Day 28 in a Year of my Life

After a very full day, we returned to the caravan park at about 4pm and there was a party well in progress at one of the cabins diagonally across the road behind us.

Much laughter and hilarity was floating across the park and settling all around us.

We left to go out for dinner at 5.30pm and returned at 7.30pm.

The party was still in progress.  Laughter and hilarity continued - one woman in particular with a very distinctive and loud laugh.

It is now 9.40pm and the party continues still.  The laughter is louder and the wind is not in our favour.  The language is now turning a lighter shade of blue.

I am curious as to how long this party continues, considering the number of signs posted at various parts of the park requesting that we all consider other patrons, by keeping the noise to a minimum and making sure social gatherings don't go too late.

However, aside from the language beginning to creep in to the conversations, tonight I am grateful for happy laughter.

The happy laughter that rings out loud indicating that everyone is having a good time.  The laughter that sounds like friendships are being cemented.  The socially happy laughter that makes you wish that you were invited to the party.

People having a good time and being together.  BE HAPPY ... that's what it's all about!

Nite all.

Day 27 in a Year of my Life

Sitting here with the last dregs of a glass of wine, watching Mama Mia on TV, after a disappointing sunset shoot on the beach with 'The Other One' and 'The Bird Whisperer' from our flickr group.

Still, we got to spend a very pleasant hour or more over coffee beforehand. where we caught up with all sorts of goings on and solved a few problems of the world.

Even though the sunset was a fizzer, it was nice on the beach in the fresh air and listening to the waves crashing and watching the dogs chasing each other and feeling the wind in my hair.

We all scattered over the beach trying to find a good spot in preparation for the sky changing colour, but alas, it never happened!

So we parted company on dark, all looking forward to catching up again in about a month for our Christmas break up.

Earlier in the day, Adoring Husband and I visited the Ginger Factory and Nutworks and the Chocolate Factory, where we stocked up on all things sugary and delicious.

Fudge, nougat and macadamia nuts for dinner tonight - dreadful, but we forgot to pick something up for dinner.

We had a cooked breakfast and then Saltnpepper Squid with salad for lunch at the Ginger Factory, so a little sweetness for dinner, instead of a cooked meal won't hurt for a day.

Here is another photos from last night's sunset shoot.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rqqzy/8209091039/in/photostream/

Tonight, I am grateful for cool breezes on the coast.

It was quite warm today and threatened to be a muggy night, but the breeze has sprung up and is delicious and cooling as it sweeps through the open windows of the campervan.  I love the sound of the wind swishing through the palm leaves of the trees behind us.

It will be a very nice way to fall asleep tonight.

Nite all.

Day 26 in a Year of my Life

After I return from holidays, I will rethink my blogging options.

Google has decided that it will cost me $10 per month if I wish to continue posting photos.

If I'm going to pay money, then perhaps there are better options out there.

I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, we moved towns today.  Only twenty minutes away from Mapleton, which is where we stayed for the last five nights.

This is a lovely park.  Clean and spacious and we got a site right by the amenities, so that I don't have to run far to the loo in the morning!

Nice clean showers and a full sized mirror so now I can see how I look each day!  It's been most disconcerting walking out the door and not knowing whether I'm presentable or not!

This afternoon, the Nikonian picked me up and we got coffee, sat on the beach and chatted, then headed off to Moffat Beach to meet up with Mellylicious to try for a sunset.

It was a bit of a fizzer, but there was a moment when some colour came into the sky and the clouds looked a little interesting.

It didn't matter.  Great company of course and it was fabulous to catch up with the girls.

I've only posted one photo so far to flickr and MAY post one more later, but here is the link ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rqqzy/8207457849/in/photostream/

Trying for a reasonably early night tonight.

Today I am grateful for chocolate.  I don't have a photo of it, but it brings so much happiness to so many and as I sit here at (almost) 11pm typing out this post .. I am enjoying a row of Cadbury Hazelnut chocolate as it melts in my mouth.  Heavenly.

I would also quickly like to make special mention to Maleny Dairy again.

Adoring Husband and I tasted their full cream milk today.  People from our generation remember what milk tasted like when we were at school?  Oh the memories that came flooding back.  Absolutely delicious.

Tonight we had some of their cream on a big fruit salad of blueberries, raspberries, mango and banana.  It is just the way that cream should be - thick, creamy and almost the colour of butter.  It's enough to consider moving to the area!

Nite all.

Day 25 in a Year of my Life

Today had a cow, a nikonian and a waterfall and 6 million steps.

Adoring Husband was hanging out to visit the Maleny Dairy and do the Factory Tour **yawn** this morning.

He and about 6 other children under the age of 4 all enjoyed playing with the animals, learning about the milking machines, inspecting the processing line and then tasting the yoghurt, flavoured milk and custard.

He even stepped forward to have warm cow's milk squirted from the udder into his hand so that he could taste fresh milk.

I remember doing that as a child and turning my nose up then, so I stayed at the back of the small crowd.  No thanks :)

I did, however, taste the strawberry yoghurt, strawberry milk and the custard.  It was all very tasty.  It's not that 'strawberry' is my favourite ... but it was gluten free and the chocolate was not.

Unfortunately, they don't distribute further north than Gympie, so we won't be able to access this deliciousness after we get home.

