Sunday Scribblings Phantoms.

G'Day,
The Sunday Scribblings prompt for this week is "Phantoms".
Well since I have just been on a trip to Brisbane for the weekend I thought I would work that into the prompt.
I love plane travel. I have not been in a plane for about 8 years or so. Air travel is so quick compared to car travel which is my usual mode of transport. Price wise it is o.k for one person but not if you have to pay for a family group to air travel. Compared to car travel pricewise, well you just don't do it.
I took the above photo from the plane window on my way north to Brisbane on Saturday morning. The trip took 1 hour and 20 minutes compared to probably 24 hours solid driving, that's not counting stopping and rest times, a big difference. I flew back this morning. Anyway the cloud picture.

Looking out across the early morning sky I was loving seeing the changes in the cloud formations. I thought they looked like snow or soap bubbles or something solid that I could just step out into and walk through. I loved seeing the layers and different heights that they were formed in and how they seemed like phantoms because you could not really tell after a while of staring at them which was land and air and sea because they were all blended in together. The way that they flew over the wings of the plane that occurs during take off look great too.
I could also imagine those clouds being phantoms because in my country when there is drought we all watch hopefully while clouds build up and wait for rain and rejoice in it, but it seems that sometimes they float away to drop their precious load somewhere else and not over the parched land where it is so desperately needed.

The reason for the trip was to spend time and meet up with some of my family. I don't get to see them often due to distance but I thought that as a late new years resolution I should say that I will make a resolution to follow up on the people in my family instead of leaving things until another day and time. Finances permitting of course. When you do that you tend to sit back and the years fly past so quickly , kids grow up you miss a lot of their lives etc, etc, you know the deal.
The picture above contains my sister, my great nephew Joel, his wife Erica, their sons Jayden and Caleb who are my great great nephews and 9Th generation Australians on our side of the family, and my great niece Ivory.

Nan Caleb, Jayden, Ivory, Chloe, and Cassie.
Jayden, Caleb, Erica.
Me with Chloe, she is the newest member of the family and I had not seen her before. She is such a happy,sweet natured little cherub.
The newest member of the family and the eldest. I love this picture.
My niece Janelle lives in Brisbane and Jayden 8yrs is her eldest grandson.
My niece Tatham. We shorten her name to Tatie or Tato. This was at the pub yesterday afternoon where we all sat together enjoying the passing parade, the band playing and each other. She is 19 in a few more months. She and my sister live in Biloela 7 hours drive north of Brizzie. In this pic she was playing with her neice Ivory's dummy.
My niece Cassie with her daughter Ivory. They live in Grafton, 4 hours drive south of Brizzie.. Sharing her love heart lollipop with mummy. In a few months time Ivory will have a new sibling to play with.
And below Ivory and I playing in the water at South Bank in Brisbane, it was so hot and steamy I was dying to get in the water with her. So called because it is built on the south bank of the Brisbane river. It is an entertainment area and this is at the man made beach and lagoon. ( I did get to have a swim under cover of darkness at the motel pool later that night.)
Brisbane is the capitol city of Queensland and ( I think) the 4Th biggest city in Australia. It is warm all year around there and on the weekend it was humid and steamy because it rained intermittently all weekend. Brisbane had floods not so long ago after being in real trouble with the drought, their water storage for the city was at dangerously low levels and they were almost out of water. Why would you let a bit of rain bother you? It did not stop us doing anything. On Saturday morning we went out and sat on the sidewalk watching the passing parade while we had our breakfast. We had to move tables twice because of the rain, but it was not a problem. Then we walked along the road a bit and found another little cafe where we propped for another half hour, drank tea and listened to a young girl playing the clarinet because it was still raining too heavily to go back to the apartment where we were staying. Very nice and civilized.
So back to the prompt.
Don't let your family get away from you and become phantoms from your past.
Don't let some painful memories from your past and the people there let you stop doing that.
Time goes too quickly, we need them for today and they need us in their today too.
This has become more important as I have got older and look back on the times that I enjoyed and sometimes did not enjoy with my family in the past.
Some of the people in your family are getting older and may not be there forever.
We are making memories for them, young and old, as well as for ourselves.
Connect.