April?? There was an April???

Well I notice that it has been a whole month since I posted on here. April was a mixed month and for a while there I lost my blogging mojo.
The buyers of our house asked for yet another extension on the unconditional date, which we felt we had little choice in agreeing to. This left us in limbo, not knowing when we would move, and because we were paying 2 mortgage payments for yet another month, meant we were lying low and living basic with no excursions etc as money was getting tight.
Easter was spent quietly at home. We had had two big driving weekends before that and KISA really needed some down time. As it turned out it rained more than it didn't, so we puttered around, reading watching DVDs etc aand cooking hot cross buns. Which were ok, not brilliant.

The highlight of April was KB's 40th birthday. We were unsure what to do, it was a long way to go there and back by car in 3 days, but airfares were too high, so we decided what the heck and drove anyway. We stayed in a caravan park cabin next door to the party venue. We drove down on Friday 16th, and had a BBQ with KB's family that night. Next morning, we got up early and drove into Brisbane. We had about 4 hours to see the boys, Nana and TBS. No photos I am afraid as I forgot to take any. Miss R had just had 4 teeth out and wouldn't have wanted a picture taken anyway! Then we drove back to the Sunshine Coast for a late afternoon start to the 40th. It was held at The Boatshed which has an outlook of this. Our caravan park had the same viewThe birthday girl and her beloved. Family shot, I was amazed at how much these babies have grown. KB's sister and family who travelled up from mid New South Wales. I obviously wasn't interesting enough to look at! A candid shot of a beautiful young woman. Hard to believe we have been friends for 14 years! Time flies so fast... Five steps from our table was a railing overlooking this view. Yes I am still feeding him.... Random party shots....

Yes - I know that is a shower cap on the balloon. These things happen at 40ths.

Love this shot, check out the expressions on the faces! We had a great time and were really glad we went down. When we are settled in the new place, we will have to drive down again.

And last but not least the sale of the house FINALLY went unconditional on 22nd April. So on the last weekend of April we moved to the unit. More on that in the next exciting installment!

Everywhere around down are street trees in magnificent yellow flower. I parked next to one the other day and took a photo. Aren't they lovely? the parrots love them too!

A Drive in the Country

KISA had Friday off so decided to go for a little drive in the country to put the required klms on the car. We set off about 7am and headed north. After stopping in Ayr for coffee and Ingham for lunch we found ourselves late afternoon in the bustling metropolis of Cairns.
It was pouring with rain. Very hard. In fact it had rained so much that day that there had been flooding, cars drowned and a landslide on the Kuranda Railway which had derailed the train. We were planning to go on that tomorrow. Drat.
So we checked into the Cairns Colonial Club. This is what $99 gets you there if you flutter your eyelashes at the check in counter.
We had this living area. See KISA surrepitiously standing out of shot relected in the mirror door? Lets cross Film Director off the list of alternative occupations, shall we? That led into this kitchenette, which had 12 wine glasses in the cupboard. So technically that is permission to hold a party, right? A separate king sized bedroom, with king sized bed. And a teeny tiny bathroom in which to hold said party. We were very happy with this find!Well the rain did not let up, so we decided that Cairns was a washout for sight seeing and decided to head inland. So we gave up the fabulous room and headed to Atherton, where it was very misty, and travelled on the Gregory Development Road to Charters Towers. The views were great and on a fine day would be spectacular. The tablelands were lovely and we promised ourselves to come back with the camper and stay a while. Not far from Ravenswood, the highest town in Queensland, apparently, we came across a wind farm at a place called Windy Hill. Oddly.

We stopped for a look, these windmills are quite large and make quite a loud buzzing noise. They provide power for the towns of Atherton and Ravenswood. Quite impressive setup. See the mist rolling in? By the time we got back to the car we couldn't even see the windmills, it came in so quickly! The scenery changed somewhat out of Ravenswood, and became more scrubby. Everything was green from all the rain we have had lately, and the soil was a deep red. Everywhere were these huge fat termite mounds.

