Weeks Sixteen to Twenty Three

After having a few weeks off my blog its time to bring you up to date. Having left Thailand and its sultry north we arrived back in Queensland, this time for our house sitting adventure. Arriving at Kevin’s and Karen’s on 7th June we caught up on what had been happening before having a grand night out at Di Vito Waterfront Italian restaurant on the rive at Surfers Paradise. The food was excellent but the real fun was that the staff are all talented singers and dancers. So as the evening progresses the staff and chef sing a combination of classic Italian songs as well as timeless classics. So much fun, and a must if you ever find yourself in Surfers Paradise. The next day Kev and me were under the party pontoon fixing an aluminum covering to protect it from the seawater. It was freezing cold but good fun nonetheless. We had noticed that whilst it remained sunny the temperature had dropped dramatically. During the day in the sun it has been arounf 20 to 25 but when the sun goes down it drops to as low as 7!
After a fun weekend Beverly and Kevin collected us on the Monday morning and whisked us away to 32 the Crescent

Underwood, our new home for the next seven weeks and our new friends Poppy and Boo a brother and sister Tibetan spaniels. After a day being shown the ropes and where everything was I dropped off Beverly and Kevin at the airport. And returned – their home had become ours, at least for a while. I should mention here that Kevin and Beverley have been great to us, so helpful and accommodating. They gave us use of both their Lexus city crossover as well as a Toyota 4X4 should we want to go off road.
Wendy and I chose to use this time simply playing home and not spending too much of the seven weeks out on trips. Our busy schedule in the previous few months left us ready to live a simpler life for a while. Over the following weeks our life was simple really. Most Thursdays I would go to work with Kevin at his bike shop the rest of the week was spent walking the dogs and grocery shops. Around once a week we would take a day out. Reading this you may think this is a wasted opportunity, but Wendy and I were happy to take a few weeks out of a busy schedule and enjoy living the Aussie life.
On 21st June we had a day trip to a Koala sanctuary at Daisy Hill. In a relaxed environment we saw many Koala’s who were all rescued from road accidents – the biggest killer of these cute little creatures.
The next day Kev asked me to deliver a bike to a customer who lived

in Noosa. That was lucky as Noosa is a wonderful seaside town with beautiful beaches. So we combined our delivery duties with a lazy lunch and beach walk around Noosa.
Six years ago on our first cruise we met a couple from Queensland called Valda and Michael, so we looked them up as we had kept loose contact on Facebook. We arranged to meet at the Logan hyper dome for lunch. It was a great day catching up – in fact it went so well they invited us back to their house. They live on an acreage lot in woodlands between Ipswich and Toowoomba. We met there on 15th July and had a great day with their BBQ and Max and Izzy their dogs as well as their two horses Gadget and Jake – a fabulous day was had by all, hopefully we will get another chance to catch up when we are back in Australia.
We took two trips to Brisbane first we took a walking tour around the city centre, taking in the arts centre as well as the urban beach. Then we took a river trip day, catching the citi cat, which gives you a chance to see the city scape from the water, and this was really cool day out. Straddling all of our stay was the world cup, and the success of the England team. We had many late nights – matches starting at either 01:00 or 04:00 – which had a serious impact on the following day but what the heck we got to the semi final, sadly loosing out to Croatia but heads heald high and our best result since 1986 and Italy.
On 17th July we ventured to the Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. This

is a spectacular day out especially if you like saltwater crocodiles, kangaroos or Koala bears. Karen came with us and we enjoyed all the animals as well as a few shows with Saltwater crocs and birds of prey. This trip reminded me how a simple thing like a trip to the zoo can be so much fun it brings out the child in us all.
Saturday 21st July saw the arrival of Laura from Hong Kong. We were up early I done the weekly park run – and came 15th out of 139 so I was very pleased with that. Wendy walked the dogs and then we headed off to collect Laura, having arranged for Beverley’s daughter Ellie to look after Poppy and Boo for the weekend.
Collected Laura at Coolangatta airport – Gold Coast and whisked her off to the beautiful Currumbin surf club for lunch with a view, where we all enjoyed a burger that was far too big for us all – but we struggled through!
In the afternoon we went to visit Kevin and Karen who took us all out on the party pontoon for a tour of the local waterways, after that Kevin and I went out fishing for Taylor and came home with Tea – well at least a very small part of the tea. Tea was worth a mention as it was king prawns, Morton Bay bugs (sort of lobster tails) and Taylor fillets all served with Karen’s home-made coleslaw.
Overnight at Karen’s and up the next morning to a cooked breakfast and a lazy morning. The afternoon left the girls shopping and the

boys fishing again. It all amounted to a great weekend for us all, and great for Karen and Kevin to meet Laura, they have now met all of our family (except their partners).
Sunday evening we took Laura back to Underwood and she finally got to meet Poppy and Boo. A relationship that very quickly became established and within a week Boo in particular had a new friend.
On Monday, we set off for a designer outlet mall in Brisbane where Laura, in need of new work clothes for her new job, went on a spree in Tommy Hilfiger. It was like the scene in pretty woman she had that many bags when we left.
We had a quiet day chatting and looking after the dogs Tuesday and Wednesday we went to meet Ned and Lucy (and their owners Dee-Ann and Ian) in Redland Bay. Ned is a large Labradoodle and Lucy is a very elderly Maltese who is very cute. The meeting went well and we confirmed a three week sit there in November 2018.
On Thursday we took Poppy and Boo for a beach trip to Raby Bay, where we enjoyed a walk on the beach as well as a very nice lunch followed by ice cream which the dogs went wild for!
On Friday I was off to work with Kevin, my last day there for some months ?. The girls spent the day at home nattering as usual, its so nice to be seeing Laura again having hardly seen her at all in the past few years.
Saturday was a sight seeing trip to Surfers Paradise where Laura

recalled her travels there when she was on the East coast road trip several years earlier.
Sunday we went into Brisbane and took boat trip along the river through the city finishing up in eat street. This is an area where around 200 shipping containers are arranged and serve foods of the world, fantastic day out for us three.
On Wednesday, having spent the previous two days cleaning the house to bring it up to the high standards of Kev and Bev we set off to collect them from the airport – their seven week spectacular adventure in Canada was over. We spent the day catching up on how things went and basically spoiling the dogs. Very soon we were saying our goodbyes to Poppy and Boo – which were more emotional then we had thought – and we were whisked off to the airport for our trip to Bali at 0400 Thursday morning.