Jindalee

Jindalee is the home of Paul & Janice, Jasmin and Jack McCormack, who kindly put us up (or was that put up with us) for our first week in Brisbane!!! Janice is Amber’s friend Mel’s sister and has lived in the suburb for many years.

I’d not met Janice and Paul before but was kindly welcomed into their lovely home. Even before we’d said ‘hello’ to Jasmin she’d already given us a big hug and told us she’d been excited about our arrival for ages and had told everyone at school.

The family were introduced to Bill and Mulligan and were very taken by them.

 

A downstairs double bedroom with adjoining bathroom was home for the next week whilst ANZ Bank also adopted us and provided with banking cards. (Top tip – don’t go with HSBC, not enough branches and the application process takes forever before you leave the UK!)

Jindalee is a small suburb of Brisbane approx 30mins by bus from the city centre that is served by a school, swimming pool, local sports field as well as a wonderful park by the Brisbane River. Without any disrespect for Jindalee, it is very similar to Neighbours’ Ramsay Street!

Each home is different although follows a similar design with slanted roof, driveway, small front lawn and by far the most impressive from our perspective a mail box. Amber & I were taken by the array of different designs; some wrought iron in a gothic style with others wooden in a straightforward post and parcel combination.

Another oddity about Jindalee that fascinated us was that there is a lack of pavements in the smaller roads so it feels as though you’re walking on someone’s front garden. This is especially true if they’ve got a particularly well landscaped lawn.

We saw avocado trees, possums (after a night time hunt), gallahs (not the flaming kind I’m reliably told!!!),

yellow crested cockatoos,

cacti (a feral weed accordingly to the local bushcare group), aggressive magpies and heard toads and crickets at night.  Quite an eclectic mix and definitely not something we could expect in Alum Chine. Unsurprisingly it took us ages to get anywhere due to the sights and sounds that were in the area.

One of our first adventures was to the Jindalee Correctional Centre, “Oh no”, I hear you cry, “What have they done?!”. Rather than getting into trouble we were actually off to see our first kangaroos who sit in front of the local prison. It was almost a typical Australia photo – one of kangaroos in front of a facility for convicts….I’m sure there’s a word for it but cannot think of it!!

The grey kangaroos are much smaller than their red cousins and are much more common.

The famous yellow and black kangaroo warning signs were about in force advising motorists of potential collisions but unfortunately whilst we were there one ‘roo wasn’t so lucky. I wonder why they don’t put yellow and black car warning signs for the kangaroos?! It seems a little one-sided…hehe.

To help out during our stay with the McCormacks, we took over babysitting duties for a morning. Taking funny face photos,

playing with Brio,

colouring and drawing princes and princesses and making cheesecake replaced sightseeing and walking around Botanic gardens. A nice change.

Both the children had us in stitches all week with Jack’s boundless energy and relentless focus on a hopeful purchase of a green digger and ongoing questions about En-ger-land to Jasmin’s continued efforts to walk her to school and to go to her classes with her. Diplomatically we had to decline!

We won’t miss as much :) the early wake up calls from the sound of elephants getting ready for the day above us…

Due to the children’s routines, lunch is normally served around 11 so it was another first to have a public BBQ complete with home made patties and salad by the river for Sunday lunch.

It was a first that will be fondly remembered for not only the lovely food but with Jasmin taking over the camera and filling a memory card in about 15mins. Some of her photos are below.

 

Outdoor BBQs are provided by the council at many locations around not only Brisbane but all over Australia embracing outdoor living and making the most of the sunshine. Some are powered electrically and others by gas so we’ll be keeping an eye out for them along the way.

My first proper fire-twirling session took place on the driveway which I was delighted with and am now considering purchasing my own kit!!!

ANZAC biscuits (similar to flapjacks) were baked and shared with Jasmin’s friend Darcy but eaten rather quickly by a certain Jack and more funny face photos were taken.

and I even managed to get a natural shot of Paul drinking a cuppa (well almost natural!!!)

All in all we were in Jindalee for 9 days and had such a lovely time. It was good to see Janice, Paul, Jack and Jasmin and we were sad when it was time to leave. We’ve promised them another cheesecake and a rhubarb crumble if we’re allowed to come back again next May :)

Lots of love to the McCormack family x