Dinner with a difference

We worked on projects yesterday morning, Warren dealing with photographs and I was finished a quilt. That done, lunch and a sleep, we seemed to be at a loss, our projects were done.

I suggested a drive, Warren said he wanted to go somewhere where he could get a banana split/sundae. In the too hard basket at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. Our favourite restaurant was closed, although they were opening for dinner at 5pm.

I checked their menu online as although we have eaten there a few times, we had not had their desserts.   No banana sundaes anywhere.

I offered to go and buy what was needed, luckily the supermarket were I shop, is open on a Sunday. They used to close early but it has changed hands a few months ago

Off we toodle and this was the result and our sole thing for dinner.

Warren had three scoops of ice cream, I made mine with two, one banana, four strawberries, handful of berries and topping.

A trip to the beach

It was a cool day on Christmas eve so we went for a drive to the beach, to find where the park run would be held on Christmas day which Warren thought he would do.

Lucy ready to go.

Walking along the foreshore, couldn't walk on the actual beach as dogs are not allowed, but there is a concrete path and then further up the rise is another path running along the road. We have been here countless times, for lunch or whatever and I did not know that there was a pool between the road and beach, they even have lifeguards.

We walked down to the jetty then went up to the shops to get a coffee, Lucy got a kids ice cream as she won't drink while we are out, she enjoyed that though. Starting to warm up as we left the beach and headed home.
Rained aga

Cats the movie

Warren an d I went to see this movie. I enjoyed it, Warren not so much.
It was interesting to pick out the big stars and there were plenty of those. It was done in all song and dance with some of the original songs.

All in cat costume all the time with twiching ears and tails. I thought Rebel Wilson played a good part, def her role was one of being the comedian.

It only opened yesterday, boxing day, we went to the earliest session to avoid the crowds and it was very busy when we came out. Had  morning tea then Warren decided that he needed a new table tennis bat and while I didnt want anything, I ended up buying a tshirt in a khaki colour as I have a pair of pants that colour and nothing to match them. Shirt cost me $2.75.

Towels animal take two.

On the daily "What on today" paper was "meet the staff and their special skills" or something like that.

We decided to wander along and see what it was about.

Well, this was animals on an upscale.

This is Flor with his camel, there is a snail to the right and a kangaroo and Joey behind.

Someone else had done the crocodile in the front.

There were about twenty or so staff and every animal was different. Goodness knows how many towels went into some of the bigger one.

The very last was wheeled on and it was the cruise ship.

Towels animals

A couple of times we came back to our room on the ship to find our room cleaned and bed made plus an extra animal in residence.

An elephant was the first one but I didn't take a photo and the next day our elephant had changed to a hanging monkey.

Our two stewards Flor and Cesear were often in the corridor outside our room when we left it as the linen room was opposite our room. Very friendly guys always on for a chat but between them, they had 34 rooms to service so they did work long hours.

Indulgences

Afternoon tea, we did share it though.

This was from the New Zealand Ice creamy which was on board, as a paid treat.

We also had a cocktail each one night at the theatre. Warren went for the toblerone, I had a taste, it was very creamy and chocolatey.

Mine was called a fruit tingle, a fruity taste.

 The shower were very good and we were lucky enough to have two dance groups on board. One was finishing up and then taking a break and the new group had just gone onboard and each troupe did three nights each with a comedian on the seventh night. The shows lasted about 45 minutes and most were performed twice on the same night.  No photos or video were allowed during the acts. 

A busy morning.

I feel as though I have done a full days work and a bit more but it not even lunchtime yet. Close but not yet.

Park run this morning, last one for the year, many people dressed up, hats, Christmas tshirts, stripey socks and frilly skirts.

Lucy and I walked halfway along the path before taking to the streets.

Home for a break and cold drink, then loaded up the trailer for a tip run. Needed the trailer to collect a bbq that Warren bought.

Collected a cache after getting the bbq, it should have been a quick park and grab but coords were out by about 25 metres, thank goodness it was in a park and therefore mainly in shade. Nailed it with a friend's help who had put in the correct co ords.

Fuel light had come on so filled the car on the way home, loaded and now resting. Golf to watch at lunch and after can't see much other work being done.

Alotau PNG

Our first port of call was Alotau which is in the Eastern coast of PNG. There were several tours on offer and I selected the Cultural Festival tour while Warren went on the Milne Bay tour which was looking at where some of our service personnel were stationed in WW 2.

