Cool skywriting

When I got back to Sydney I went straight out to the balcony and looked out and saw something odd in the sky - some skywriting for Sagem. There was already 2 done and they were doing the 3rd as I watched - pretty good advertising as it was a perfectly clear day.

My hols with Lou & Matt

So I'm back in a very sunny Sydney now with my washing all done and hanging out to dry and thought that I'd better write up what I've been doing otherwise mum & dad will start to worry ;-)

We arrived pretty late on the Monday night (11th) as flight was delayed at Sydney due to a huge electrical storm. Those of you who know me well enough know that a) I don't really like flying and b) I don't really like thunderstorms so you can imagine how I must have felt sat at the airport watching the whole place grind to a halt before finally getting on the plane 2 hours later only to sit on the tarmac for another hour or so before we actually took off. Anyhow, we got up to Cairns about 1:30 am and drove back to the house. When we got to their road, Matt drove really slowly as there's some old bushland at the end of the street and sure enough a couple of wallabies were sat there and then eventually hopped away when we got closer. Have to admit that it was pretty cool to see them - it still hadn't really hit me that I'm in Australia as city life is city life wherever you are in the world but to actually see some real Aussie wildlife was great. The best time to see them just hanging out is about 4 in the aftie down the field or there's a field just off the main road where there seems to be about a hundred of them just sat there waiting for something to happen.

We stayed up chatting outside on the veranda with some beers until we realised the sun was starting to rise. I'm trying to remember now what we did the next day but Matt wasn't working so he stayed at home while Lou went to pick up Oscar from his holiday home and then came back to show me round the place. The area where they live is called Trinity Beach and is one of many places found just off the main road that goes from Cairns all the way up to Port Douglas. My first impressions are that it's very Americanised - in fact now that I think about it, Sydney was quite like that too. I don't know why that's surprised me as the sheer size of the place is more like the States either but I dunno, I guess I thought there'd be more British influence than there actually is. All the houses on the streets are completely different to one another also which I really liked and each village has it's own little shopping centre and of course it's own lifeguarded beach.


[The pool where I spent a lot of time!]

Oscar gets taken for his walks down on the beach but it has to be either first or last thing as it's just too hot for the poor little guy! It's stinger season at the moment so you can't just swim anywhere - there's an area sectioned off with stinger nets which is the only place you can swim safe from having the life stung out of you by a box jellyfish! If you were to get stung though there's stinger solution (I think that's what it's called) on the beach front too which is essentially vinegar which seems a lot nicer to use than the other remedy we're all aware of :-)

And that's pretty much the extent of what I did for most of my time there - Lou works from home so was working a lot of the time while Matt works as a divemaster for the Calypso boats that go out to the outer reef, so I took their car and drove around a bit - mainly going from beach to beach, then coming home and having something to eat (barbecued most times!) . As it was coming up to Christmas Lou showed me where the main shopping centre was and I tried to help her out by going to get supplies as and when she needed them. The main shopping area nearest to them is called Smithfield and has the standard Coles, Woolworths and K-mart. I still can't really get over how cheap it is here. I took the chance to stock up on a few more clothes as the stuff I had in Sydney was now too warm up here and managed to buy 2 tops and 2 skirts for about £15!! I mean, it's no designer labels but it sure does the job and it's not as if I'm going out to razzle dazzle on the town!

The evenings are mostly cook something to eat and then sit around chatting outside and it's just perfect!! However there are few places to eat and we went across to another beach front called Palm Cove which is all pretty smart - lots of spas and posh hotels and had a thai meal at a place called Choc-Dee which was fantastic. The guys hadn't eaten there before while Lou went for a mild option I went hot and Matt went Thai hot! The chef actually came out and asked him if he really wanted Thai hot and he was like "yep, super hot" and sure enough it was mega mega hot. My hot one was bad enough - was craving a huge glass of ice cold milk! We went back again on our last night and all went down a level to make it a bit more bearable! However, it was a top place and think that they've found their new fave takeaway place now! Just thinking about takeaways - apparently you can't get a good curry out there - surely this must be a gap in the market???


[Cutting up Bugs from the fish market]

Another fave place of theirs to eat is an Italian restaurant called Lunico in Trinity Beach which we went to twice, once on the first Saturday night I was there and then again when Adey & Lara came up. Again, it was all really really good and we had a great meal. It's only natural that when you get home you get in the pool as it's sooo warm in there - probably about 28degrees as the sun's been on it all day and at night it's the warmest! I've loved just floating in the pool and looking up at the stars. One thing I'd really like to do is go to an observatory or somewhere and find out all about the stars if I get a clear night cos I can make out some constellations (Orion - my favourite!) but am struggling to find any others.

