Debs Last Week

Our resident backpacker is heading off to Sydney tomorrow for a few days before flying back to an island far far away next Thursday. We will miss her a lot as she has been with us a while and has slotted in here rather well.
So we have been trying to squeeze in a bit of sight seeing in between rain storms and cleaning the house for an open house tomorrow.
On Monday we went to the Sarina Sugar Shed, a miniature working sugar mill, which demonstrates how the sugar cane we are surrounded by in this fair city, is turned into sugar. They offer little tastes along the way. They also show us the distellery and offer little tastes of that too. (hic!) We both really enjoyed that.
On Tuesday, Debs and I went for a long walk at Harbour Beach, one of 32 beaches around our little city. As you can see it was very crowded.
Then we went to the lookout on the hill in North Mackay. Probably shuld have done this the first week, not the last, but there you are. Why I am not a tour guide. This shot is looking east.

And this shot is looking south. Our place is this way. Not far from the hill itself.

Tuesday night we took advantage of the not rainingness of the evening for an alfresco meal of tapas at the marina. Pity the air was so suffocatingly hot and humid. Food was tops though.

Wednesday we went to a western clothiers to check out the Akubra hats and RM Williams gear. Also the shop has not changed since it was set up in 1932 so its a bit like a trip back in time.

Today was another lunch at Eimeo and tonight we are having ravioli and napoli sauce with cheese, followed by golden syrup dumplings. Debs favourite meal as it is her last one with us.

Tomorow at 9am we are having another open house then we can relax a bit. One good thing about these open houses is you get all the house and yard work done up front, then have the weekend free!!

Wish us luck..

Bon Voyage Debs. Thanks for sharing our lives this last two months.

King Tide Flooding

Last night it rained and rained and rained. We had about 7 inches. Finch Hatton, closer to Eungella, got 12 inches!! The pool overflowed, of course, and we got mud in the pool. We even drained it last night before dinner time as far as we dared.
Today we were due a King tide at 11am ish. It was to be the highest tide in nine years, and with all the stormwater added, we figued there would be some flooding. We were right! This is the gooseponds alongside Willets Road.

We thought we would go check out the old hospital bridge, but were stymied by this crossing on the way to the NEW 42 million dollar bridge they built to avoid the problem of the old bridge flooding. This is the only road onto the new bridge. Woopsies!!

This is the river at the old bridge crossing. (We had to go around the long way) They have left a third of the old bridge as a fishing platform, though of course that is a long way under water.

A VERY long way under.

We drove back over the Forgan Smith bridge. An hour later that was closed as well. Lucky it was Sunday or there would have been total traffic chaos!! The goosponds park walking track, mostly under, and a comfy park bench to soak your weary toes!

We had another house inspection around 12.30, so went to the video shop and watched DVDs the rest of the day. KISA spent some time flocking and cleaning the pool.

Happy Australia Day

I just realised that yesterday was one year since I started this blog! So Happy Bloggavesary to me!
Of course today is Australia Day, so it is pouring rain due to a cyclone disassembling to the north of us. We didn't make it to the public celebrations, but invited A&P&Godzilla around for a BBQdinner. We had the special burgers. And Debs learned how to make Anzac biscuits.

So we didn't start running around the house with axes, we went for a drive in the rain. Lots of people were being patriotic with flags etc. Especially these guys.

Ahh, gotta love going to the beach in sunny Queensland...

" If I have to spend one more day shut up in the house with two women watching chick flicks....how far is that down to there do you reckon???"

The rain let up enough so we could use the deck without getting wet.

Good company.

Good cooks.

Quintesentially A!

Quintesentially P! Prizes will be awarded for the best thought bubble for Godzilla.

Pavlova and Anzac biscuits for pud...

Happy Australia Day everyone!

Wet and Windy

Well the cyclone season has started with two appearing in the last 3 days or so. Both are well north of here and pose no threat, but the first one, which has disintegrated into a rain depression, is crossing the coast between here and Townsville, which is making for some rainy weather with windy squalls.
Been quiet on the house selling front this weekend, so today I cooked Mulligatawny Soup for lunch and am currently baking a carrot cake. Debs hates carrots, so I thought I would try her on this cake. I reckon she will like that. I know she likes the frosting.
The soup was good so I posted it on the recipe blog here.

Well we arrived back here a week and three days ago and have been working like demons since to ready the house for sale. It went on the market on Sunday and so far have had two buyers through.

The house is spic and span and we have to keep it that way. I hope it sells fast as I am finding it hard to feel relaxed. After a mega clean yesterday it will be easier for a few days, but next weekend is an open house so will do more work then. A
Am over it already.

Tasmania Trip Day Eight

Today we flew home. But first we had to drive four and a half hours from Cradle Mountain to Hobart. I Know. Bad planning. Not helped by muscles so sore from the mega bushwalk yesterday that I could hardly move. And sunburn - times two.
We started early. It was a beautiful day however and a warm one. So it was doable. Wouldn't try that in winter though.
We stopped for breakfast at a truck stop near Campbell Town. Great coffee.
Once we got to Ross (see above) however, we had to go and see if they still did those amazing scallop pies. They did. More breakfast! Yummo.
Didn't need lunch! We arrived at Hobart airport, fuelled up, dropped the car off and went to the departure lounge to wait.
No real glitches flying home and arrived back here at 5pm. Son 18 picked us up and Debs had cooked a lasagne for tea. the house was still standing, in fact was tidier than when we left!
Now to just deal with the flat, "just come back from holiday" feeling.
And try not to think of the gazillion things we need to do in a few cdays to get ready to sell the house.

Tasmania Trip Day Seven

After a hearty buffet breakfast we made an early start to get our national park pass and catch the shuttle bus up to Cradle Mountain. we planned a days walking, up to Crater Lake, down to Dove Lake and around it. A solid 5 hours a lot uphill. As I am so unfit I found the uphill bits a stretch, but as I love walking and it was a glorious day we loved it. KISA even ran up a couple of hills just because he can. On our bus was a party heading off on the overland track to Lake St. Clair. I think that is 5 or 6ndays walking. Would love to do that one day. We made it to Crater Lake and it was just beautiful. The sun only shines about 30 days a year up here, so how lucky were we to have such perfect weather. It was quite warm too, apparantly Hobart had 38 today. I think it was mid twenties, but no humidity so it was lovely. We keep on going to the lookout at Wombat Peak. Could see three or four lakes from here.

You can just see the walking track heading down in this one. The soil is white, as it is very quartzite.

The flat bit here is I think Marion's Lookout. A few were heading up there, as it was such a lovely day, but we didn't have the time and I couldn't face the steps. I regret that now, as the chance of another day like today next time we are here would be unlikely. Serves me right for being unfit. This is wombat pool and just peeking up at the top is Cradle Mountain. We made it to Dove Lake, one of the most photographed spots in Australia. It is not quite still enough for the reflection thing to really get going but there is enough there to get the idea. The walk around the lake is 6km and pretty easy. A few climbs but nothing like we had done. Lots of spectacular views.

Some kind person took our picture near the end of our walks. We stopped here to finish our packed lunch. We caught the bus back to the lodge and collapsed in the bar with long pint glasses of soda water. Back to the room to shower and change then back to the bar to drink water/beer and read the papers. Then round to the pub bistro for pizza and fish and chips (KISA) then collapsed into bed. I am so going to be sore tomorrow. KISA has the worst sunburn on his arms.