Living the Dream!

I have had a most enjoyable, self indulgent day.  When I think about it, most of my days are enjoyable and self indulgent!  That's exactly why life is good!

My 'chores' consisted of making the bed, hanging out a load of washing, cleaning out the refrigerator, feeding the chooks all the food that was ejected from the refrigerator and doing some grocery shopping.

My self indulgence consisted of morning coffee from the bakery, then sitting with my boys at the Seat of Knowledge for a bit over an hour discussing my week away and catching up on the local gossip.

I spent about ninety minutes wandering around the park by the river and practising the things that I learned in Maleny with Bob (the camera) and got a couple of nice shots in the process.

I found this most beautiful flower and even though I have investigated online to discover it's name, I've come up empty, so if there is anybody out there who knows it's name, I would appreciate the education!

What am I?

Reluctantly, I came home and did my chores before sitting down with my laptop and Bob.  I checked out my photos, then uploaded some to my Flickr Photostream, spent a couple of hours going through my discs of old photos and put a couple of them onto Flickr as well.

I caught up with my emails, had a look at facebook, sent my pic of the day to Vegan chickie and my daily photo to my photo group.  I then enjoyed five episodes of 'Friends' before preparing tonight's dinner!  Here I am, finishing my day with a blog post!

There is really only one thing missing in my life and if I had this thing, my life would be spot on, ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!  This thing is ... the ability to eat all the food that I love in large quantities without it affecting my weight or my health.

Yes, I know.  If that's all I've got to wish for, then I'm doing exactly what all those bumper stickers say and I really am LIVING THE DREAM!!

Equal Air Time

Number One Son has now requested equal air time and I promised that I would fulfil that request tonight.

After a very tumultuous and traumatic start to his youth and then struggling through to adulthood, he joined the Air Force at the age of twenty, learned some self discipline and became an Avionics Technician which set the foundation for a promising career and future.

He is now 29 yrs of age.  He left the Air Force just over a year ago and has been a single man since about November last year.  He recently made a bad error in judgement.

As a result he had an EPIPHANY!

Suddenly, he can see his future more clearly and he has set himself goals. He has a plan.  His 'error in judgement'  may end up being the best thing that ever happened to him ... if his plan comes to fruition!

I must say that I have heard many of Number One Son's plans in the past and at the end of those conversations, I knew that the plans were ideas in his head that would never eventuate.

This plan, however, seems to have quite a bit more conviction behind it.  There is a change in his attitude and a confidence in his voice that I haven't heard before.

He has quit drinking alcohol.

I can sense the seed of change has been planted and I'm looking forward to watching it grow.

Number One Son is also quite a talented artist.  He has recently picked up his pencils and began to draw again after putting his art on the back burner for a few years.

He is a big fan of the Copic Markers at the moment!

So, being the lovely Mum that I am, my goal for Number One Son is to encourage (insert 'nag') him to quit smoking, help educate (insert 'nag') him about healthy eating,  set an example (insert 'nag') about having an active lifestyle and remind (insert 'nag') him to drive, drive, drive and get his driver's licence.

None of my children, who are aged 31, 29 and 26, have their driver's licence and nor do I.  None of us have learned to drive!!  Strange, but true!!

So, I can end this post by telling Number One Son - I love you.  I'm proud of how far you have come since those tumultuous teenage years and I am looking forward to watching your new life journey unfold.  There are no limits to your potential!  

There is your equal air time - now get cracking so that I can brag in future posts about your progress!

   

One Birdie ALL Day!

No!  Not me!  Adoring Husband did it of course!

Today, we played eighteen holes of golf at the Hyatt Regency Coolum, which is where the Australian PGA is held.  Adoring Husband was so excited about this, that his enthusiasm rubbed off on me and I was excited too!

We drove up the long driveway to where the concierge opened the car door for me.  We dropped off our golf gear while Adoring Husband parked the car and then made our way to the pro shop.  This is where we checked in for our game and were issued instructions about the carts and where to tee off.

Considering how expensive it is to play on this course, I was very surprised by how busy it was.  Carts were queued up at the first tee and they were sending people off in groups of four, which meant that Adoring Husband and I were paired with another two people.

Bob and Peter were our golfing buddies for the day.  Bob had just bought into a pre-existing membership, and told us that it entitled him to 40-50% off his games.  I'm guessing he was in his late sixties and he was a very tall, fit and strong man.  He was about three inches, at least, taller than Adoring Husband, who is six feet tall.

He was a lovely old bloke who was very helpful explaining each hole and where the tricky parts were and he was very patient with my game.  He was encouraging and funny while I had the WORST game EVER!

His son, Peter, would only have been in his early thirties and was even nicer than Bob.  He quietly told me to relax and enjoy the game and not worry about them being there ... after I had told him that I was feeling a bit under pressure playing with three big-hitting males.

The course is VERY tough, which is why they have the PGA there.  All three men lost, on average, about a dozen golf balls each.  I lost four!  There are water hazards on all but two holes and a couple of them are almost impossible for females to hit over.

