Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
Filling time & Sorting out
Thursday 19th October
Got up early and went for bike ride, on the way out found an eagle nest with two juveniles in and mum not where to be seen not sure what they were but looked like fish eagles will look up in my bird book from the library later J Want to get my own ID book as it would help totally.
Stopped at Tai Chi place to watch them after a short stop at bank to get cash out for Building surveyor report, the teacher there caught me and told me to come along any week day I wanted as they started at
The flying foxes had moved right next to road and easy to take pictures, so will get Tim and camera and come back!
Got back, slightly red faced, Tim had come back from posting letter and was hot and sweaty and sunbathing! I went for swim in pool and chased kids out J I must be very scary! Tim joined in and swam a bit, he still finds it too cold!
We went to take pics of flying foxes and then made our way back to cabin, sorted out lots of house bits, phone calls to many people and lots of money changing hands!
Off we headed out to return books to library, do email, sort out RACQ upgrade on car sort out house insurance which you have to get here before you own the house! Cant sort out dog insurance until we have house contents!
Then went to bakery and bought cake and then to beach at the oval for picnic. We were eating away taking in the sights, along comes a cheeky seagull to beg! Then we saw an eagle swoop down and try and get something but could not lift it. Then along came a pelican and swooped in on a dead fish but could not get it as the head was almost severed from the body but in two bendy parts that could not be swallowed in one! So we went to check it out and got real close to pelicans, I nearly got eaten by one as it tried to grab the fish from my hand! Beautiful bird but scary beaks!
Left the beach as the tractor came to clean up and headed back to cabin.
Decided to head to Maryborough to check it out!
Eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! Hated it full of cars and people and drunkards! And tourist information women who want to hand you a tree full of brochures!
So back to sleepy HB J
Went for a walk to see local eagles and take some pics, met bird woman of
Back to cabin, out to Mexican or Indian tonight, and maybe Tin Can Bay tomorrow to feed the indo pacific humpback dolphins!
Mexican won! Very nice it was too!
Y
Xx
Friday 20th October
Stopped in another local shop for local people!.......for some ice creams, bits to make dinner and a pineapple and no snow globes. Upgraded car insurance, sorted house insurance – strange system here buyer has to have house insurance from the date of contract even though you don’t move in for 30 days. Niggles with house purchase which was all a bit upsetting. Can’t see solicitor until
Saturday 21st
Strange phone call from estate agents – who at this point have nothing to do with proceedings. Seller has agreed to get termites sorted obviously his solicitor couldn’t contact him so he thought we had pulled out of purchase. Popped into town in the morning, stopped at a new place (to us) for brekkie – best milkshakes in Oz so far and top nosh too. Stopped at the library again for more books and internet time, Y had to wait too long so rebooked for Monday. Went horse riding in the afternoon, it was good fun, nice to see Yvonne smiling and laughing at the sight of me on a horse! Rode for hours and did some trotting and managed to stay on ! Y was on Spider and I was on Rocket!!! Watched the sunset on the beach with a glass of red wine and a pair of pelicans for company. Nice day! B & T moved into their new house today well I think it was today not sure about it with time differences! Big change for them, bigger house and looking after dad and baby to come in Dec!! So lots to contend with !! And I thought we were having it tough just buying a house and trying to find work!
Sunday 22nd
Raining! Back to the same place for brekkie, but not as much as the day before. Headed to Koala markets but looked like the weather had put an early stop to proceedings as it was raining cats and dogs well mostly dogs as we were going to head to the kennels after). Found a couple of garden centers for more plant ideas. Stopped at a local plant place with strange local who was trying to say her Rotties were vicious dogs when they were so fat and arthritic that they could hardly move! She went from reasonable prices to an extortionate price for a large palm! So left quite quickly. Sorted out the reluctant folding seat in the car. Went through some paperwork in preparation for our trek to
Tim suggested curry for dinner so we went out for one, the curries here are different, made by Sikhs so have different taste all together. After I was sick before we had even driven back to the cabin L Tim was on phone to his mum. Then we headed back, Tim was not feeling well either so not quite sure if food or what!
Back at cabin, started to rain hard bought bike in and Tim sorted out windows in car!
Still both feeling quite nauseous ……………..See how tomorrow fares!
Monday 23rd October
Had bad nights sleep L tummy hurt all nigh and felt nauseous (last curry I will have in HB!). Woke early
Very windy again (and it’s not even me with my tummy troubles!) Bird seed all over the place and not a bird in sight !
The blog might be a bit slow in coming this week as we head to
But here is the plan (rough as always!)
- head off early tomorrow morning in time to feed wild pacific humpbacks at Tin Can Bay on our way out.
- Head to Brissy and try and find Ikea for furniture etc!
- Stay somewhere on the other side of brissy hopefully at least half way
- Weds make the rest of the journey and meet up with Emma, Dom and Cazzie
- Friday pick up dog and head back to HB
So will keep you all informed of how the journey goes along (as I will be taking lappy with me to keep note J )
Miss you all love Y&T
xx
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Help what day is it?
Bit of a bummer day L Tim got stopped for speeding on the Bruce Highway $150 fine!!! Grrr! He said she was a roughy, she was ugly and had a moustache that frightened him, so he just took the ticket and ran!
Got back and we had appointment to see house at 2pm he got back at 2pm just as the bike hire guy was delivering the bikes I had ordered. The house was a big Italian job! Big white imposing 5 bedder lots of security fencing ornate ceilings fantastic ornate decorated inside but just a but too much for the T&Y as we felt out of place in it as if we were visiting. Good price at £160k but it was the biggest house on the street and was like the white house, very nice but felt imposing.
We then cycled to the beachy/resorty side of town! Just 18k on the bikes! With the wind against us at, at least 10knots! God it was hard work and I was dripping (sorry glowing profusely) by the time we got to the internet café to hassle work collogues for references and send emails to those of you who were keeping our chins up in this very strange transition time!