This is the shot I took before the previous one, I was trying to catch the termite mound, at 90km per hour (KISA stops for no one) and got this TV instead. Guess the termites couldn't fit it in the mound.The road was being upgraded so there were lots of road works and road trains ferrying dirt and gravel for the road works. They had 4 trailers on them and you had to leave the road to let them thunder past. A few cattle wandered across the road at a few points as there were fences down on one of the properties. We spotted this red cliff somewhere near Charters Towers. It looked more imppressive in real life. This is what $99 gets you in Charters Towers. Admittedly it was a lot tider the evening before, but we might have lingered longer there if we hadn't felt so ripped off. This was a cabin in a caravan park for heavens sake. At least they had a McDonalds, so we ordered breakfast and a couple of large coffees and hit the road. It was great drive, very green, no traffic, we overtook 3 vehicles going our way. That was all in 360klm till we turned off to head to Mackay. There was a lot of this straight stuff, KISA and I loved it, it was all new ground for him and for me.

Remembering Jessica Anne

When your child dies, you bury the future.

More Cyclone Pics

Once it was safe to venture out, we went to check on the unit. It was fine apart from the back garage door which leaks so there was water everywhere in the garage. Not enough to do damage though.
Amazingly Mackay came through relatively unscathed. Most damage came from trees, either knocking down fences or landing on roofs. A couple of roofs blew off, but most people had prepared well and most of the work is in the aftermath. Chainsaws were going everywhere and there were long queues at the tips. There was quite a bit of local flooding as well. This is the gooseponds creek in flood along Malcomson Street. And from Bedford Road. All the walking track was under water.

After checking on the unit, we got into our working gear and dragged this tree out of the pool. There was another one underneath it.

It was covered in green ants too, that just made the job that much more unpleasant. They get very nasty when provoked. And dragging their tree out of the pool seemed to provoke them a lot! KISA chain sawed the trees up and the fallen palm stalks up and we stacked the debris by the pool fence.

Then we went to A&P'splace to help them clear their driveway. Their chainsaw runs on electricity. Which is great when there IS electricity!

Some very big trees had fallen down like this silky oak.

And lots of branches from nearby trees. They also had a power line down over the drive way. Thaey had dealt with that first.

Shredded leaves were blasted along the sides of the house. We had this at the unit too. Amazed the windows held out.

KISA, P and L clearing logs. A & I helped too, lucky they have lots of land to stack them up on.

I was feeling smug that we had palms and how well they held up in the storm, till I looked over A &P's drive and saw what fell on their neighbours'house! Two huge palms, just like the one in our front yard!

What a great start to Sunday morning for these guys. Water everywhere as well inside.

Getting there, those logs are very heavy. And the ground was muddy and slippery.

Once that was done we went home for a shower and tried to cool down with no fans and no air con. It was not easy.
I got out the crochet I am doing for Son 18. It is coming along well, but hard to do when it is hot and sticky.

I hope it is finished in time for winter in Brisbane. On Monday we checked on the unit again and WOW it had had the power reconnected! So we packed up what was left of the food that hadn't gone bad and a few clothes and pillows and went round there, unpacked the camping gear and set up camp in the air con! Bliss!! You will note such essentials such as coffee machine and kettle! It was very uncomfortable at the house as the humidity was in the 90s and not a breeze to speak of. And the neighbours were getting generators so it was getting noisy! And of course a TV. We had spent Sunday night trying to catch a breeze by candlelight playing I Spy With My Little Eye. It was good to finally see the news to see how Proserpine and Airlie fared as they copped the centre of the storm. My Step-sis and her kids picked this weekend to visit Mackay. Great timimg! Luckily the house where they were staying didn't lose their power at all, so they were relatively unaffected by the drama. They popped in to visit on Monday afternoon and check out the unit. Aren't these good looking young people???? Not surprising when you look at their beautiful mother. Who will not pose for photos so I had to sneak this shot.She prefers the other side of the camera.