Adoring Husband played the best hole of the day with his birdie.  Even though the other men were BIG hitters, they weren't very accurate, HOWEVER, they made a tough day of golf much more pleasurable and I thanked them for that when we parted company.

This afternoon, as exhausted as we were, the Noosa National Park beckoned us and we drove out there with Bob (Bob, the Canon camera, in case you forgot).

There, in the wild, perched high in a eucalyptus tree, was this gorgeous little fellow ...

Neither Adoring Husband or I, have ever seen a Koala in it's natural habitat before.  We've seen them in wildlife parks and zoos and we've even held one, but this was more exciting for us than any of those experiences!  How amazing!

We've had a great day!  There was only one birdie all day ... and a koala :o)  

Life is good!

  

Full Stop, no Returns!

I'm in trouble.  That should be trouble with a capital 'T'.  I'm in trouble with my youngest daughter, Bubbles.  It was Knight in Shining Armour's (her boyfriend's) birthday today.  The date sneaked up on me and I didn't send his birthday gift.

I am also in trouble for not mentioning them in any of my blog posts so far.  I tried to explain that I only mention people if I have actually spent time with them and shared some kind of recent experience with them and now I have been ordered to visit them in Sydney, so that I will have something to write about!

So, we talked on the phone and I took my punishment like a good mother and mother-in-law should - by making jokes, blaming my age and pleading stupidity.  I think that I'm forgiven and we are all still friends but they rubbed it in by telling me that they are sending MY birthday gift in the mail tomorrow!

I am a bad mother/mother-in-law ***sad face***

It was very nice talking to them though.  ***happy face***  We always have a good giggle.  But we don't talk often enough.

Bubbles lived with me until she was twenty four years of age.  She moved out on her own just before we moved to Queensland. She didn't want a long distance relationship with Knight in Shining Armour.  The things we do for love!

I hope she is happy.  She is a bit like me.  Quite stoic.  She doesn't let her feelings show (except when she is angry!) and it's difficult for us to keep up with each other's lives, because we live 2000 kms apart.  Facebook is our friend :o)  She works long hours.  Like I said, we don't talk often enough.

Bubbles and her lovely Mum (that would be me!)

I love you Bubbles :o)  blah blah blah full stop and no returns!

PS  I DIDN'T forget ... it just sneaked up on me 'all of a sudden-like'!!!
PPS  Am I forgiven?  I have finally introduced you to the world!!
PPPS  Adoring Husband owes you a big favour, because I had a special blog aimed at him tonight - you saved him (for now!)

Exhausted but happy!

Thank goodness the rain stopped during the night and golf was able to commence on time today, without any hassles.  To our delight, we woke to a beautiful sunshiny day and hundreds of lorikeets screeching across the sky!

Our lovely driver, Jamie, arrived at 7.30am with his bus and trailer to drive us to Twin Waters Golf Club.

We wondered why he was taking so long to get out of the bus to unlock the trailer for our golfing gear, and when he finally hobbled around the corner, his leg was bandaged and he was on crutches!

Golf, apparently, is a very dangerous sport.  He bent down to pick up a ball and snapped his achilles tendon.  Another friend of ours bent down to put a ball on a tee and slipped a disc in his back.  I think we had best take it slowly this week ... who knows what might happen!

It took a good thirty minutes to drive to the club.  We were directed to our cart, which was part of the package deal, and were sent to the tenth hole to commence our game behind the last of the veterans who were playing their comp day.

The veterans were very slow and were obviously playing for solid gold golf balls today, because they were taking a very very very long time with their putting.  Needless to say, Adoring Husband and I, spent a lot of time waiting around for them to finish each hole, which created a bottle neck of other players behind us.

Apparently, veterans don't have to wave people through, so it made for a bit of a frustrating and longer day than expected, for me anyway.

Adoring Husband was uncharacteristically calm and relaxed through it all - probably because he was having such a good game.

Perhaps he needs old blokes slowing things down so that he has time to think about his game!

Ahhhh, it all makes sense to me now!

The grounds were quite lovely.  A bit wet and slushy in parts.  There was lots of wildlife and bird life, beautiful big ponds with flowering lillies,  fish jumping everywhere, little mini rain forests scattered about and a lovely girl in a shiny red cart who scooted along the paths selling refreshments.  How cool was that?!  Although selling beer at 8.30 in the morning didn't seem quite right to me!

After it was all over, we found our way to the club house and ordered some lunch and drinks.  Salt n pepper squid with salad for me and a Thai Beef Salad for Adoring Husband.  Once again, DELICIOUS!  We have been very lucky so far with our food choices.

Thirty minutes in the bus home was just enough time for every muscle and every bone in my body to sieze up.  Even though we had a cart, I still tried to walk as much as possible, as long as it wasn't going to slow us down too much for the people behind us.

We had planned on walking this afternoon and going in the opposite direction to yesterday to check out the local shopping, but I just wasn't up for it, and needed to rest up a bit.

Adoring Husband seemed quite put out by this.  He informed me that we were on holidays and he didn't want to spend all day at home in the apartment.  Of course, I then reminded him that we had just spent almost 8 hours away from the apartment!