Then cycled around looking at houses in Point Vernon and found a road we liked a lot! It was so much better on cycle as you got a real feel for the place and you could hear the traffic noise, or not, or birds…………. Laurakeets, pink breasted grey parrots (yet to buy an ID book) and some very noisy white crested parrots, not forgetting the mynah bird’s fantastic (unless you are trying to sleep!!)
Looked at 7 houses!!!! Ummmmmmmmmmmmph! Totally confuffled!
All of them were nice in there own way, after seeing none that we liked to seeing 7, it was all too much and too much to remember!
Went back to the cabin and went through them all, whittling it down to 4 that were possible and nice to see. Back to woolies for food shopping very strange to shop there for food! Bottle shop was closed L but the bunderburg rum is great with coke (never thought I would drink dark rum again after turning my brand new carpet in my room pale pink after bringing back up 6 glasses of rum and black….. mum & dad were listening to me while they were in bed supposedly asleep, but I was obviously not that but let me get up and clean it all up! Learned not to do that very quickly!! Mum was laughing in the morning!).
One house was a big Queenslander and it was soooooooo cavernous it was scary! 4 beds upstairs, with a main bed with en suit and a walk in wardrobe with a sort of four poster bed! A separate dining room and lounge sea views and then down stairs was a two bedroomed with bathroom, bar snooker table and laundry !! eeeeek! Then the garden was huge! A walkin fridge in a shed (full of veg) and a humungous shed at back with room for 4 cars with running water and electrickery eeeek! Too much to take in! there was also a tropical under cover garden with pond, a pond in the front, a vegetable patch and much much more!
After dinner I spent the rest of the evening filling out the application form and evaluating my skills to fit the critical criteria for the job! Mind blowing! Hate applications! By this time Tim was fast asleep watchin footie with his eyes shut!?
Thursday 12th October
Yvonne continued her attempts at finishing the application for Senior Ranger ness. Made a start on the car stereo, the crimping kit was no good for the wires so another method required.
Off to see 159 Long Street at 9:30, was OK but garage converted into a bedroom which was a pain. Nice enough but not grabby nice. Saw number 9 again at 11:30, we both forgot it had four bedrooms and an office area. It felt right on the second viewing. Saw number 165 again at 12pm, it felt just too big and there would be an awful lot to do to get it how we would like it to be. Great potential but a bit too rich for us to buy and renovate. The cracks in the base section didn’t inspire confidence either! So number 9 looking good.
Sent off job application after all the house viewing, purchased an envelope for Roxy Boxer beer bottle (squeaky one not real!). Had a coffee and milkshake (guess who had which!) and sorted proposal to get some money without having jobs. Then phoned virgin to get some money into our Oz bank account.
Forgot about bikes being collected, saw rental place at Rachel Street, ok but no furniture. Woman knew a vendor who was clearing the house because her mum was going into nursing home, so got an old bed knobs and broomsticks bed, bedside cabinets to match, including lights and 2 solid wood garden chairs. Put an offer in on #9. Managed to get bikes picked up, later even then we were late getting back to hand them over! Went to car shop to get a connecting block in the saga of the car CD player. Yvonne investigated rental options at cabin while I was out messing about with car stuff, minimum rent is for 3 months, other places is 6 to 12 which is so what we don’t want. Decided that didn’t really suit.
Lot of phone calls between Y and estate agent….. Yvonne tough negotiator as she was peed off with old fart of woman! Offer accepted on house after much tooing and froing with estate agent whom we don’t like as she looked down here nose at us when we turned up on push bikes and could not be asked to talk to us! Y just said she had had enough and that we were going to look at another house tomorrow and it was better vaule for money as it was only $280 for 4 beds and loads of potential. Then when she realized we were almost cash buyers she came on real sweet! Deal done!Yvonne sorted a deal to stay at Sun Lodge for a month even with Roxy box allowed in cabin which no one else is allowed to! Decided to head to Hoolihans (Irish bar) to celebrate potential house purchase, just need to make someone see our point of view with lending us some money for 9 months. Food was great, Y had slugs of oysters in bloody marys with whisky added, looking very tiddley! Food was good but a bit of a wait, Tracey would love as there were some fantastic steaks served while we were waiting and Bob would love the menu too, they even have child minders that will come to house and look after babs! No chance of not visiting now!!!!! We could even get Tracey singing job there when she comes as they could do with some life injected into the place during the week, not that there was no one there it was packed! But they only have music on Friday and Saturday, kicking place!
Y is thinking about coffee shop and cake house !!!????
Friday 13th October
Well today we headed for Elders estate agents to sign offer documents and agreements! Signed and sorted very quickly …. Too quick, this Linda is not a very good estate agent she just sat there twiddling her thumbs while we were waiting for the documents to be sorted. Not one word of what Hervey Bay was like or what we should do or where to head to for jobs or any chit chat! She was a useless as a wet rag in a desert!
Then as soon as that was sorted back to cabin to sort out finance with PJ Hooker financial brokers rather than the bank. As they were not interested until we had jobs !! a bit nutty and hard to sort out when jobs want you to have a permanent address, I can understand why the street bums get peed off and just cant be asked to get jobs!
Don the finance guy was very helpful and said he could sort it with private investors and not costing us much more, just 2% above normal then its only for 9 months.
After Don went we were very excited as I thought that the money bit was going to be the hardest!
We then tried to sort out letting accommodation until the house came through, went to Rachael street but Louise said we had to rent for minimum 3 months and the place was great but unfurnished! She then took us to a house that was having a garage sale and we bought a bed and some garden chairs, which would be enough to start. Then we have to find a washing machine and a fridge freezer! And the rest of the basic stuff until our stuff arrives in late Nov/Dec!? Not sure as we have not heard from the shippers to tell us our stuff has been shipped!! Gulp!
We phoned and arranged the searches on the property to be done with local guy who is going to do it Wednesday and hand deliver the report on Thursday!!! The solicitor we organized for 2pm, we had to go to bank and get money out for deposit, but I was feeling so bad with antihistamines in me that Tim had to drop me off at the cabin as I could not keep my eyes open and was feeling very itchy with the heat rash and the bites! So Tim went and sorted out solicitor on his own, I got into bed and slept until it was cooler! L
We celebrated with a beer! And an early night for me as I still could not keep my eyes open!