In the first week there Lou & I drove up to Port Douglas which is the main place to go out to the reef so there's a huge marina and a lovely main street filled with restaurants, bars and shops. We had lunch there and then went onto the Rainforest Retreat where we spent an hour or so wandering around the place. First stop was to see the koalas and we got to pat a little fella called Leo who was so placid sat on his tree nibbling at the eucalyptus - really really cute. Then off through the main gardens where the kangaroos wander around and you can feed them with some stuff that we bought at the entrance. The little grey ones are really cute but the big red ones are pretty scary looking - like big muscle men - and I wasn't too keen on them! We then went to see the crocodiles and these guys are just huge - would not want to come too near to them at all! Was weird to think that when we were little and lived in the States, we were in the Everglades and just happened to see an alligator in the lake we'd stopped by and my sister and dad were getting right up close to it - there's no way I'd do that now! In fact on one of the beaches up there when we took Oscar for a walk we turned round before we got to the end of the beach as there was a patch of mangroves hanging over the sea which is where the crocs like to lie and apparently Clifton Beach (2 beaches along from Lou & Matt's) was closed for swimming completely for a few days as one was spotted in the sea on Christmas Eve. Out of the 10 most deadly species in the world, australia has 7 of them and on the beaches up here you can easily encounter 3 of them so you do really have to have your wits about you even just walking on the sand!


[View from Rex Lookout on the way to Port Douglas]

Adey & Lara got up here on the Friday before Christmas and we were into full Christmas prep mode by then. We'd put up the decorations before they got here but couldn't find a real Christmas tree so we ended up with a palm tree which actually looked really good with baubles, lights and tinsel on although was no place for a fairy on the top! They went off to do a skydive early on the Saturday morning while Lou & I went to do the final shop before Christmas. We even got to the supermarket half an hour before it opened so had to sit out and wait - Lou with one of her many trusted lists ;-) But all was done and dusted in an hour and we picked up the guys from the skydive place. By all accounts it looked absolutely awesome and was very jealous but not sure I'm quite up for doing one just yet!

As it's the summer here, and very busy Matt's been working relentlessly - he only had a couple of days off while I was there and they're long old days so he had to work all over Christmas so Christmas Day was actually just a fairly normal day routine wise except that our walk on the beach was with Santa hats and we ate a lot lot more food but I've written about that separately earlier.

Boxing Day was pretty cool as Adey, Lara and I went to the Cable ski place and went wakeboarding for an hour which was just brilliant. I absolutely loved it and really want to get to do it again but it was exhausting! The next day all 3 of us were aching in places I never knew you could ache and today I'm mostly better but still a little bit achey. Must practice more - great upper body workout hanging onto that rope!!

So in short, I had a fantastic time up in Queensland and am gonna do my utmost to get back up there. Thanks Lou & Matt (and Oscar) for all the hospitality and you are so, so lucky to live in such a great place - I'm hooked and WILL be back!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from down under! Hope your day was as good as mine ;-)
Started off with a little bucks fizz between the 4 of us as Matt had to work (the boat's pretty much booked up for the next 2 weeks) .

We'd already agreed that we wouldn't do prezzies until Matt came home from work but we all had a little something that had been sent from back home (Thanks Luce for my foxy prezzie !) . Then it was time for Oscar's treat and a walk on beach. Adey & Lara hadn't been for a proper walk on the beach yet so we went to Kewarra which (for me personally) is the nicest of the northern beaches along here. It's really long so you can see Clifton Beach and Palm Cove to the left and some dodgy looking mangroves which just spell out crocs for me to the right ! So with the aim of completely tiring out Oscar so he's a good boy for the day we were running up and down the beach with him (Santa hats included for us all including Oscar) which to begin with wasn't too bad as even though it was starting to get hot it was cloudy still so not too bad. But then the clouds did start to burn away by the time we'd walked back towards the entrance and where the stinger nets were. So as it was Christmas Day we jumped in the sea and Oscar had the best time of all of us really playing with a couple of other dogs in there too, leaving me to chat in the sea to their tanned, smiley, hunky, Aussie owner (without even needing Adey's offer that he pretends to hit me and I pretend to drown so I can be rescued by him) which was a nice little pressie in itself ;-)

The rest of the day was itself pretty much a usual Christmas (apart from the lounging in the pool with beers and spraying on sun cream) , loads of food, bowls of sweets from the British Lolly Shop, chips, dips, card games, beers, Pimms, drinking games, dips in the pool etc etc etc until Matt got back about 4:30. We then did pressies - I've got a surfing lesson from everyone here which I can't wait to do which I've just gotta sort out at some point - thanks guys xxxxx




Then onto proper food - prawns to start (poor old Matt had eaten about 2kilos worth on the boat in the day but was a good sport and tucked in to the rest !) then steak, sausages and salad for mains. Lots of phone calls home but thankfully not too much homesickness - I really expected to but because it just dóesn't seem like Christmas at all, it really felt like just another day and I was lucky cos I got to speak to my parents, sister, grampy and auntie all at the same time! I don't think I could ever get used to Christmas like this - is just too weird - I mean Santa's dressed up in a big thick suit for gawd''s sake - it's not right that you're sunbaking all day!




All in all a great day and am now pooped so gonna go to bed. Merry Christmas ho ho ho xxxxx