"Well" he retorts "I'm going for a walk!"
"Excellent!" I reply "Could you please bring me home a take-away skinny cappuccino?"
"I'll see if I can find a place that sells them", he says.

With that, he walked into the kitchen,  made himself a sandwich and plonked himself down onto the couch.  He ate the sandwich, finished the beer, lay down on the couch and promptly fell asleep!  I'm so pleased that he's not wasting any of his precious holiday time!

I'm looking forward to going out for a nice dinner tonight and hopefully a good night's sleep will ease all the bits of my body that are complaining so loudly.

Despite Adoring Husband's obvious need to fill every waking moment with activity, we are exhausted but happy!

Rain, rain, go away!

Well, here we are, Adoring Husband and I, at Noosa, in a lovely self contained apartment, all ready for our week of golf which should commence tomorrow morning at 7.30am.

We spent the morning browsing through shops in Maleny, then visited Andrew at his Gallery in Montville, where we got to see some more of his work and spent an hour chatting with him and learning just a tiny bit more about photography.

After we left Andrew, we had a delicious lunch at a lovely restaurant with views that took in all of the rolling green hills, mountains and all the way to the ocean on the coastline.  Just spectacular on a perfect sunshiny day.

The drive from there to Noosa was about an hour long and uneventful.  We were pleasantly surprised when we stepped over the threshold of this lovely apartment and after we unpacked, we went for a walk along the Noosa River which was a hive of activity.

Kayaking, houseboats, jet skis, charter boats, ferries, private boats, surf skis, in fact the river was busier than the main road!  We then walked back on the opposite side of the road where all the restaurants displayed their menus, and we chose a couple that we will return to later in the week.

It was still quite early, so we decided to go for a drive to the National Park, where they have bush walking trails that were recommended for good photo opportunities.

The first place that we stopped was just so busy, I couldn't imagine it being peaceful anywhere along the track, so we left there and drove in the opposite direction and came upon about 20 kite surfers all in the water having a marvellous time weaving in and out and between each other.

It was a spectacle, so Adoring Husband and I made ourselves comfortable on a bench seat and sat observing them for about an hour.  We both took lots of photos, some of which I will add here after we get home next week.

We could see lots of big black clouds building up in the West and expected to witness a spectacular sunset, but it kind of fizzled out to nothing.  By now, it was getting late, so on the drive home, we decided to order Thai takeaway from a menu in our information booklet.

It was delivered to our room less than an hour later, and we both agreed that it was the BEST Thai that we had ever eaten.  Absolutely delicious!!  A perfect way to end a most enjoyable day...

... until the rain came!  It has been pouring rain for over an hour now and doesn't look like letting up!  Will it stop before morning?  Will it be dry enough to play golf?  I love the sound of rain at night and I think that we will both fall asleep happily listening to it ... but we will be ecstatic if the rain would just go away before morning!!

Education, Relaxation and Feeling the Love!

I've spent the whole weekend with fourteen other camera lovers, including the teacher, Andrew Goodall, who owns a gallery in Montville called 'Nature's Image Photography'.

He is a great teacher who uses simple language,  is willing to answer any question (no matter how stupid it seems) and shares his knowledge and experience freely.  He talks about the composition of photographs and how to get a great shot, instead of telling you to take any old shot and then fix it in photoshop (of which I am not a big fan).

This weekend, I have learnt a lot about my new camera and even more about photography.  I now look at the photos that I thought were pretty good and see that they are pretty average!  It's time to start again and aim for much better results!

I am inspired!

If you are interested in doing a workshop, checking out his work, or visiting his gallery, here is the link:

http://www.naturesimage.com.au/

I highly recommend him as a teacher and even as an all round nice person!  Very talented and very down to earth.

The other great thing about this weekend is that it was in a little town called Maleny, which is up in the mountains on the Sunshine Coast.  Rolling green hills, lush healthy rain forests, waterfalls and lakes, streets lined with craft stores, cafes and restaurants that cater to all tastes including vegan and vegetarian.

It's a town wrapped up in a welcoming warmth and the hippie in me feels very comfortable and happy here.

I spent an hour in the markets this morning before my lift arrived to take me to the course.  It was set up in a hall across the road from the pub where I am staying.

I bought a lovely silk/wool blend scarf in deep purples and greens and a lovely purple beaded shell necklace.  I could have spent LOTS of money there, but I think that I controlled myself pretty well!

Lunch, today, was spent with two other students.  Gail, about my age, who is a Psychologist with her own private practice and Summer who would be in her late twenties and is a Supervisor with a mining company.  Both lovely women, intelligent and very interesting to talk with.

Tomorrow, Adoring Husband is coming to pick me up and we are going to spend the morning in Maleny and then drive to Montville, where I will visit my teacher's gallery, before we head to the coast to check into our motel for the week.

We plan on spending every morning playing golf at different courses and every afternoon sight-seeing and finding photographic opportunities.

It's going to be a fabulous week and I am very excited to be spending some time with Adoring Husband with no obligations except to have a good time together and feeling the love!