Saturday 14th October
We got up reasonably early and headed to some garage sales that Tim had his eye on to get stuff for the house. We headed out at about 8.45am and soon found out we were too late for all of them as people had been up at 5.30am buying all the good furniture and white goods! L After all the garage sales we decided to go Bunderburg the next big town further north than Hervey Bay. They had a rum distillery there which we thought we would take a trip around and buy some cheap rum!
Well I was still on antihistamines and falling asleep all the way up there, until the sat nav threw a wobbly and tried to take us through some sugar cane fields! And strangely Tim was going to follow it, until we hit the dirt and the stones, buy this time my bladder was full! And a bumpy ride was not what I needed right then, Tim thought it was so funny, but did turn around. We got there quite soon after that stopping at a children’s playground which always have toilets! J
The first stop was Bunderburg distillery ……. So we thought! But it was the ginger beer factory! After a tasting session we ended up with a case of ginger beer, sarsaparilla and peach drinks! Then went on to the distillery, when we got there quite a drab ugly place and building all full of rust and puffing smoke! We got out and decided to take a stroll in, only to find that we had to leave bags, sunnys, jewelry etc due to health and safety reasons! So we decided to not go round the factory and head home, we thought as we knew where it was we would come back with friends who visited us and do the tour with them. We keep forgetting we are going to live here so we don’t have to rush and see everything!
Heading out of town we spotted a bike shop and stopped to look at a bike for me, we decided to get me a nice bike as I still had mine from when Luke built it for me at the age of 14, bless him! So I tried out a few bikes and Tim found me a mongoose, which was just right, so we bought it with helmet that would fit either of us or guests who visit (as they are legal here if you want to ride) and lights, then finally a lock. We asked for discount and got the lock thrown in for free! J
After the bike shop we stopped for lunch which was really lovely, Tim had a works burger with fried egg, bacon, and loads of meaty things! I had a veggie open with asparagus and courgettes it was loaded! Topped up with a beer for me! And a milkshake for Tim as he was driving.
On the way back Tim found an ice-cream shop which was famous apparently, but most had macadamia nuts in them! We had stopped with a tour bus from Hervey Bay, so fought our way to shop through all the old people who were dropping ice-cream everywhere but in there mouths! We sat out the way and munched our way through the ice-cream which was very very rich and sat quite heavy in our tummy’s (which is shocking for Tim as he can eat shed loads of ice-cream!). Up the raod from the ice-cream shop was a snake farm that Tim wanted to go into but he decided not to when he saw it and said he would rather go to Australia zoo and support Steve Irwin.
When we got back into Hervey Bay we drove around some furniture shops, which were stunning with great wooden pieces. Tim had to leave the shop as it had incense burning and it was making his eyes burn and short of breath.
Then headed to esplanade to get paper and to chill.
Back to the cabin, and Tim had his first lesson in peeling king prawns, which he was not keen on! But managed and ate them all washed down with beer!
Early bed for me as I stocked up with antihistamines.
Sunday 15th October
Got up early again and headed to garage sales again. We did buy a rusty old bike which Tim was going to do up for when Shirley and mum visit so they can ride out when ever they want! I will try and get a picture on the site of the bike! So that you can both have a look! We dropped the bike back to the cabin and headed out to another garage sale, but it was not open so we stopped on the esplanade for breakfast, Tim had the outriggers fry up, with milk shake and I had blueberry Danish and cappo to wake me up after all the antihistamines! Then needed the toilet! (Weak bladder you know!) Every park in Australia has a toilet next to it so there we were in Ernie Organ Park (don’t ask me why it was called that!!) in Torquay! Seems so very strange all these names from the UK! All the toilets here have disabled and are cavernous, they seem to cater for disabled which is really nice to know.
As I walked back to Tim eating breakfast it was about 8am by now and there were council workers cleaning the free gas BBQs all very chirpy and wishing everyone a good morning!
Tim had read about a psychic fair so we headed to the botanical gardens not to find anything going on! L So we headed back to cabin to find out it was only on the Sat and not the Sunday. So we decided to head to shops to get prices of electrical stuff and compare, all this shopping was doing our heads in as neither of us like shopping! But we managed to buy a very cheap microwave/griller/nuker a wireless modem!!?? (don’t ask me but we needed it for computers to talk to each other I think!), a landline telephone and a shiatsu chair massager, which dad can use when he comes its great! We won a free flight to anywhere in Oz except Tassie, bonus.
Out of that shop and into food shop and also managed to get hangers so we can hang our clothes up eventually!
Hungry and tired we were looking for food so I suggested the RSL Royal Service Legion club which everyone local has told us to join, Tim was not enthusiastic but I made him and we joined for the year! You get discount beer J discounted food J discounted beer from the beer shop! And much more! We had some food which was really nice and had a drink. They had snooker and pool there for 30cents!! So there is a challenge coming on! And I am sure to lose as Tim does not like losing at anything! They even have karaoke there that pays $200 to the best singer of the night, so Tracey and Shawn looking forward to you visiting and any others who can sing and win beer money for the night! They also encourage you to stay by giving away $200 every hour on certain days! And a 3 course meal for $7 on a Monday night! Tim ended up quite pleased I had made him go there in the end it was a really sociable place, the only thing I did not like were the pokies (or slot machines they had there).
