Took a drive up to Maryborough (216km) last weekend stopping along the way to spend Saturday night catching up with friends, then early Sunday morning we turned the car north for our last bit of our trip to Maryborough, where we had a lovely coffee and breakfast at Restaurant 71 on the wharf looking out over the Mary river.
After some sightseeing, it was off to the Anglican church hall for lunch, as I was asked to be the guest speaker for their annual lunch with around 94 people in attendance. Unfortunately, my A/V presentation did not go quite to plan (photos were hard to see, technology is great when it all works) luckily, I had my cards on display for them to see my artwork.
When I finished my presentation I was overwhelmed, even a little embarrassed to receive a standing ovation from all the attendees. It is amazing how people both children and Adults relate to stories of my life. If only I was a famous sporting Celebrity or a would-be politician I could easily get speaking engagements to share my story, being an un-known name makes it harder to find places who want to hear my story.
Thank you to Tricia for asking me to be the guest speaker.
On the Monday, I spent the morning whale watching on Whalesong out of Hervey Bay, with Trevor and some friends. I was very excited to be going whale watching, it must be one of the things that you have on your bucket List. The experience is just amazing when you see your first whale. I was excited at the prospect and hoping with everything crossed that I would get that one, award-winning shot that I could be proud of but the odds were stacking up against me. The first thing that was against me was that it was a very rough day on the water, now I don’t usually get seasick, I have only ever been seasick once and that was more than enough, it is just the worst feeling, I took a seasickness tablet just in case, I didn’t want seasickness to spoil my day. Sadly, many people on the boat were a very lovely shade of green, happily I was not sick at all. When I got on the boat I promptly headed to the bow of the boat and plonked myself down and that was going to be my spot for the day nothing was going to move me from that spot because being a bit rough in the water you had to hold on to the railings with all your might to steady yourself. This leads into my second thing stacking up against me of taking any photos, I don’t have any arms to hold on, so I had to wrap my legs around the railings of the boat to anchor myself. Which is why I grabbed my spot at the front of the boat as I knew there was no way I could ever walk around the boat once it set sail. My feet were not only busy trying to hold on but were also trying to hold my camera so that I could take photos. My wonderful hubby stood behind me so that I did not fly backwards off my seat in case my feet let go of the rails, he too had to do this while he was holding on to steady himself. It was not rough the whole trip just when we got out of the bay it got rough, so most of the time it was very pleasant. When I got home to look at my photos I have beautiful photos of either the sea or the sky, there were just no whales swimming or jumping in any of them, they were just pretty shades of blue photos, then again none of the other passengers were taking photos with their feet, so I’m pretty excited that I have at least half a dozen that I am quite happy with. It just makes these photos all that sweeter because of the effort and difficulty of me taking photos with my feet.
Don’t tell me I can’t. I can!!!
Tuesday, I headed off to spend a couple of hours at Maryborough special school, with Teacher Rose and her art students, though I think the whole school showed up. I did my first special school presentation, after complicating of my presentation and answering their questions a group of us did a quick smiley face foot drawing then we changed students then did a quick painting of a football again with our feet. Thank you to Rose and Maryborough Special School. I had a great time.
The beautiful hall at Maryborough.
Foot paintings from the kids at Maryborough special school.
I was given a beautiful plant at the end of my presentation.