On Sunday night we went to the Carols by Candlelight at Emu Park, which is a town about 1/3 the size of Yeppoon about 15 kilometres down the coast. The main reason we went was because my sisters are part of the Keppel Bay Community Choir, which was singing there.
Once we’d parked and walked over to where the event was going to be held, I looked around for a good tree to climb so I could get a good view of the acts. I found one, and although it had some biting green ants on it I managed to bypass them.
After I was up the tree I looked around for a while, then I took my camera out and took some pictures. People started noticing me. When the man doing the introductions and announcements (he said that he was a compere) came on, it was nearly 7PM. After he had welcomed everybody he said something to the words of “It has come to my attention that there is a little monkey up in that tree, and would the parents responsible please get him down. If you are listening, please come down, because if you fall we’ll be in a big do-do.”
Now for one thing, I object to being called a little monkey but mainly, since when were kids not allowed to climb trees because of insurance issues? It’s a bit like that case in America where someone was suing because they had a snowball thrown at them!
As soon as he’d said that over the speaker system I ducked down out of sight because everyone was craning their heads around to try to get a glimpse of me 
A lot of little kids were standing underneath the tree as well, trying to see me.
After a while they turned one of the big spotlights off so I was able to stand up again and take some more photos. The trouble with taking pictures up the tree is that my camera doesn’t have a night-proof mode, so unless put the camera on a solid surface it takes slightly blurred photos. I did, however, manage to find a twig which I slotted the camera’s tripod hole onto. When I put it on the timer and stepped down, I could take non-blurred pictures.
This information probably doesn’t mean anything to most people reading this, but the choirs and people singing included the Keppel Bay Community Choir, the band, Brett and Linda Coombes (founders of a local singing academy), the Emu Park State School Choir and the Livingstone Shire Youth Choir (which I though was the best out of the whole lot).
After the compere had closed the carols I climbed back down the tree, but because it was dark I couldn’t see the green ants (actually bubbler ants I think) and was bitten by some. Thankfully they bite rather than sting, but they do have big jaws!
Below are a few of the photos I took.
Looking towards the main “stage.” The people with the blow-out behind them make up the Keppel Bay Community Choir while the people in red were members of a band that came from Rocky to play.
The people to the right of the previous photo. I think more came along later on in the night.
This photo which was created using a low shutter speed captures the movement of the electronic candles which were held by children walking along. I should tell you that the compere organised all the kids (except me) into a parade which went around all the people with tins to raise donations for Anglicare Central Queensland. The kids all received free light sticks as well.
[tags]yeppoon, christmas, emu park, carols, candlelight, trees, climbing[/tags]