Went to see if we could find local colony of flying foxes, just by the river inlet, and there they were nearly 100 thousand flying foxes in every tree as far as the eye could see! All protected by a fence to keep people from hassling them! Tim had taken the camera down and the tripod to take pictures and I had the binoculars. Tim was snapping away at the foxes and I was trying to find all three species, the red, the black face and the black (I think) only found the black face and the black could not find the red as they were all wrapped up in their wings and it was only when they moved that you could get a glimpse of what they were. It was a fantastic sight to see but we went back before they started their night flight, so will go back another day to catch them in action! Went on to beach and a local guy with a dog came up to talk to me, he was friendly and started chatting about the binoculars and the flying foxes and then got into talking about houses and how he felt (now that we have bought a house) that the prices were going to tumble in the next 5 years! How pessimistic! Depressed me some what and worried me a lot, but as Tim said it was only the thoughts of one guy who owned and estate agency and did not work in it. Still he managed to flatten my high spirits somewhat, amazing how someone’s negative thoughts and feelings can jump so quickly and quash any feelings of happiness and euphoria. Note to self………….. think positive thoughts when people are being negative about life the universe and number 42
Back to cabin to watch the 100 most inspiring movies, Tim had only seen about 12 out of the 100 and I had seen about 90 (must be my age as I am not a TV addict!) some of them Tim had not even heard of !!! Gulp!
Monday 16th October
I have a date organizer here which I have to change daily as I loose count of what day it is as they all seem to merge into one and weekends are no different from the weekdays at the moment.
Got up early and Tim was sleeping so went out for bike ride on my new bike J woo! Hoo! My first new bike at the age of 46!! It was great fun and I whizzed along the esplanade with ease! Got to nearly the other end but stopped to watch the people doing tai chi on the beach front it was magical to see them all swaying and easing there way with elegance from one move to another. Wanted to stay to the end but thought that I should get back as Tim would be up and wanting to get on with things!
On my way out and back I encountered 88 people of whom at least 75 said good morning with a smile to me! Another shock and really nice, all these people were out exercising, walking cycling and running. Some with dogs (9 encountered in all) and a couple of mums pushing babes. The sea was calm and the breeze was light and the sun was strong already!
When I got back Tim was trying to fix the rusty bike! He had managed to get it moving and all the gears working it looked ok and he said it was almost ready to rock and roll! Strange change around as Tim has a very expensive bike (which is being shipped) and I have my old home built one, so until his bike arrives I have the nice one and he is not keen on going out on it! (is this a man thing?) I am sure I will get him out on it before the week is out J
I then went for a swim in the pool for 20 minutes to cool off, then into cook breakfast of scrambled eggs and sautéed mushrooms and onions with leftover scraps of bread J there was only one slice left so I had to make it stretch until we got to shop! Did washing.
Sorted out stuff to do on the internet, jobs, shipping stuff mortgages etc! So Tim dropped me off while he went to bank to get statement for finance. Internet café was shut (this is quite normal as they just seem to shut when they like!) so I hug around until they opened and then sorted out my stuff, sorry no blog as we have been so busy and I have been so sleepy! But I am doing it now (tonight). Then off to pick up the bed and chairs we bought on Friday from a Garage sale, old fashioned bed knobs and broomsticks one and very heavy! We had to strap to top of car, there was so much stuff the woman gave us anything we wanted as it was all going to go to charity if we did not want it! So we took some more bits that could see us through until our stuff came.
Hot and sweaty and feeling rather light headed! It must have been the hottest day so far while doing all this manual work!
Went into town to look for washing machines and fridges, found some and sorted out energy ratings and water economy stuff (so now we know!) and we are armed to buy!
But not yet as we had had enough and just wanted home, so stopped off for some tubs of ice-cream to cool us down and some veggie rolls. Bought the dog a bed and some other bits and then back to the cabin.
Tim a bit touchy today! Found out he stayed up until early hours watching motor gp live! I must have been tired as I am a very light sleeper!
Ate J
Re loaded all the stuff we had bought back from the garage sale into a caravan that the owners Carl and Nerida said we could use until we got ther house, such nice people here ready to help at the drop of the hat, as I found out when lugging the stuff over to the caravan as two guys appeared to help out (scared me a bit as one was huge and had shaved head and tattoos and the other just stood there nodding his head eeeeek! But they were genuine and just ended up chatting to another woman from a nearby cabin.
Had a drink and headed off to see the sun set at the point, it was beautiful there and we were chased by a staffy that would not go back to his owner J Went back to cabin via the possum tree, we have not seen (the possum not the tree!) it yet but hope to before we leave the area!
Back to cabin to write blog and shower and chill J
Tuesday 17th October
Woke this morning struggling, miss family, friends, and coffee with Judy/ Norman/ Smiley, there is no one close to just chat to. Bad day, trying to lift mood but not sure how to.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
In brissy out brissy shake it all about!
Woke up with the larks again! Tim seems to be getting up earlier and earlier!
Showered sorted out bags, frozen water, food and other bits and pieces. Went in to town to get bank cards, but as we were early decided to got to internet café and sort out any mail that we needed to and look at a few houses on line.
Then brekky next to bank, tim had toasted cheese bacon and egg sandwich and I had coffee and sugarfree muffin.
Into bank to pick up cards, no cards !!!! Angry or not!!! We had wasted a week hanging around waiting for the bank cards and now they said that they had not been processed as there had been some error! It was so hard because the guy trying to sort it out was Japanese and we could not understand a word he was saying to us and he could not understand us…. It was quite frustrating. I got so upset, Becka who was dealing with our account came to sort things out and said there had been a problem with the fax that was sent through to head office, so no cards! They said we would have to wait another week, I was angry and said if we had to wait around that long again we would change banks!
Becka promised that she would sort it out and get back to us, we got a phone call saying that it would be sent to the bank in Hervey Bay on Monday which was good as we were fed up trying to find banks to draw money out, and its hard calculating what we would spend on a weekend as the banks shut at 5pm and don’t open until 9.30am on a Monday!
We headed back to car and sorted out the bags packing them better and strapping them in as I was worried that they would kill us if we put the breaks on too hard!
Just before we were going to head off Becka phoned and asked if we could call into the bank or she could meet us somewhere as they had something they wanted to give us.
So we decided to head back into town see Becka and sort out car registration, Becka gave us some free tickets to the cinema as a token of apologies for the trouble with the cards, we were hoping it would be a free trip to Fiji!!:)
Sorted out registration on car which seemed easy, filled in donor cards and then set off back to car to head out to Hervey Bay via a number of places looking at houses.