I was leaving first, my tour was at 9am and I had to be at the cinema, fifteen minutes beforehand on deck 7, our room was on deck 5 so not that far except the we didnt know where the cinema exactly was but we figured we could find it as the ship wasn't that big.

Only had a few minutes wait when we were taken off the ship from deck three and invited to get on an island bus. The buses were air conditioned by having the windows open. We travelled around the coast and into a gated area.

There were markets set up under the shade of trees as it was getting rather warm by then, we saw dancers getting their makeup and costumes on as we drove in.

 These kids were all boys aged from about six to fourteen, it was quite a fierce warrior type dance.

A couple of kids were sitting front of me, they were about six and seven and their grandmother was one of these ladies. The young girl said that she had done the dance but not today.

These dancers were there when the ship docked and were still there when I came back from my tour two hours later. Buses delivered people out and then it was just a matter of waiting to catch a return bus when we were finished.

I bought a sarong as I loved the colours and also a tea towel that I want framed. Stall holders would chat but they weren't pushy which was nice.

Trivia

There were several trivia times on the ship and we did two or three of them. Didnt disgrace ourselves but also didn't win at any time.

Had to buy a coffee at the cafe after. The coffee at the buffet was very strong, out of a machine. We would get a cup with white coffee and divide it into two cups, top Warren's up with milk and mine with hot water, only way we could drink it. Cost to buy was $4 A large cup, so easy to hand over the card which operated money and door entry.

One morning after trivia, it was sudoku, Only allowed ten minutes to complete. Warren grabbed a sheet but twenty minutes later he gave up and we watched the water instead.

Check out the colour of the water, the streak is on the window, it was interesting watching the lone bird fishing. 

Tugs

It was fascinating to watch the tug boats working to move the ship around.

Then we went for lunch.

Later that night we went for a stroll around the deck.

We walked the decks after each meal and used the stairs where possible, at least going down.
It was 500 metres around deck six which was the only one that it was possible to walk around the way around.
Deck 12 also had a walking track but that was open air and both ends were blocked and a basketball, court on one side.

Kiriwana Island

This was the second port of call and no tours here. The ship asked people who only wanted to go for a short time to not go across until 11am. The ship had docked at eight and we thought that 11am would be very hot and so we stayed on board.

I enjoyed a coffee with a Danish pastry out on the deck of the pool reading my book.

Comfy seats.

The tenders or life boats going back and forth, they only used three, it was about fifteen minutes across to the jetty, they held 70 people.

The sea had great colours. We were there for nine hours.

Cruising down the River

Today is day one of our cruise. You know it's going to be a good day when everything starts to fall into place.

My suitcase was a bit full so I repacked it and took two things out, one jacket and a tube of muscle stuff, I figured that Warren is not going to be playing tennis so I wont need to massage the knots out of his legs. Just those two things made quite a difference or maybe it was the better care/folding that I did.

House sitter arrived a few minutes early and we did a handover, Lucy was beside herself and she thinks Jordan is pretty special so she was happy.

Caught the shuttle bus from carpark, its not that far but with luggage in the middle of the day, we took the bus.

Lady couldn't find us on the computer so she searched by name and we have another cabin on the same floor, it was an upgrade we now have a window.

Lunch was a bit busy, Warren had fish and chips and I had mussels and prawns in a white sauce. They weren't scrolling on the coffee, it was far too strong for me to drink so I will be sticking to water.

Just heading out now and we are under the bridge.

Warren's bag went Mia for awhile and I had to find reception to I'd id it but not there, our steward found it, it had been delivered to the old room. At least I got my steps up and we are very close to the buffet, except its six flights up. Will be taking the lifts up and the stairs down.

Summer blooms

A regular walk that Lucy and I take and suddenly I noticed that a bush is out in flower.

Along the creek path yesterday trees were out in blossom as well. As we have been having very hot weather, it does seem unusual but the flowers do give off a light perfume making it very pleasant.

Brunette Heads

Pretty little village we were stayed a few weeks ago.

This was in the main street. A first sight I thought it was a butterfly but it appears to be a man's body with wings so I am assuming that they do paragliding there, maybe?

Not five minutes walk away I took the next pic.

Teddy bears

I found a pattern the other day for crochet teddy bears, they are very much like the knitted ones that I have made. The face and eyes are sewn on and they are pretty quick to do.

They are crocheted in one piece and then sewn together, after the first one, the green, I left long tails of wool when I started a new colour, then it was easy to sew up using the tails. They are supposed to be ten inches tall. I will make a couple using a bigger hook therefore making them a little bigger. These took about two nights to completr, I only crochet when relaxing in front of the Tv at night.

