The Holiday Blog

It was only last night when we said farewell to Jen’s parents as they flew out to China did it really feel like the closing chapter to a four week winter holiday.  It all started in mid-July when we had relatives arrive from around the world – visiting from Scotland, China and America.  Six in total.  Plus all of Jen’s siblings living in Brisbane were on holiday too.  So, eleven of us really.  The Inoue-Halligan-Clarke-Fisk family, all inter-related in some weird tangential manner that I can barely describe (Eileen from Boston is my wife’s second cousin once removed) enjoying our break together, travelling around Queensland.

Although I spent large portions of my childhood as an only child and generally grew up in a rather small family unit, I’ve since married into a much larger tribe.  It can be rather exhausting at times but I really do quite like our little gang.  There’s a real hodge podge of people with differing backgrounds and it makes for an interesting dynamic.  Amongst our group are teachers, doctors and lawyers.  We have baby-boomers in the family who grew up with Elvis and the Beatles and we have Gen Y kids who were born in the 21st Century and grew up with McFly.  We’ve managed to get together a bunch of times now – a Brunei Christmas, a Brisbane wedding, an Edinburgh summer – and we’ve always had an absolute blast together.

I took this photo of the family as they waited for a bus in Palm Cove in far north Queensland.  It helps give you an idea of who everyone is.

As you can expect with a group this size, a lot of the time people just went off and did their own thing.  Depending on how you were so inclined, the holiday was a good opportunity to lie in the sun and read a book.  Or kick a ball around.  Or splash around in the pool.  Food always brought everyone together though.

Anyway, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking from here on in.  Here it is – the Queensland Winter Holiday of 2011.

 

Until next time 🙂