Before we headed out on the long and winding road there was a so called quick stop to a tyre specialist as when I drove the car (the one and only time!) the steering felt shaky so I thought it could have been balancing or tracking that might be out. Tim eventually agreed that there could be something (us girls know nothing about cars you know J ). So we stopped to get them looked at before we headed off.
They took a tyre off and showed us, the tyre was phew parred! It was all lumpy down the tread and both front ones were exactly the same! So we decided to get all four changed at the same time so that we knew there was no chance of a tyre failure on our trips around Oz. This was going to take an hour and a half!!! So of we walked to the nearest shopping centre (just across the road) where we purchased a new stereo for the car that played cds and not tapes as we had dumped all our tapes in the UK. Then into the shopping precinct and to find some lunch and waste away time, scary huge place inside but managed to stay sane while there. Headed back to car and got talking to some guy who was a sheep sheerer and welder, travelled around and knew the places we were heading to so gave us some maps details and was generally a really nice guy.
The trip started at Caloundra then went on to
Mooloolaba
Mudimba
Marcoola
Peregian Beach
Marcus beach
Noosa
In Noosa we stopped for a walk around and dinner, it was a very beautiful place and had a really nice feel to it. It was buzzing with life but not hectic, the people were friendly and it had life in it without being too scary! J
We ate at a Mexican which was really nice food and managed to not have any hassles with meals, menus or money! There was a guy serving there who had the most amazing hair, it was full on blond curls, he looked like the mirror image of Dennis the menace !
Tim wanted to head on to Hervey Bay even though it was dark, so off we went until we hit the out skirts of HBay. There we pulled into the tourist information centre and slept in the car. Well the car is meant to turn into a big double bed, except! We had three ton of luggage in the back, so all we managed to do was to curl up on the front seats with pillows and an sheet, which we had the foresight to buy earlier in our travels!
Did not take long for either of us to fall asleep!
Friday 6th October
Tim woke early again and then woke me ……….. needless to say I woke grumpy, stiff and needing a wee! It was only 6am!! And we had not got to sleep until nearly midnight!
Tim drove down the road and found a beach with toilets and so out I hoped and then after a little relief we went for a stroll on the beach, it was beautiful and so peaceful with a few people out already walking their dogs.
We went back to the car and brushed teeth and washed with wet wipes! The joys of camping/roughing it! J
We headed straight to place where we had got the tyres changed and met the guy who gave us stacks of info. Sunrise Lodge, booked into a cabin for a week! Unloaded all the bags and stuff and then headed out to drive around and find somewhere fro breakky!
We drove along the prom and found a place doing toasted cheese and tom sarnies for $2.50 so that was it! Breakky sorted
After that we hit the estate agents and started looking hard. Found loads, but were disappointed with those that we had seen on the internet that looked fantastic houses, but were in an area of lots of land but they had just raised it to the ground, it looked barren and bleak L
Had to find bank before they closed for weekend so had mad panic, but eventually found the one where our bank cards would turn up on Monday hopfully!
Made appointment to see spectacular house in middle of town which was a funky design, the house was airy, well built, functional, but lacked a nice good sized garden. We have come to the conclusion that we can only have a small house by the sea or with sea views or a big house with grounds further out of town, so not sure at the moment which is better.
Tim is getting fed up with me because none of them feel right, he knows as well as I do that we will walk into one and that will be it, but unfortunately that has not happened yet!
Decided to walk into town for meal, but only got as far as yacht club, so went in there. It was rather nice and quite expensive but, heck we wont be doing every day and this is a start of something good I hope! So we stayed and had a really good meal, but mine was a bit on the Nuevo cuisine side very tasty but small portion, of scallops, Tim had lamb again which surprisingly enough it abundant here!
Saturday 7th October
Day off!
Today we went out on a catamaran for the whole day spotting humpback whales, bit of a busmans holiday for me but exactly what I love doing and could not be happier than just looking into the blue to find anything out there!
Tim was excited as he had not seen any in real life, only pictures, video and TV.
The boat was nice and a lot bigger than I thought! We were picked up from the cabin and driven to the boat, got on and headed out with 14 other people so a nice small group.
We had set out a bit only about 20 mins when they bought out coffee and muffins we sat and started to enjoy and then as you know it! Mother and calf appeared!! It was fantastic we watched them for a long while then headed off to see if we could find more!
Tim was moved by the experience of the next mother and calf we saw and was close to tears they were just huge gentle giants playing with their babies in a safe bay, it was fantastic to see.
We came upon a number of mother calf pairs I think there was 5 in all but no bulls, one pair were in full swing the mother teaching the calf to breach it was a spectacular display and was simply the best of the days so far.
Tim was worried about taking tinnies on the boat but they were ok about it and he was glad when we sat and had a few after the experience! The only niggle was that they did not provide water to drink sot we just drank our beer!
We were dropped back and decided to walk into Scarness for drink as we were not hungry after BQ on boat. Did not manage to walk far as it was so dark, not many street lights here, so nice for spotting stars. So we headed back to cabin and had a drink instead.
Watched a bit of TV, first time since we have been here that we have watched anything and guess what was on!! The Bill! Laughed our socks off. Strangely enough or not, I fell asleep!
Sunday 8th October
Mums 70th birthday!!! Must phone tomorrow morning! (seems strange phoning the day after!)
Woke early again, I am not getting my full 8hrs and am still cranky, was not amused as it was Sunday and I thought I could have a lay in ………….. wrong!
Grumpy Ronnie went for a walk on beach with Tim to chill, found some fantastic shells for my little baby, so will post to him even though I should not, I will wash and make sure very clean J
Tim let me drive the car!!!! FAINT!!!! Strangely, he now says he gets car sick if anyone else drives, not sure what happened in the UK as I drove us around there! (or was it he just wanted to drink then!!??) J
We then went to look at houses Tim had found, it was ok but neither one or the other of what we want. Tim is getting grumpy as he just wants to buy a house now! He keeps saying he is fine but gets grumpy when I don’t like them.