After the dairy, we met the Nikonian at Montville for lunch.  It was a most enjoyable afternoon.  Good food, good laughs, good company.  She makes me laugh.  Crazy lady.

On the way home, it was about 3.15pm, so we decided to do the Kondililla Falls walk.

Big mistake :/

It was a long walk with lots of steps ... I mean LOTS of steps.

We got to the lookout for the falls and looked down to where the rest of the track would take us ... which was a LONG way down and decided that if we went all the way down, we might not make it back up again!

So we turned around and climbed all those gozillion steps back up the hill, with many stops along the way.  I wasn't sure if it was my heart or my lungs that wanted to explode out of my chest!!

Narrow winding tracks, some uphill and some flat and some even sloping downward.  The tracks sloping uphill just seemed very steep and never ending.

After all of that, I sent a text to the Nikonian telling her what we did.  She thought it was hilarious and told us that if we had done the complete circuit, instead of going back up the steps, it wouldn't have been such a hard slog coming back.

Ugh!!

I bet she is still laughing!

I think it would have been easier if I wasn't carrying 10 kg of camera gear in my back pack.  Not to mention a certain number of extra kg that I am carrying around my mid section.

Some Underwater World photos from yesterday ... cl

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rqqzy/8204960237/in/photostream/  (click on the link to see them in flickr.  Google won't let me add any more photos.

So today, I am grateful for having lungs and a heart strong enough to withstand such self abuse!  I'm grateful that I was able to slowly, but surely make it back to the car without collapsing lol.  I am grateful to be feeling surprisingly good tonight - as if the walk/climb was somehow cleansing.

It was a beautiful walk.

Nite all.

Day 24 of a Year in my Life

Underwater World = AWESOME!

I am truly convinced that I was a marine animal/mammal in a previous life.

I feel most alive when I am near the water.

Today, walking through the underwater tunnel was one of the more emotional experiences in my life.  I struggled to hold back tears for much of it and I just didn't want to leave.

It made me feel so safe and secure, and brought such overwhelming joy, like it's where I was meant to be.

It's so weird that I am too afraid to swim in the ocean because of my fear of sharks, yet I felt so comfortable there today.

MAYBE!!!  Whatever I was in my previous life, got eaten by a shark!!  Ha!  lolol

I took heaps of photos today, but I'm saving them for another day, when I have time to go through all 350 of them properly.  I'll have so many photos to go through when I get home - you will be inundated!

Tomorrow we are off to the Maleny Dairy in the morning and then into Maloolaba for some window shopping and lunch.

Today, I am grateful for new educational experiences.  Even after 52 years of living on this earth, there is still so much to learn, to see and to do.

Adoring Husband and I learnt a LOT today.

Nite all.

Day 23 in a Year of my Life

Today, instead of "I am grateful for ...",

I am grateful THAT ... my legs held me up for the entire five hours that we were at Aussie Zoo today in 33C heat.

I haven't been through all the photos yet, so there will be more to come over the coming weeks.

Exhaustion has set in and I my bed beckons.

Nite all.

Day 22 in a Year of my Life

Well, if you read my post yesterday, I mentioned that the storms that were forecast, seemed to have disappeared.

I was wrong!

The news on tv showed 3 huge storm cells travelling across south east Queensland.

One of them caused major damage to areas of Brisbane and the winds were quite frightening to watch.

We looked at the radar on the Bureau of Meteorology website and watched as the nasty red and orange storm cells moved closer to where we were.

We were feeling very vulnerable in our little campervan but we made everything as secure as possible and as the storm got closer, we climbed into bed and waited it out.

It was LOUD and when we turned out the lights, the lightning show through the windows of the van was spectacular!  Then the rains came and it rained and rained and rained all night long for about 12 hours - which was also loud on the canvas that covered our beds.

Thank goodness, the winds never eventuated, so we were safe in our little camper, although this morning in the light of day, we discovered that our van leaks!

Adoring Husband informs me that the leak could affect the electrics of the van if we aren't careful ... so we will be careful!

Eventually, this morning, the rain stopped, so we decided to head off to explore some of the area.

We started at Montville where we had a delicious morning tea at The Edge Restaurant and then I did some clothes shopping in one of my favourite shops.

Lemon curd and macadamia butterfly cake - YUM!

We also visited The Master at his gallery, where he showed me some of his lightning photos from the night before.  Some people are brave enough to stand out in a storm to get the spectacular shot.  I admit that I am a bit scared of lightning, so I'm not sure if I will ever get THAT shot.

Then we had lunch at Poets Restaurant.

Crispy Duck Cake

Adoring Husband said he couldn't tell the difference between a salmon patty and this.  I think it looks and it smelled pretty darned good!

I did a little more clothes shopping and then the rains came (again) and even though Adoring Husband really wanted to go to the Maleny Cheese Factory, he drove me to two lookouts to try to get photos of lightning as the storms built over the mountains.

We didn't see any lightning.  We heard LOTS of thunder.  We watched the dark clouds building and moving quickly over the mountains.

Then we went to the Cheese Factory :D

This afternoon, we have experienced more rain, more storms with lightning and thunder.  Thankfully, no wind.

Today, I am grateful to Mother Nature for providing a spectacular couple of days worth of weather, and for withholding those nasty winds from our end of town.

We live to play another day.

We will attempt Australia Zoo tomorrow!  Let's hope the weather will be kind!

Nite all.