wife’s name has been added to the emergency board to get a caesarisan section at the first opening – between 9 & 10:30am.  It almost sounded like a tradie’s timeframe when the young doctor said it to us, except that she was so articulate and educated.

Unfortunately this timing means this will be the first time my son and I will miss participating in the Bridge to Brisbane fun run.  It will be the first time we’ll miss it since he was delivered in the same way (caesarian) at the same hospital in the same month, just shy of four years ago.  In fact, this ward bed is probably 10 metres from the last one.

While the hospital is a beautiful place where babies are brought into this world, there is a lot of things to get you down. For one, as you enter there is always a mass of carcinogens from patients that felt the need to have another cancer stick.  The ugliest thing in the world is certainly a heavily pregnant mother smoking. It’s not nice seeing anybody smoke, but knowing that an innocent baby is stuck in there getting the same poisons going into their blood makes me sick just thinking about it.  Let alone having to navigate your way around them to get into the hospital. 

And in an unfortunate irony, it’s hard to miss seeing at least one amputee in the resulting unfresh air puffing away. I can’t help but wonder if smoking may have caused the loss of their limb.

It’s also not nice to see and experience the tremendous, and nearly unsatisfied demands on the health system.  We probably spent 90% of our time in the hospital waiting for people just to get back to us.  There was more than one example where staff said they were trying to get back to us but they were swamped. I know it’s not their fault, they’re trying their best.  The nature of the industry means there will always be some times when they’re flat-out. And unfortunately the current situation in the South East of Queensland is that the demand is increasing at a rate that exceeds our capabilities at satisfying it.

At least the extended waiting time allowed me to read the 100s of pages which made up two of our major weekend papers.  I rarely get enough time on the weekend to finish the sections I put aside to read – let alone the whole thing. So that part has been good.

And mum and baby are doing well, so tomorrow morning we’ll get to meet the latest Brinkworth – who we’d call “Boody Gum Gum” if my first son had his way.

Way to ruin a Friday night

With an impending child arriving early next week, today was most likely my last day of work before I take three weeks off. It was a great trip home on the bus thinking of the timely break from the job.

Our Friday night schedule is getting fish ‘n chips then going home to watch the Friday night football (NRL of course).  A schedule I love a lot, and really look forward to.  Unfortunately events outside of my control ruined the simple joy of this, tonight at least.

After we placed our order at the fish ‘n chips shop we walked the short distance to the supermarket to get just a few things. At the checkout, it appeared like there was some sort of scene developing between what I thought was the supermarket checkout supervisors, and a 20-something girl and a guy maybe in his 30s.

Once I had paid for our groceries, I walked through to my wife who was sitting at the entrance and quietly asked what was happening.  She had a good vantage point from her seat, but she said she didn’t know except that the girl walked straight up and asked the supermarket girls to call the police.  Oh dear.

I walked us out of there, past the guy and the girl arguing. As I pass them, trying to become invisible, I noticed that she had two children with her. One was maybe 2 or 3, the other 10 or so.  My wife, son and me walked on while the arguing was intensifying. I couldn’t comprehend what was being said, except that there was plenty of swearing, and it was mostly him. One of the only things I recall the girl saying was that the security cameras within the shop would have recorded him.  This is not good I thought to myself.

With all the arguing, when we were a safe 20 or so metres away from them I decided to not walk any further and keep an eye on what was happening.  As I look back I notice that the guy was starting to look very aggressive toward her.  Right then he threw an almighty punch that connected with the side of the girl’s face. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but straight away I knew I had to do something. I handed the bag of shopping to the wife and rushed toward the guy, still thinking this can’t be happening .

I figured I reached him pretty quick.  He was setting himself to get her again when I caught him side on and shoved him from her.  I had expected right there that this would then just become a fight with me.  Despite the guy not being too small, my push managed to knock him to his knees with his back more or less towards me.  I was a bit surprised, but certainly glad of the result.  I grabbed the back of his jacket and forced him to the ground flat. Within seconds I had another guy jump on board like Steve Irwin taking to a rogue crocodile.  I noticed the guy helping me was saying actual words to the guy about him hitting her.  Straight away I’m appreciative there’s some confirmation of what had actually happened, and that my fellow arresting citizen was equally peeved at what had occurred.

The two of us have the low life pinned around the shoulder area, when a couple more quickly joined in.  One keeping the man’s legs down, and the other holding his arms down in front of him.  We’re certainly in control of the guy, but that didn’t stop him trying to escape, or unhook an arm to force us off.

He continued to struggle, only to stop now and then to tell us to get the f___ off him, or that he’s going to remember all of our faces, or that he’s going to cut us all up real good.  He also let fly with individual insults about each of us within his view.  Actually before the whole posse got involved the guy had tried reasoning with me. Allegedly the girl was trying to take his kids away – I wondered to myself if he really believed that was justification for belting a girl half your size.  I didn’t say what I really wanted to say, but I made it clear I wasn’t moving. He’d have to sort it out when the police arrive.

Unfortunately the police took more than half an hour to arrive from the moment the flood of 000 phone calls were received from people at the scene.  In fact one of our sheriffs had to leave during the ordeal due to the delay.  As it was taking so long, we started to take turns at different regions to allow small rests.  It turned out the police had come from another hairy situation which required them all. 

They handcuffed the guy, and asked around who had been involved to take our details and brief statements. When the cop was told I was first on the scene he came to me and said, ‘Talk to me – what happened?’ I told him the honest answer, that guy ruined my Friday night footy – which got a slight smile. 

Fortunately we managed to get home before the footy started, and with time for me to have a shower to try and wash off the foulness I felt that the situation spread over me.

The whole spectacle was disappointing on a number of levels.  My three year old son witnessed the guy hit the girl, then me having to get involved, then the guy on the ground bleeding, swearing and threatening all of us. But just as disappointing was some of the comments people walking by had made to us. I think at its peak, the crowd would have been 20 – 30 or so people.  But it seemed everyone that walked by needed an explanation.

The majority of comments were to leave the guy alone cause he could sue us.  The worst comment though had come from an older lady who came up to me very early in the piece and said – very seriously – the girl was a drug addict anyway.  My goodness that made me mad.

I heard later that the girl involved in the attack just ran off once I had dropped the guy.  On the way she sweared at my wife for trying to help her with the pram.  While that wasn’t very nice, I feel for her.

I really hope she’s OK, and she never has anything to do with that piece of trash oxygen thief again.  Hopefully she presses charges and he gets what he deserves.  But I’ve heard that’s not the common pattern with these sorts of things ..

The weekend has to get better from here. The police officer suggested I write down my version of events while I remember which often helps getting things clearer.  They could be in touch for a more detailed statement.

But then I’d like to strike it from my memory, but I know I’ll be unable to.