Stopped in town on the sea front and got some brekky by the sea in a café on the beach, it was beautiful to sit and watch the sea, all the children playing and families out for breakfast together. It was really soothing and peaceful. I headed into a nice little gift shop as the woman Robyn there was really helpful when we went in the previous day. So had a chat with her about houses and renting and things, which she gave me a few tips and then I purchased a few items and we then headed off to get some car stuff and food shopping. We ended up buying some window shields as the noise the wind makes when you have it open traveling as speed is too much. When we got back tim decided to fit them while I wrote up the blog! He was getting rather short trying to fit so I went out to help him and we sorted it, by which time he was really hot and sweaty, so for the first time ever Tim said he was going for a swim in the pool which is about 5 meters from the cabin, so I watched as Tim gingerly inched his way into the pool, his face a picture of relief and contortion as he edged in. Then finally he took the plunge and got in! With huge deep breaths he swam across the pool and then admitted it was lovely once you were in! So I decided to join him!
Later we went to view more houses and for the first time found one we both liked from the outside it ticked all the boxes on our list! All we need to do is take a look inside!
Saw some more on route back to cabin.
Got back hungry and made cheese, spinach, onion and tomato wraps, nuked then for a bit to melt cheese and washed down with red wine for me and beer for Tim, watched Starsky and Hutch movie and fell asleep!
Monday 9th October
Woke about 4am, got up at 5am to phone mum to wish her happy birthday, had trouble phoning from call box in lodge so took car and drove to beach front where I spoke to mum and dad, wishing mum for her birthday and which talking watched the sun come up over the beach and glow golden and warm on me, so much so that I needed to tak my jacket off. Mum had had a quiet birthday but had had the usual call from Jim & Shirley and a card giving mum grief about her age!
It was nice to hear their voices, dad was watching a program on polar bears and mum was telling me how bad the weather had got so bad so quickly they had put the heating on. Chatted for a bit then headed back to cabin, as I drove in to lodge a flock of larakeets were screeching and making a racket but are so beautiful. Tim was up so we went and took some pic of these parrots, must have been about 60!!!
Tim polishing car, me writing blog and soon to have a swim in pool.
More later folks
J
Swim was lovely, day got worse weather wise and mood wise, the weather turned very overcast and very humid, stiflingly so! The house we really liked with granny annex and pool was more expensive then we wanted to pay as it needed a lot of work done on it! It was an old queenslander but it was not very nice inside and needed too much work doing on it for the price they were asking. So just as we thought we found something it was all gone again.
Had to go to car shop again as somehow the fuses had blown on the electric wing mirrors, think Tim was messing around playing with everything and it just went boom! Men they have to fiddle! J So after another visit to the car shop back to town look at a few more houses and then to bank to get cards! The cards were there!!!! Yippeeeeeeeeee!!! Freedom from getting into the bank almost every day! Bad news was after a talk to the mortgage guy (who was a bit of a plonker) they were not prepared to loan us any money until we had jobs! Even though we only wanted to borrow $150k and $100k of that would be paid off once we got our bond money back next year! So we either have to get small house without mortgage, get jobs or rob a bank! J the big problem is that once you have a house in these areas it is hard to sell as there is so much prime land always coming up for sale that it is a buyers market, which is good for us but bad if we only want a small house for a year!?
Got back to cabin, cooked some food (first time for Tim on the BBQ this time in Oz) and then chilled with some beer, we then went out for drive to view more houses find internet café and just chill, strangely Tim let me drive, perhaps it was the beers he had been drinking earlier!!
Came back looked in papers for jobs and houses, made a call to a house for sale just around the corner, the guy hardly spoke any English so it was hard to make an appointment even harder when I could not understand what road he said, think he was Italian, but he could not even tell me price of house! Will be interesting viewing tomorrow!
Watched TV, reading books and fell asleep! Exciting stuff J
Wednesday 10th October
Two weeks today we have been here in Oz! Gone so quick and seems like we have done nothing but sort out paperwork!
Tim has gone off this morning to take back the CD player we bought as it had no front plate on it !!! The nearest one is 80k away in Moorochedore !!! God this place is so big!
I have stayed behind to fill out application for job with local council as a ranger in Hervey bay so please keep your fingers crossed for me! I would rather have a job on the whale watching boats but looks like it has to be permanent not casual otherwise bank wont lend money!
Thinking that there must be other mortgage brokers in Oz, will have to search on internet.
Might go back into Tinkerbells shop to see the owner Robyn as she has give us some really good advice .
Ok signing off to fill out form …………………. Tell you more later!
PS copied this and not sure where all the Js came from so ignore!
love and hugs to all
Y&T
xx
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Leaving the city
Sunday 1st October
After stuffing ourselves silly with breakfast, drove up to Burpengary to look at some houses. Everyone was shut at the first place we went to, headed to Burpengary, one agent was open, got details of a couple of houses. First owned by pom, nice garden but house was cack, there was another for sale in the same road but on a corner plot, big garden even more cack house but cheap. Went up to morayfield, beautiful house, beautiful gardens, beautiful views and nice owners. We likey, “I want that one”, was the phrase of the day!
Headed to Redcliffe to look for more houses and find the humpy jetty so we could look for whales. Cold as the sun was setting and late so headed back. Passed car parked up for sale, stopped to look as did someone else at exactly the same time. They didn’t know what they were doing and headed off, Y phoned geezer, and we took it out for spin. Likey, left deposit and headed back. Blue/silver Mitsubishi pajero 1996 and 3K cheaper than those in Moorooka where all the car dealers were – also saved us the trip back there to look at cars in peace with having the dealers hassle you and the trip tomorrow to actually buy something. So well pleased that all car shopping had finished J
Had dinner at riddlers, Y had chicken ceasar salad, T oz pizza, with a little drinky
Got back to room and faded very quickly again! When will this tiredness end!!??
