Sunday, May 20, 2007
After the Stradbroke Island trip, I guessed we had not had quite enough fun. So, there we went, venturing to another place. This time it's TOOWOOMBA.
Toowoomba is a town located around 1.5 hours west of Brisbane. Toowoomba is also known as the Garden City as the gardens there were rumoured to be breathtaking and enchanting!! The reason we chose to visit that place was to attend the Australian Gospel Music Festival (AGMF). The festival resembles a carnival in Malaysia except that they didn't have a Ferris Wheel and Carousel ride. There were large massive tents, where they organised music performances of mainly gospel themes. But, mind you, the quality of the music in that festival was superb!!
However, since we didn't book our accommodation earlier, we couldn't secure a place to stay throughout the three-days festival. Hence, we could only attend the last day of the festival :( and return to Brisbane on the following day.
We embarked on a bus ride from Brisbane to Toowoomba. Upon reaching there, we set off to find our hotel so that we could put down our luggage. Little did we know that we had to walk for about 30 minutes to reach our lodging place. Haih!! (and they all blamed me for booking that place. To defend myself, I told them that all the other hotels were fully booked due to that famous festival!).
But, I have to confess that once we reached that town, I personally felt that we were in Disneyland!! The town was amazingly clean and the buildings there were newly (I presumed)and brightly painted. So, we went to have our lunch and then proceeded to the on-going festival.
The festival was entertaining. As I told you, there were many music performances in the many tents erected on Queens Park. There were also rock-climbing, (fake) sword fighting competitions and of course, the Red Frogs "Sumo Wrestling" showdown!
Then, as evening came, we were eagerly waiting to attend the last evening concert of the night. There was a long queue at the entrance to the concert. And we had to walk all the way back to our motel to get some stuff. So, there was the Amazing Race story again in Toowoomba and we managed to reach Queens Park again about 45 minutes later..
The concert was just unforgettable. The song "The Cross Alone" was as meaningful as it can be especially in conjunction with Easter Celebration. Everyone was sitting on the grass and people were singing on the stage, followed by a short time of preaching.
After the concert, we headed to have our dinner. and on the way, we bumped into a group of stunt performers who were basically playing with fire. They were swinging around bars with fire on each end. And in that place, Ms. Jessica finally found her "Clark Kent"...hehe! That's beside the point....
Then, we joined in the bush dance!! Woo-hhoo!! It was so FUN!!! But, at the end, I had a little difficulty breathing as we were breathing in dry dust kicked up from the ground throughout the dance.
Subsequently, we headed to the last show of the night and the AGMF festival, a performance by the Parachute Band, a gospel music band from New Zealand. We missed the Planetshaker's Band who came to perform on the 1st day!! Well, I told myself that I wasn't gonna miss the Parachute Band after knowing that I didn't have the chance to see the Planet Shaker's Band perform. And guess wat, the Parachute Band performance was equally as good as I expected.
We walked back to our motel, tired but satisfied. We vowed to come for thewhole 3 days event next year...That was the 1st day.
On the morning of the 2nd day, we had 6 packets of Maggi Mee for breakfast. Jessica said she missed Maggi Mee, and after having that heavy dose of Maggi Mee for breakfast, she immediately regretted her request...hehe!
On the 2nd day, we visited the garden in Queens Park and after a significant delay (consisting of mainly, lazing around and playing "Speed") we decided to visit the Japanese Gardens too. Well, basically the gardens were as beautiful as the rumours stated, but it would have been much more beautiful if there was RAIN!!!! At that time, Queensland was (and probably is) suffering from a severe drought. In the Japanese gardens, the river was quite dry but some plants still survive in spite of the drought.
Well, after that, we headed back to Brisbane by bus. Overall, I was satisfied with the trip and I thanked God for always being there with three of us. It was my 1st time planning for a trip (from booking of hotel, buses etc) and I was glad that everything went well under His care and help. Glory to God!
Slide 1 : Toowoomba Day 1 
Slide 2 : Toowoomba Day 2
Parents, teachers, friends. All of you have led me to this stage
God alone deserves all glory!!