Quiet Country Folk by Brenda Irwin
I reckon I had one of the biggest and one of the oddest days I have ever had recently.
Before I begin please, just remember we are quiet country folk.
Les and I and our sons, aged 14 & 15, all went into Brisbane city to Peter Spanns Fox Invest annual general meeting. Since it was in Brisbane and their very first meeting since publicly listing the company on the asx stock exchange, and we have some shares, we thought it would be nice to attend. We have never been to a shareholders meeting. The closest we have seen one is on movies.
We had to drive and navigate our way up the one way streets in the city and find a car park. Les nearly had heart failure at this point as the parking fee was $44! No amount of explaining we could get a receipt and tax deduct it as an expense for attending the meeting could placate him. I think he is now scheming as to how he can invest in a car parking garage in the future.
We walked along the street alongside the Brisbane River until we came to the multi-story building which Freeman Fox office operates from. We stood at the front and looked way up to the clouds and the building seemed just about to rise through them. I have looked at the tall buildings while passing by the city on the main highway, but never realised how big they are close up, and this building seemed the biggest.
Have you seen the revolving doors on movies? This building had them. My sons were a little nervous we would all get chopped in half if we didn’t time the entry right. We all survived and entered intact.
The meeting was to be on the 11th floor and we had to take a lift up there. Now I have only been in a lift as high as three floors and it was pretty clunky and slow. With this elevator, we felt like we got shorter with the downward pressure of the lift rising.
I am sure most of you don’t give these things a second thought but we are only country people and quite unused to these things.
We went into the boardroom for the meeting and one whole wall was glass overlooking the Brisbane River. My sons sat in the back so they could watch the boats on the water as they weren’t fussed on listening to the meeting. Les and I sat near the front of the room as we wanted to listen to all proceedings.
The meeting was interesting but fairly uneventful. Peter Spann remarked later that it was a vanilla flavoured meeting and not controversial at all. Since we are shareholders, I think this was meant as a good thing, although not as entertaining as the fiery ones on TV.
With the meeting over, we took the lift back down to the ground. Unfortunately we were watching the numbers light up at the side of the lift instead of the number lit up above us. We got out at floor 7 and floor 1 before we finally found the ground floor. We also managed to navigate through the revolving doors again without getting caught or falling over.
With the meeting over and us country folk in the big city of Brisbane for the day, we decided to get some lunch and go shopping. We were already paying a premium park fee so we decided to leave the car where it was and get our moneys worth.
We walked about a half a kilometre to the Queen Street mall and were amazed at the number of people there. It was lunch time and everyone was eating out. We found a Subway restaurant and ordered a footlong salad roll each. I didn’t think I could finish a whole one but being in the city must make you hungry as I finished the whole thing.
Shopping time now so we went into a sports store to see what was in there. It was huge. We didn’t even get to the far end of the store before buying something. I bought two sets of flippers, goggles and snorkels for when we next go to the beach.
Les bought a softball, which wasn’t soft at all. It was as hard as a rock but the store person assured him it was a genuine softball.
The boys wanted some weights to develop their growing muscles so we bought a hard black suitcase with 20kg of weights within. They assured me they would be able to carry it all the way back to the car. We’ll see.
Next I went into the music store and bought some guitar strings. None of us play the guitar but we had bought one cheap at a flea market once and it needed new strings. The store person wrote down the notes we would need to tune the guitar when we got home.
I had been researching pianos for quite a while now with a view to getting one, one day. Today was the day. I bought a Yamaha P70 digital piano keyboard and the store person threw in a stand for it for free. The piano was in a long box and weighed 20kg so Les got the job of lugging that back to the car. The stand was also boxed and only weighed around 8kg so one son got to carry that. I carried the swimming equipment which was quite bulky but not heavy. The other son carried the box of weights.
We barely got 20 metres toward the car when the son with the weights was having difficulty. He is quite overweight himself, hence needing weights for exercise and the suitcase of 20kg was just too much for him to keep carrying. I traded the swimming equipment with him for the suitcase of weights and we all trekked back the half kilometre back to the car.