Monday 2nd October
Y made massive fruit salad for breakky! Will last for days! Headed into town, quick check on internet, registered for medicare (oz NHS), got loads of money to pay for 4x4 and had ice cream. Y got trainers and cream for sore blistered feet, they do a lot of naturopathic stuff which is great. Sorted car insurance and RACQ cover! Got back, went to redcliffe to get 4x4, headed back, then back again, never ending circles and it was not the sat nav that go muddled it was just what we had to do!! No houses according to agent that would fit our criteria. Bought some car bits to sort out car, Y wanted an air freshener that looked like big bird gone wrong! Bought eski for food and beer to keep cold while we travel around Oz! Came back, missed curry house on way back!! Not sure how as we had passed it three for four times in the last few days. Changed, back to find curry house, found another one and ate, food was average, but Babs cooks better curry! Bought a bottle of red but decided not to take in as corkage varies from place to place and we were too tired to even drink it!
Tired and ready for bed again!
Y made egg rolls for tomorrow and sorted out all water chilling, chocolate etc !!!
Sorted out bits to get ready to pack and leave the hostel tomorrow before
Tuesday 3rd October
Woke up at
Finally sorted out bags and car ready to rock and roll, with help from the hostel owner to get the bags out the easy way! He then told us we were leaving a day early! Here we go again as we did this in the
Set off and made our way to
Stopped Tweed heads beach (surfers paradise) wondered around as I was feeling sick in the car as it was so hot, feeling faint and nauseous L what am I going to be like when it is really hot!? Then went on to
We went right up to the top and decided to wander around and take in the views, it was fantastic, Tim took loads of pics hopefully we will get the site sorted so you can start to see some.
We then headed into town to look at some houses and then decided it was too much like Blackpool or
After that Tim says all he wants to do is head to
The guy who is running it at the moment, David, its his birthday today so we might joint him for a drink in a mo. Room is very nice, and elephant theme with purple curtains and purple mossy net over bed. The only problem is that the duvet is feathers, so Tim has thrown it over my side as he will wheeze and sneeze all night! Bit cold up here in the mountains but I am sure it will be very pretty when we see it in the morning!
Car is going well and no hiccups yet! Touch wood
We decided to go for a quick drink with the loacals who were staying but realised 5 were from the
When I told Tim what it was all about he got panicky and did not want to go, but it was really nice inb side and very airy, felt really nice. We had a play on the digi and the gitar and then sunk off to bead while the others carried on smoking and drinking.
Wednesday 4th October
Woke later !! 7am which was a nice change, it was so calm and peaceful and the gardens around the house were beautiful so we strolled about and took loads of pics then had breakky J. Tim cleaned the car and we headed off to see the town! Of Nimbin or should I say sinbin!!?
SCARY TOWN!
It was very hippy like lots of weirdly painted shops and lots of people wondering around trying to sell us pot! We then bought a cheese and spinach roll which was really nice.
Headed to Burnett heads to look at more houses, only one was ok but not very exciting at all!
Bit disappointing
Moved on to and found a couple of houses we liked and one was right on the intercostal water way but not much back garden. We might go back for a look inside another day, not too sure about the area but it seemed really beautiful but not a calm sea, only surfing waves!
Tried to find the guys daughter who dropped us to the airport, but we could not find the bay !!! Pain when you don’t know the area much, Tim starts to get cranky after a time of driving, but he still wont let me drive, so all I do is fall asleep through boredom. It is really frustrating at the moment all this driving and doing nothing.
Got back to hostel in Brissy and went out for dinner at a place called the customs house just like back in
Not sure that another 3 weeks of looking for a house won’t send me mad! Its so much harder when you don’t know the areas as some have seemed really nice houses and when you talk to people they say that the area is full of ASBO people! L
The more we look the more the people tell us about the areas, but we have definitely decided on areas we don’t like so that is easy!
Y
x
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Fuzzy days
LATER THURSDAY
We had a beer and some wine (one each) and managed to fall asleep on bed while reading, so now we are trying to stay awake as long as we can to make sure we don’t wake at
Plans for tomorrow, going to sort out renting a car in the morning then driving to Morooka to
We are also hoping to book in to stay until Tue at the place we are now as we will need to stay to get bank cards and hopefully a car!? It seems a waste of time while we are trying to get to see as much of Oz as we can so, strangely what time we had that we thought would feel like a holiday does not at all, it feels like we have hit the ground running as regards work and getting settled.
Tried to phone home to M&D but my mobile wont let me, then went out to buy a phone card, spent 20 mins trying to get it to work and gave up stomping up the stairs to the room, cussing and hissing as I had used all the loose change to try. Gave up and txt
FRIDAY
Woke early again and sorted out staying in Kookabura hostel until Tues night so that we are around to collect our bank cards, a pain having to hang around Brissy but necessary as we cant do anything without them.
Down to CBD (central business district) to see if we can find free wifi as Tim did search on internet and found and area hot-spot, so we trotted off and sat and had coffee in an Ozzy coffee shop, hot with wifi but all locked out. Coffee was so strong it would have got dad doing little brown fishes before he even knew what was happening! So back to the internet café to pay for internet access, to see if money from house had cleared and if any jobs were around in areas within an hour of Brissy. Sort out emails to friends and family and then off to get breaky!
We had to head to bank as we did not have enough money for breaky, it was shut not open until 9.30am so Tim hit his bank account in the UK for enough for food J
Found a place that did double egg and bacon toasted sandwich which chunky bread! Not the healthiest but tasty Tim needless to say had double bacon from my sarnie!
We worked out today that “Pokies” a sign that seems to be everywhere is like a betting/gambling room. All these strange colloquiums that we have to get used to, even debit cards are called credit cards!!! Tim kept saying no it’s a bank debt card, but eventually he clocked on, I realised as soon as they said it as it happened when I was working here a few years ago (which only seems like yesterday).
After food, headed to sort out a car, disappointed as we could not get one today to look for cars at Mooruka on Ipswich road, the guy said its school holidays so everywhere was booked out! Doh! Again it’s the small things that’s upsetting, so again plans were altered and we booked one for Sat so we can check out all the cars in the paper, apparently they are crammed full and the government sell some off really cheep so keep fingers crossed.
