Straddie and the winds of political change sweep through

About 7 and a half years since I first visited the lovely island of Stradbroke just off the coast of Brisbane. I remember at the time writing and thinking how good it was that so few backpackers bothered their arses to go over there on the traditional east coast trek. The same still applies in that it's still very much a weekend retreat for the Brisbane greater population, but there's just so much more going on there now than in 2000. Its still unspoilt, practically untouched and very raw - which is the major draw of the place. The beaches and the transparent water - stunning. Like it's more famous cousin - Fraser island further up the coast, it's a large sand island so really, the marine life don't really treat it as 'pure' land and therefore get very very close to the shore believing themselves to be in the middle of the ocean. Not a great thing when sharks are involved. Dolphins are grand.

Anyway, reason for the visit was that Alissa's work (i.e. her Dad's company) treated the whole office to a weekend away for their Christmas party and invited partners and kids. How fricken generous is that? They're having a good year am told.

Aibhe was in her absolute element with the attention from Geoff and Barb and the activities based around the beach and the pool. Had a cracker is all I need to say and is at such a fun age now it just keeps getting better.

While we were there, the Australian federal election took place and after almost 12 years of relatively right wing conservative government, Labour got voted in, Tony Blair first election landslide fashion. The changes will ring through with the big international hits on withdrawal of troops from Iraq and the signing of Kyoto - both of course I fully agree with - there are few Australians I have met who don't agree with this. The interesting thing will be to see what happens within Australia and whether these guys are as 'New Labour' as was the case in the U.K. when Tony the man rose to power. The last couple of times Labour left government, it took the country years and years to get out of debt afterwards so the general hope is that they just continue to manage the economic boom with some degree of spending restraint and keep a leash on the trade union bigwigs. We shall see.

So then. The Irish health system. Lets talk. Bertie. Lets talk. Housing sector. Lets talk. It was all happening in the 5 days I spent on Irish soil. Hopefully its a soft economic landing/correction across the board. Thanks to Adam McAuley, I now know all about David McWilliam's 'breakfast roll man'.

Hey get this. I went to the dentist a couple of days ago for the first time since moving here so it was all very newby'ish with x-rays and creating your file history and the like. But he proceeded to 'scale' my teeth for 15 minutes which absolutely KILLED to the extent there was a tear dripping from one of my eyes. Afterwards he asked me how many times I have had that done coz it needed a pretty severe job - I had to answer none (that I could remember). He was pretty shocked to say the least as he said it should be done at most visits and makes me seriously question my old dentists capability. Apparantly it should be standard practice for pretty much all visits. So if like me, you haven't ever had it done, next time ye go......

We have about 2 days left in our house exterior repainting exercise (not done by me of course) and its all looking very nice indeed. Will post blog pictures next time round when all done and dusted. Plain sailing aside from Aibhe falling into a paint tray today which am told was funny aside from the clean up exercise.

There and back again. 5 days.

Good mother of Jesus. I think I have discovered the definition of 'whirlwind trip'. Not sure if I actually 'landed' in Dublin as opposed to ghosted through it. To everyone who pulled out the stops to catch up, thank you. Special mention for Mr Moore even though the beer and whiskey till 5am caused a great degree of hurt the day after. As for Ken and Gavs respectable dinner evening in Siam Thai? The 'see the friends' batteries that lurk deep beneath the skin have now been charged with Guinness fuelled conversations. And being with my family again so soon after their visit here was lovely - a special mention for the smiley sleepy nephew Eoin. To all those pregnant bellies that were around - just beautiful to see. To have squeezed in all I did in 5 days was quite a gargantuan achievement and one which necessitated minimum levels of sleep. Just aswell given the jet lag. Visiting the graves of my sister and then Jen was a sobering and surreal experience. It's just impossibly difficult to accept that those names are written where they are. And always will be. Left on a cold Tuesday afternoon choking back the tears.

How cold was it though? Christ.

By the time I finally got to Istanbul for the work part of the trip, all I was fit for was the very comfortable king sized bed in the Ritz-Carlton.

As for Istanbul. A 17 million person dense concrete mass straddling the turbulent and "mighty Bosphorous" (as Cake would say). The old town area was pretty impressive, the blended history of the epicentre where east meets west coming out of every ancient pore. The romantic skyline of a multitude of domes and minarets at night. The intimidating shopping bazaar (imitation crap, gold and haggling never my cup of tea so not really somewhere that attracted me). The constant gridlock. People actually get into ferry boats with their cars to get across the strait rather than funnel through the few bridges.

But it's quite hard to get past the utter lunacy and complete ignorance of the taxi drivers. In the few days (hours?) I spent in the Turkish melting pot,

• I was in a cab travelling at 140kmph in a 2 lane 90k zone, overtaking a cop car (the same one - twice)
• I was in a cab that got into a running battle with another car to the point where we were being run off the road
• I was in a cab that travelled between the lanes in which there were other cars for about half a km
• a cab had no change to give me
• a cab had no receipt to give me

The beeping of horns is constant, Lord help you if you dont get going at a set of lights within a milli second of them turning green. Its unfortunate that these tossers represent the principle part of my memory of what is one of the most historic cities in the world. Maybe am a bit over the whole over crowded city thing? Maybe I have developed a touch of claustraphobia? Maybe I'm getting too old to appreciate the danger factor of a place like this? Brisbane feels like a wonderfully peaceful open expanse of Serengeti proportions after that.

Oh yes. The conference, the raison d'etre for the entire trip. Average. And thanks to some shit organising by Boeing and Friday afternoon traffic mayhem in the city adding 50% on to airport trip times, I did not get to present. Typically, my flight was delayed, and in Dubai I had another 17 hour stopover, 10 hours of it delay time. Airports are really not pleasant places to spend ones time. But, at the end of it all, I could not wait to get home to my girls. All over their illnesses and ready for Dad.

And of course our next little one is now due in May '08.