Brisbane with a bad knee

The flight to Brisbane was another in a small, twin propeller aircraft, and most of the way you could see the countryside, lots and lots of trees and some meandering rivers. In parts of Queensland there have been floods recently, but at the coast there are still signs of water shortage: drought and floods in the same land! It just shows how big Australia is. I found the train easily enough, lifts all the way to get there, and space for luggage - but the fare to just beyond the city centre was nearly as much as the trip from Sydney to Newcastle! However, it was an easy enough journey and Valerie was waiting for me on the platform. We drove back to her house in her campervan, Vanessa, and I took my case down to my downstairs bedroom which is very comfortable. We chatted a bit, and a friend arrived so I went and unpacked and we had a quiet evening.

Next day we went into town - quite a walk for my knee to the bus station, but they have a wonderful bus system here. They have busways, which are rather like railways but with road instead of track. The bus stops are like stations, and only buses run on the busways, so even at busy times the delays are no more than you'd get with a train stopping at a signal. It works really well, Valerie tells me, and they are so successful that more are being constructed. A good green idea for the UK? We were going to the film circle at Valerie's women's club, the Lyceum. The film we saw was 'Black Book', a complex tale of the Dutch resistance set as a memory from a post war Kibbutz, but with a reminder that this setting too has its conflicts. I'd recommend the film very highly: it's well directed and acted, and had sufficient impact on the audience that they found it hard to discuss it afterwards (the usual format of these meetings) and shied away from the thoughtful questions Valerie had prepared. I think I might get this from Amazon when I get back home. After the film, we walked (ouch, the knee!) to a cafe for a light lunch, and then down to the riverside to take a boat down the river a little - all included in the day bus ticket - to the South Bank Gardens. These are a very pleasant recreation area, with cafes, a beach, a few shops and shaded paths with lots of planting. We walked though these back to the South Bank bus station to take the bus home: Valerie had parked her car early that morning, to get a space, near the bus station so thankfully we rode home. By now my knee was protesting so I was glad of a rest, before a meal and a lazy, television-watching evening. Next morning it was clear that the knee didn't want any more. I spent most of the day resting, until the evening when David Johnson came to talk about the Australian Quaker Centre that I'd visited in Canberra. This was fascinating: he is the man who originally thought of the idea, and I felt it would be a place I'd be happy to go and live at for a time, and teach at as well. A possible long term plan? David was well aware of the difficulties as well as the benefits of having a single-location centre for learning, and I found the discussion very much to the point.

Saturday was another lazy morning. In the afternoon, Valerie had invited all her neighbours round to hear three people talking about green issues, and to have tea. This was inspired by the idea of 'Transition Towns', something started at Totnes in Devon and now rapidly expanding world wide. I'd come across the idea at the Sustainable Living festival in Melbourne: why haven't I seen anything at home about this? The first talk was on composting: I'd no idea it was so complex an issue, nor that there were so many things anyone can do. I'm thinking of getting a Bohashi Bin, a kind of mini-composting bin which would suit the available space, and just using rather than throwing out my food waste. Then we had a go-around on the issues that concerned or interested us most. I was last on this, which was quite good: I was able to say that the issues are different in Australia from the ones at home (here insulation isn't necessary, for example, but it's assumed you go by car and water is the no. 1 problem). I said I was surprised nobody had mentioned transport, nor diet, repeating the lesson I'd learned from my own Quaker Meeting that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than transport - even including aviation. The final speaker talked about neighbourhood watch, and creating a good and coherent local environment in which to live. Again, much for me to think about as our local Neighbourhood Watch scheme is a bit defunct at the moment.

On Sunday I went to Brisbane Meeting: it's the largest I've been to so far in Australia, over 40 people plus quite a few children. There was some good ministry, a reflection on the need to be fallow at times. Then after tea I talked to the Meeting about Ministry. After an introduction and some extracts from Samuel Bownas (oh, this 18th century Friend really is good value for money!) I put people in threes to discuss how we help each other, and particularly new Friends, to discern a true leading to minister. The feedback was fascinating: as usual, Friends had talked about what they wanted to, but we had some good stuff including a lot of shared experience of physical indications such as an increased heart rate and some sort of shaking. I've been very happy about the way Friends have been able to pick up and run with the thoughts that I've shared with them, and I've certainly learned a lot on this extended visit amongst Australian Quakers. After the talk, we drove into town to the Gallery of Modern Art, where a film of a journey amongst people in Israel/Palestine was being shown. The film was mostly interviews with both Israelis and Palestinians, and whilst rather one-sided (all the Israelis seemed to be hard-liners, all the Palestinians were ones who had been displaced in some way) did illustrate in the words of ordinary people the context of the conflict. A lof of mindset-changing will be needed if it is ever to be a peaceful area. I would have loved to have seen something of the gallery while we were there, but my knee was still being awful, so we went home and I rested some more, before getting much of the packing done ready for tomorrow's flight to Sydney. Brisbane has been a bit frustrating because of my injury: but nevertheless it's been a time for learning, and both the Quaker Centre discussions and the Green event were very worthwhile, and I'm grateful to Valerie for arranging both of these when I was there. I hope New Zealand will prove relaxing and healing, and that I'll be able to see a lot without being too strenuous!