We headed back to the hostel and changed to clothes that were suitable for walking around looking at cars, taking loads of water and a few toffee éclairs which we bought from the
An adventure on the train then ensued which was easy, finding the station was the hardest part, every time the owner gives us directions we never find it, not sure if it is us or him!!?? We got to
Must have viewed a million cars as we were not sure what we wanted, all it had to be able to do is carry all the bags, the dog and be able to go slightly off road as some roads are bumpy. We have decided on a 4x4 (which name I cant remember now as it is 5am and as normal I cant sleep!) this one is 1992 and is the most expensive car I have ever looked at buying as I normally don’t spend more than £1k on a car as they are just there to get me from A-B, but this time we need something reliable as we will be travelling around and have to collect the dog from Sydney!
The car we like is suitable as the interior is quite comfy which is what we were looking at as when M&D come over dad will need comfy seats as it will hurt him otherwise. Tim took the two cars out on a test and found it a nice easy drive. The first guy trying to sell was a scary guy, telling us about how his dog bites his arms showing us all the scars, he got very stroppy with Tim when we said that we were testing out other cars. But that one had oil gauge not working, alternator not working and a number of other things quite nicely disguised!
They have a system here where the car has to be approved for sale buy the government, blue ticket, which means they cant sell you a car that is un-roadworthy, which is a great help to us and they also do RACQ checks just like the AA.
Fed up of looking at cars from about 11am – 4pmish we headed back, stopping on the way to buy bunderburg ginger beer………….yum!! then on the train back to the hostel.
Shower and out to the Chinese area for dinner, there are so many we could not decide again, so I just stopped at one that looked packed and we ate outside, needless to say I had picked one that was a bit more expensive than we wanted, but when the food came out the platters were huge! Tim managed to finish his lamb, but we could not finish my prawn satay and veggie rice, all washed down with orange jucie and jasmine tea.
Strangely the restaurant was directly opposite a dancing club!! Tim could not take his eyes off the girls strutting their thing in the shop doorway trying to entice men in to pay to watch them dance! It was funny watching all the guys take a wide birth around the front of the shop!
We headed back to hostel as we could hardly keep our eyes open, a read in bed and then we were both asleep before we could blink!
I woke again at about 3am QLD time needing to loose some little brown fishes, fell back to sleep until
So in while I will head to paper shop and get the courier mail QLD and go through the ads for cars, we will collect the hire car and hopefully sort out a car today some how!
Miss you all
Y
Xx
Saturday 30th September
Early trip to the 7-11 for bits for brekkie and the paper with the car ads in. Saturday is also the day for real estate and jobs so that was a bonus. Car ads were a bit of a waste of time, although it did have an ad for the government car sales. So after eating we headed to the car hire place to pick up our steed.
En route we stopped at a coulpe of car dealers, one had a terrano for 10K which looked OK but need to do a bit of research on them – they look more 4x4 than a RAV4 but not as substantial as a Pajero. Cars were a bit new and thus expensive, there was a nice land cruiser but at $31K was a tad pricey.
Stopped off at the Ducati dealers on the way back to Brissie, a bit disappointing but new bikes were cheap, so hopefully should pick up a monster to keep us going for a year (ummm! us?? who!!?? ......... added by Y).
Put in the address of a street on Bribie island and headed out of the city. Not too bad a drive but for a roadwork delay which slowed the traffic for 5 mins.
Spotted an agent, so stopped the car and looked in the window. Mad hair woman came out and listed a few properties. Picked up a brochure which opened on the page with dugongs – they live in the passage between the island and the mainland – spooky hey. Anyway, crossed the road to look in another window and greeted by another agent. He then gave us a complete tour of the island and houses which took several hours, only managed to get into one property, was nice and bigger than we expected for a 600 m block, although not really enough garden and a bit crammed in. Y was struggling to stay awake in back of car.
The island has potential, lots of nature reserve, dugongs and dolphins in the channel, lots of cycle tracks, good beaches, but we will see what happens. Had cricket, tennis and golf with a gym as well so T will be ok !!
The trek for cars has taken its toll on Ys feet (blisters all over!) , first thing on Sunday is to get some joggers once the shops open. No food since couldn’t find a take away, so glass of wine and off to bed.
Sunday Morning 1st Oct - We get there b4 you!!! :)
Well sorted out the room as we could not move for estate agent papers, bank papers, maps, dinning out mags and loads more!
Headed to CBD for internet and breakky, Tim has just finished steak, scrambled eggs, tomatoe, toast and toffee milkshake, i have had orange, cappachino, orange and smoked salmon eggs benedict our treat as we never ate dinner last night as i could not keep my eyes open. Had to txt B&T this morning to tell them! Bob was asking why we were having food this tim e of night! well it is 9 HOURS DIFFERENCE AND WE ARE AHEAD :) so you can read about our day b4 you have even had yours!! how spooky!
Happened to me last time i was here fine the first day and then after that i kept waking at 3am and wanting to go to bed at 9pm!
Busy day today!Off to sort out a car as Tim and i are fed up of looking at cars ! so we are just going to see one we like today while they are all shut and go and make an offer tomorrow and buy it then and there!
having mad dreams, as we were after a curry last night and they do not have any in brissy!!! only on the outer subs. So last night i dreamt that i bought a cafe, did lunches and cakes in day and mum cooked curry in evening!! Tim is on the rampage for curry!!! Mum pack your bags and get dad ready!! you are booked on the next plane out!!! :)
Today more cars! then a few houses! we are looking at some with granny annexes on so that we can get M&D out here for 6 mths at a time as they are allowed to stay that long. The house we had a look in yesterday had a really nice guest room with a shower and toliet in it which was suitable for Dad as it had no steps and the shower could fit M&D in so she could wash his back at the same time !!!
Looking forward to having visitors for long stays!
We have not had any news on Roxy so i have been very stressed about that, and have left a few messages on their answering machine! I even sent message to the shippers to contact them and get them to ring us to make sure she is ok but hopfully will hear tomorrow.
B&T have been looking after Shirley, which has made Tim very happy, and looks like their house move with be on friday 13th!!! gulp!!! Tracy take dad out for the day!!
will tell you more about how are day goes later
love
Y&T
x