Fortunately there were many seats and benches along the way so we had lots and lots of rest breaks. We made it back to the car and none of us had heart attacks although Les was looking an odd colour and I think I shrunk an inch or two in height from the heavy weights. We loaded the car but the piano box was quite a bit longer than we thought and wouldn’t fit in the wide body Camry wagon hatch area. Fortunately, the rear seats fold down independently in two lots, so one son and I squished in together on one side and the piano box got the other 1/3rd of the folded down seat.
We paid the ransom to take the car from parking and were nearly out of the busy city when we found a new hurdle; traffic. I could have nearly walked faster and the cars went on as far as the eye could see. It took half and hour or more before the cars thinned out and we were moving a little faster.
When we had been in the city shopping we had bought all we could carry but I still needed to buy some new clothes for my boys. They only have one good shirt each so the wardrobe department needed attention.
We live an hour outside of Brisbane in a little country town which sadly lacks a big variation in clothing shops available.
We decided to stop at a big shopping centre on the way home.
My boys busied themselves buying computer games for themselves while Les and I did the clothes shopping. It was right on 5pm and I could tell the two store staff wanted to close the shop for the evening but the amount of clothes I was piling on the counter to purchase soon turned their impatient frowns to friendly smiles. They were so nice they gave me a 20% discount on everything so we were all very happy.
I went into the gaming store to retrieve my boys and they had overspent on games and didn’t have enough money. I made them put some back but paid out more money to complete the rest of the purchase so the store person and the sons were happy and we all continued home. The sky was looking ominous with storms around.
It started to rain before we got home which was a good thing as our dusty drought stricken car got a free wash. The puddles on the way got bigger and bigger until we arrived home. The storm had just finished and there was water running in all the gutters. A courier had left a parcel inside the gate but it was covered in heavy plastic so no water damage there. The dogs had been running about in the storm and were wet. My open windows on the house had gotten rain in but hopefully no lasting damage has been done. It will all dry eventually.
We all settled down after our big day and took our shoes off and realized then we all had very sore feet. We don’t often have a full day out like that as we are quiet country folk.
I reckon I had one of the biggest and one of the oddest days I have ever had recently.
Before I begin please, just remember we are quiet country folk.
Les and I and our sons, aged 14 & 15, all went into Brisbane city to Peter Spanns Fox Invest annual general meeting. Since it was in Brisbane and their very first meeting since publicly listing the company on the asx stock exchange, and we have some shares, we thought it would be nice to attend. We have never been to a shareholders meeting. The closest we have seen one is on movies.
We had to drive and navigate our way up the one way streets in the city and find a car park. Les nearly had heart failure at this point as the parking fee was $44! No amount of explaining we could get a receipt and tax deduct it as an expense for attending the meeting could placate him. I think he is now scheming as to how he can invest in a car parking garage in the future.
We walked along the street alongside the Brisbane River until we came to the multi-story building which Freeman Fox office operates from. We stood at the front and looked way up to the clouds and the building seemed just about to rise through them. I have looked at the tall buildings while passing by the city on the main highway, but never realised how big they are close up, and this building seemed the biggest.
Have you seen the revolving doors on movies? This building had them. My sons were a little nervous we would all get chopped in half if we didn’t time the entry right. We all survived and entered intact.
The meeting was to be on the 11th floor and we had to take a lift up there. Now I have only been in a lift as high as three floors and it was pretty clunky and slow. With this elevator, we felt like we got shorter with the downward pressure of the lift rising.
I am sure most of you don’t give these things a second thought but we are only country people and quite unused to these things.
We went into the boardroom for the meeting and one whole wall was glass overlooking the Brisbane River. My sons sat in the back so they could watch the boats on the water as they weren’t fussed on listening to the meeting. Les and I sat near the front of the room as we wanted to listen to all proceedings.
The meeting was interesting but fairly uneventful. Peter Spann remarked later that it was a vanilla flavoured meeting and not controversial at all. Since we are shareholders, I think this was meant as a good thing, although not as entertaining as the fiery ones on TV.
