Day 37 to Day 42

 

Family    

Our week in Samford Showgrounds was all about my catching up with my mum's side of the family.

So whilst we awaited the big day of Geoff Banham's 80th birthday we spent a bit of down sorting out the van and George doing what he does best, socialising with other campers.

The week spent at Samford Showgrounds highlighted for us the impact of our housing crisis in Australia.   The amount of people living in caravans, campers, tents etc was really shocking.     We travel of enjoyment and live in our van.   For a lot of the people here they were working but could not afford the rent charged by landlords or waiting for housing to become available.      These were not people looking for handouts, they were families with husbands or mothers working but not lucky enough to own their own home.

This is just one showground around a major city in one state.    I shudder to think what the other major  cities in Australia are like.   We say we are the lucky country, its about time we started to look after each other.      The NSW Government need to start looking at offering seniors who are downsizing and reducing their carbon footprint a stamp duty break on the next home and go back to giving first home owners a full exemption from stamp duty at a reasonable capped purchase price not one that these days does not even buy a vacant block of land.     I will not even start my lecture on what I think about landlords those choose to charge excessive rents.

So we spent a lot of the week touring around the back blocks of  Brisbane.      Mount Glorious, Mount Nebo,  Fernvale, Samford Village, the Gap and Moggill.

We visited Geoff and Jane Banham at the Gap and they returned the visit to us at Samford Showground.   It is also great to catch up with these two and spend quality time together.

On Friday night we spent a beautiful evening at Russell and Kathy Banham's home in Tenerrife with the rest of the Banham clan, Daphne, Roslyn, Sandra and Warren.    We were also joined by Jane's sister Anne, Elizabeth and her husband.     It was great night and we were treated to the most beautiful spread of food and wine.

Saturday night was the big one.   Geoff's 80th and what a great job Kim Tania and Jenny and their respective partners and family put on for everyone.       We got to catch up with cousins, cousins kids and their kids.   Three generations.