Brisbane was hot and humid. Tali had people to see and things to do for her big day but we managed a visit to the cinema to see Wicked the movie and the two of us thoroughly enjoyed it.

Graduation day started at 10am with a trip to have our nails done. Something neither mother nor daughter do very often but champagne at 10.30 am helped.

Then off to the hairdressers to look good for the photos.

We then went to UQ thinking Tali would miss the group photos but, as usual, the University weren’t too accurate with their timings, so Tali was able to join in. The excitement of the day, plus their relative youth, must have helped them survive standing on platforms in the 35C heat waiting for the cloud to move, allowing for the right moment for the best photo.

Fortunately the ceremony was inside and we got tiered seats so had a great view. It was also live-streamed so friends and family got to see it too. They sent through great photos of Tali in the crowd of students, her smiling face beaming across the ether for all to see.

Afterwards, drinks on the lawn, a short time spent with friends and then we all dispersed.

Back to the city and a quick dinner in an Italian, one of the only places open after 9pm. A celebratory dinner would have to wait until the next evening.

The next day, Tali had a graduation party and we went to the coolest place in the city, Brisbane museum, and spent a few hours wandering around an Egyptian exhibition, and a fantastic natural history section, full of animals, reptiles and insects of Queensland. There was also an interesting display of the Anzacs and their history in WW1 and WW2.

That evening, we arrived at an industrial complex and Tali assured us the restaurant was here somewhere. A local took pity on us and asked if we were looking for Herves and explained you had to walk through the pub to a secret staircase and go upstairs to a fabulous French restaurant. We had a meal fit for a celebration so all were happy.

Last day in Brisbane, we had decided that Tali and I would drive to Rockhampton and Andy would go on the train. We could do it in a day and managed to keep going answering the trivia questions at the side of the highway. They hadn’t changed but I still didn’t know most of the answers except one: what is a baby echidna called? A puddle!

Now our holiday could start. We booked 5 days at Agnes Water and 1770, famous for being one of the few places on the east coast where sunset and sunrise can be seen from the same place, plus it’s the site of Captain Cook’s first landfall in Australia, about 3 hours south of Rocky.

It’s a beautiful place but with highly varied weather..

And Tali cooked us our favourite Aussie food, bugs..

Time to move on. Tali back to Brisbane for more graduation celebrations and us north to Hamilton Island for Christmas and New Year.