When 16-year-old Stella got invited to go to Stradbroke Island for the first week of the school holidays, foolish, old-fashioned, head-in-the-sand, out-of-touch, non-realistic me thought: “That should be nice, camping on Straddie for the week.”

Of course, every day this week I’ve read stories about ute-loads of grog, all-night parties and gatherings at the pre-schoolie celebrations on … Stradbroke Island.

Doh!

Here’s what he said

If you read last week’s column and didn’t understand my story about Jackson’s misuse of the English language, here’s what he said:

“Hey Dad, did you see South Africa beat England 36 to neil?”

Community spirit

I had the pleasure of speaking at a lunch put on by Holman’s Insurance at the Ivory Bar Noosa.

What a surprise that place is.

Great atmosphere, great food.

But the best bit is that Holman’s get speakers to address a lunch every couple of months and $15 from every ticket goes to the charity of your choice.

A great idea – lots of people with wonderful community spirit and a thousand-dollar donation to the Gympie Special School.

Building site obsession

I’m so excited. I’ve been watching the new Maroochy bridge take shape over the last year and now it’s nearly finished.

They’re doing the railings this week.

It won’t be long before they put the bitumen on, the drop earrings and the high heels, and she’ll be all set to go.

Problem is, what will I look at on my way to work now?

I guess I’ll just have to wait till they develop the old Nostalgia Town site to get my construction hit.

I’m the guy they put the little peep holes in the plywood barriers for at building sites.

I don’t know why, I just like watching other people work.

Isn’t Anna quiet?

I haven’t heard any real comment from Anna Bligh about her deputy premier’s speeding fine.

I thought you were going to come down hard on ministers behaving badly.

What did you do?

Don’t tell me, you gave him two slaps on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.

Dad’s holiday gift

My 13-year-old Max wasn’t too pleased when I booked him in for his first week of school holidays at Marcoola Surf Club to train for his bronze medallion from 8am till 4pm every day of the week.

Other parents may see this as nothing more than a ploy to stop him hanging round the Plaza with his mates.

It turns out he’s had the best time, and learnt heaps about surfcraft and CPR.

To top it off, there are more girls in the course than boys.