Jacaradas

Jacarandas are in bloom. If you have ever been a university student in Brisbane you would know what I mean when I say the “Jacarandas are in bloom.”

Happily at this point in my life the mention of blooming jacarandas means I should go to New Farm park for a picnic with the children and enjoy the sight of a cavalcade of jacarandas in bloom.

But when I was a student blooming jacarandas meant the onset of mild panic and anxiety which would in the coming months fully blossom into complete panic and anxiety as the end of the academic year drew to its inevitable conclusion – EXAMS.

The significance of the jacarandas as many a current and ex-student of any facility of higher learning in Brisbane well knows is that if you don’t know what it is you should know by this point of the year, there may be little hope that you will know it by the time the exams begin. Having lived through 4 years of Jacarandas I cannot help but think of the prospect of exams every year and now spare a thought for those poor wretched souls who are entering the final stretch for the academic year.

A superstition related to Brisbane students and jacarandas again is that if a jacaranda flower should fall on you – you may fail your exams. This superstition is not considered as highly as the cautionary message with jacarandas in bloom – I add that part for completeness.

Spring in Brisbane is an absolutely marvellous time of year – fresh light mornings and mildish days though it was 29 degrees yesterday but none of the suffocating humidity which we are probably a little more than 4 weeks away from.

Summer though as we all remember only too well last January when two days reached 40- 42 degrees the whole family stayed in one air conditioned bedroom watching DVDs. Luckily Gabriella was only 8 weeks old so she didn’t need much entertaining. We would leave the bedroom to make some lunch and dinner and check the internet to watch the temperature rise over the course of the day and wait till it became darker and slightly cooler or was that really less hot.

This year one air-conditioned bedroom wouldn’t cut it for 48 hours with an active nearly one year old. We may just book into a city hotel this season if there is going to be a really bad weekend.