With the meeting over, we took the lift back down to the ground. Unfortunately we were watching the numbers light up at the side of the lift instead of the number lit up above us. We got out at floor 7 and floor 1 before we finally found the ground floor. We also managed to navigate through the revolving doors again without getting caught or falling over.
With the meeting over and us country folk in the big city of Brisbane for the day, we decided to get some lunch and go shopping. We were already paying a premium park fee so we decided to leave the car where it was and get our moneys worth.
We walked about a half a kilometre to the Queen Street mall and were amazed at the number of people there. It was lunch time and everyone was eating out. We found a Subway restaurant and ordered a footlong salad roll each. I didn’t think I could finish a whole one but being in the city must make you hungry as I finished the whole thing.
Shopping time now so we went into a sports store to see what was in there. It was huge. We didn’t even get to the far end of the store before buying something. I bought two sets of flippers, goggles and snorkels for when we next go to the beach.
Les bought a softball, which wasn’t soft at all. It was as hard as a rock but the store person assured him it was a genuine softball.
The boys wanted some weights to develop their growing muscles so we bought a hard black suitcase with 20kg of weights within. They assured me they would be able to carry it all the way back to the car. We’ll see.
Next I went into the music store and bought some guitar strings. None of us play the guitar but we had bought one cheap at a flea market once and it needed new strings. The store person wrote down the notes we would need to tune the guitar when we got home.
I had been researching pianos for quite a while now with a view to getting one, one day. Today was the day. I bought a Yamaha P70 digital piano keyboard and the store person threw in a stand for it for free. The piano was in a long box and weighed 20kg so Les got the job of lugging that back to the car. The stand was also boxed and only weighed around 8kg so one son got to carry that. I carried the swimming equipment which was quite bulky but not heavy. The other son carried the box of weights.
We barely got 20 metres toward the car when the son with the weights was having difficulty. He is quite overweight himself, hence needing weights for exercise and the suitcase of 20kg was just too much for him to keep carrying. I traded the swimming equipment with him for the suitcase of weights and we all trekked back the half kilometre back to the car.
Fortunately there were many seats and benches along the way so we had lots and lots of rest breaks. We made it back to the car and none of us had heart attacks although Les was looking an odd colour and I think I shrunk an inch or two in height from the heavy weights. We loaded the car but the piano box was quite a bit longer than we thought and wouldn’t fit in the wide body Camry wagon hatch area. Fortunately, the rear seats fold down independently in two lots, so one son and I squished in together on one side and the piano box got the other 1/3rd of the folded down seat.
We paid the ransom to take the car from parking and were nearly out of the busy city when we found a new hurdle; traffic. I could have nearly walked faster and the cars went on as far as the eye could see. It took half and hour or more before the cars thinned out and we were moving a little faster.
When we had been in the city shopping we had bought all we could carry but I still needed to buy some new clothes for my boys. They only have one good shirt each so the wardrobe department needed attention.
We live an hour outside of Brisbane in a little country town which sadly lacks a big variation in clothing shops available.
We decided to stop at a big shopping centre on the way home.
My boys busied themselves buying computer games for themselves while Les and I did the clothes shopping. It was right on 5pm and I could tell the two store staff wanted to close the shop for the evening but the amount of clothes I was piling on the counter to purchase soon turned their impatient frowns to friendly smiles. They were so nice they gave me a 20% discount on everything so we were all very happy.
I went into the gaming store to retrieve my boys and they had overspent on games and didn’t have enough money. I made them put some back but paid out more money to complete the rest of the purchase so the store person and the sons were happy and we all continued home. The sky was looking ominous with storms around.
It started to rain before we got home which was a good thing as our dusty drought stricken car got a free wash. The puddles on the way got bigger and bigger until we arrived home. The storm had just finished and there was water running in all the gutters. A courier had left a parcel inside the gate but it was covered in heavy plastic so no water damage there. The dogs had been running about in the storm and were wet. My open windows on the house had gotten rain in but hopefully no lasting damage has been done. It will all dry eventually.
We all settled down after our big day and took our shoes off and realized then we all had very sore feet. We don’t often have a full day out like that as we are quiet country folk.