Black Friday Sales

We went for morning tea today. We met some people yesterday and talking about these yummy ginger scones so we thought we should go back and make sure the scones and coffee were just as good as we remembered. It was.

Coming back home, I saw adverts for the sales near a shoe store and reminded Warren that he needed new runners and that we might as well cash in on the sales.

Oh boy, I realised there is reason why I don't go shopping in the sales!

Parking was hard to find then as we had not shopped there before, we didnt know where to find the places that we wanted so it was walking up and down. Finally we found a shoe store, not the one we were looking for but they had decent brands and Warren tried on a pair and bought them.

We left home at 9.30am and finally got home again at 2pm for a rest!

Fred's Gully

On the way up north we called into a national park and made our way slowly to the summit.

Incredible scenery.

Fred's Gully was about 500 metres from the summit and there were toilets, bbqs and shelters. Loved the tree.

Fishermen's Friends

This is a new movie that started showing on Thursday. I had seen a couple of clicks on TV and thought that it looked good.

As a celebration of me finishing my Nanowrimo early, yay, ten days early, we went to see it.

I didn't realise that it was based on a true story. It was set in Port Iacass, damn I dont know how to spell that but the township is in Cornwall and it is also where Doc Martin is filmed. We went to see the town when we were in the UK last year.

I didn't recognize any of the actors except Margaret from Pie in the Sky. The movie had it all, it was funny, sad at times and had a good ending.

At the end, it gave details about the actual band and what they had done. Good movie, I enjoyed it.

Jigsaws

Yay, finished.

$3 bought from an op shop gave a months worth of entertainment.

A Sneaky Cache

At Burnette Heads, we went for a short drive to another beach that had a lonely cache on it, it was also the start of the turtle trail.

Damn, we saw no dogs on the walking path, then we realised that our GPS compass was pointing to the beach.

Ahha, we didn't need to go on the path, it was a lonely tree we were looking for.

We searched all around the tree, the hint said look for a root of a different kind.

 So many air roots this tree had and we decided that we couldnt see it.
The owner emailed me and gave an extra hint as he had been to check that it was still there, told me to look for the empty bottle.

I went back and yep there is was.

I pulled it out and there it was with the cache glued into the bottom of it. Such a great feeling of achievement I send a email of thanks back to the owner. This was the last one in the area so we had found the other five.

Blood Donations

Warren and I were at the doctors yesterday, we just needed a repeat of our scripts so we made appointments one after the other and went in together. Warren mentioned that he was giving blood in the afternoon and Emma our doctor who looks about twenty told us that she can't donate as she was in the UK in the nineties because of Mad Cow disease.

Wow, never to donate. Therefore she is older than twenty!

Warren said he was up to 26 donations but it's far more than that as we started donating in Melbourne and donated in Canberra and even in China plus here, it's 26 times here.

I don't donate any more as the last time I did  about seven years ago, I fainted. That was not a good feeling.

One time when I was working for defence, there was a competition between Army and Air force to donate the most blood. A group of us donated on the first day available and then we went into the main office on the last day, therefore getting in two donations each.

Army won hands down but it was a good way to build up needed supplies. 

I made sure that we had steak for dinner the night before.

Basil and Vine

I wanted to go for morning coffee last Friday as neither of us have any commitments on Fridays. We did have the camper van to put away and I suggested that we went in half hour of putting that to bed. As it is Nanowrimo and I wanted to write a few more words in case I didn't get back to it.

Because of these things we were a little later leaving than we wanted to and lunch was starting in ten minutes. Oh, blow it we would make it lunch.

Oh my goodness, the menu was reasonably extensive with pastas, pizzas and salad. We had seen a pic on face book of one dish which looked pretty good. Warren ordered the strawberry, fig and prosciutto salad and I ordered the pear, walnut and blue cheese salad, oh yum!

On mine the pears were slightly warmed. It was a hot day and the cafe was open on one side giving the feeling of eating outside but it was not hot, I don't know how they managed that.

This was Warren's

This was mine.

It wasn't cheap but don't mind paying higher if it's worth it. We both had an iced coffee and it was $48 altogether. It wasn't far from home either, another bonus. We will go back.

New Authors to read

I read a lot and I am at the library every two to three weeks depending on what else is going on in our lives. A haul from the library is usually eight books at a time. I borrow the large print books and have done for years because I read mainly at night and the larger print is easier to read. 

I had Louise Perry recommended to me and last time at the library while looking for one of hers, I was in a different section.

My reading genre is primarily crime or murder mysteries. Anyway I picked up two books and the burb at the back of the book sounded interesting. Its rare that I dont finish a book but some just dont live up to the promises or the time line is very out. That annoys me and has caused me to stop reading.

However the two books that I got would be describes as thrillers I think, there were some deaths and potential murders but they were so well written. I have been known to stay reading until the early hours of the morning to get to the end and these two were like that.

They have both written other books and I will be looking out for them in the future.

An Early morning walk with Lucy.

I woke up at 5.15am and wandered over to the toilets, when I came back, there was Miss Lucy sitting outside waiting for me. I felt quite awake so I figured I might as well take her for a walk.

We headed out the front and long the road.

 This was what I saw, there were about a dozen kangaroos of all sizes. I headed towards the beach before Lucy saw them or vice versa.

The caravan park was named after the lighthouse and the top of it had been moved there. The bottom was still at the waters edge as it was too heavy to move.

A few yachts were just heading out past the breakwater. After our little stroll, I left Lucy outside the camper watching the park start to wake while I went back to bed for a couple more hours sleep.

Iced coffee with a difference

Travelling back home on Tuesday, we stopped off at the Matilda service station. This is Matilda the winking eye kangaroo from the Coomonwealth games. The servo is longer on the main highway but we needed fuel as well as a break so made a point to find it.

Warren was going to get the eats but he couldn't find his wallet! Humm!

I went in and getting him an iced coffee saw two for $6, not one to pass up a bargain, I bought the two. Also bought Warren a takeaway trifle. He had beentalking about trifle on the way up and I reminded him that the last time I made one, noone else ate it and it got thrown out after three days.

The coffee was good but there was a difference taste to it, then I read it. Iced coffee with the flavour of Bungaberg Rum. Oops, Warren hadn't drunk any of his yet so we studies the contents and luckily it was only flavour, no alcohol. Tasted great though.

Beerwah

We visited Beerwah a couple of weeks ago, usually we drive past on our way further north but we were close by and Warren wanted to visit the local op shop to buy a jigsaw.

What a nice town, well set out with some quirks.

There were a couple of sets of these plus a larger one, maybe they had been visited by aliens. The flowers in the street were nice too.

Warren was able to buy two puzzles for a couple of dollars each.
I have been writing today and up to 6045, not bad for the second day

All happening at once, it seems

So we had Halloween, start of Nanowrimo, trip to the beach and rain.
We left to go to an event for Halloween last night and we had had no callers but a couple of kids were going past as we opened the garage door, we gave them a hand full of sweets that we were taking with us. I normally buy small packets of chips and ice blocks instead of lollies but because we were going out I didnt. I did make my little ghosties but forgot to take them out I know they have gone to a good home.
The suburb where we went  was crawling with kids, never seen so many dressed up before. Home at nine to do a little packing.

It's my writing weekend to start Nanowrimo. We travelled and set up, just got inside the camper and the rain started. No annex up yet, the car fridge was working too well, the frozen meal that I had put in there was still rock solid. In a break in the rain ventured forth to the local shops which google told us was only 340 metres away to buy fish and chips. Fish mornay will have to wait until tomorrow.

In between showers Warren got the annex up while I set up the table and computer inside, finally writing the first word at six pm, very late start for me. I had had thoughts about what I was going to write so I wasn't stressed. Eight o'clock Lucy decided she needed a walk so her and I wandered down the street and back again, then I finished off my writing for the day, 1748 words done so well on track.
Usually

Ride like a girl

I went to see this movie last week with a couple of friends. They were keen to see it and I went along, it wasn't a movie that I was that fussed about going to see but I did enjoy it in the end.

It is about the life of Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. She was the tenth child and her mother dies in a car accident when she was six months old. Dad was a horse trainer and all the kids bar one grew up to be jockey, two boys and seven girls. The other boy Stevie had Down Syndrome and he played himself in the movie.

It was more about how she had to make her way in what had been a very male dominated sport.

Springsure

This is a little town on the way out west. We stayed in the caravan park on our way home from our Ozzie lap. Then it was famous for having a piano up a tree. It was about twelve metres up and was the result of flooding in the area several years ago. Now it is very dry.

We didnt stop long, just a comfort stop and to check out this windmill that has been built recently. I think the windmill has been there a long time but they had made a fountain by placing rocks around it and water does pump out of the red pipe and flows over the rocks and down into a small pond.

Our mission was to identify three of  the rocks and note their character differences.

 A petrified tree was one of the "rocks".