Gently Does It

I'm still trying to catch up on four nights of poor sleep.

I've slept well for the two nights that I've been in my own bed but this afternoon I needed a nap - which lasted for over two hours - but it was lovely.

It's now almost 11pm and I think I will fall asleep instantly.

I didn't get out of bed until almost 9am today so by then, Harley was hanging out to play. 

I made myself a chicken, red onion and avocado bread roll for breakfast and watched a few episodes of Great British Sewing Bee.

At lunch time, Adoring Husband decided to cook his 'fend for yourself' dinner.

Harley is terrified when we cook so he immediately hid behind AH's lounge chair. I decided to take him into my bedroom and chose that time to have my nap. He felt much safer in there.

We had our play time in the afternoon and I crumbed and cooked prawn cutlets for my 'fend for yourself' dinner. BGWLBH had already made her dinner while I was still napping.

The footy was on and I watched Bulldogs defeat St George and then Manly defeated Cowboys.

Then we came to bed and I've been watching YouTube videos of funny animals and people cooking special recipes. 

Now it's time to sleep.

Nite all.

Back to the Grind

After being away for 5 days, we were in need of a decent grocery shop so BGWLBH and I drove into The Bay today and did just that.

We were worried that the shelves would be bare because of panic buying, but as usual, the news is fear mongering. There was no panic buying on the Sunshine Coast while we were there and all the shelves were full in Coles today, including milk and bread.

The footage they showed of Maroochydore beach yesterday was absolute BS. We drove past that beach on the way out of town and it was fine. I reckon they are showing old footage to scare people.

There have been photos of trees down and power lines down on the Gold Coast - Palm Beach and Burleigh Heads, but Adoring Husband's son is down there and having closed his shop at Runaway Bay after cyclone warnings, he was getting bored at home and said he was going to buy a kite! No rain and no strong winds at that stage.

Cyclone Alfred is now expected to cross the coast tomorrow lunch time ... it changes with every bloody report and I don't blame people for getting annoyed. 

In the beginning, it was supposed to cross at Rockhampton, then Bundaberg, then Rainbow Beach, then Sunshine Coast, then Brisbane, now the Gold Coast. Never in the history of cyclones, has there been so much doubt and uncertainty about the direction of a cyclone.

But don't get me started.

We are watching the football tonight. I was disappointed when Wests Tigers lost by only 2 points to Newcastle Knights.

Now South Sydney are playing Dolphins and are winning 12-4 at halftime. Still a long way to go. I tipped South Sydney.

I slept beautifully in my own bed last night and I hope to do the same tonight.

Nite all.

It’s All Over

I woke before my alarm sounded this morning. It was 4.50am.

We agreed to leave between 6am-8am.

With all the fear mongering on mainstream TV and social media, we weren’t sure about how much rain and wind would affect our trip home or whether traffic would be heavy with people trying to escape Brisbane and Gold Coast, so the decision was made to leave Sunny Coast early.

The trip home was easy with very little traffic, no wind and a very brief light shower before Tiaro.

It was windier on the way down on Sunday!

While we were away, it rained for about 30 minutes on the first morning that we shopped and then very early on Wednesday morning - enough to wet the road - and then nothing.

Only the heavy surf indicated trouble out to sea.

We left at 6.18am, stopped at Tiaro for coffee and were home before 9am.

I texted Adoring Husband from Torbanlea asking him to cook us bacon and eggs - he was dishing it up as we arrived. Perfect timing!

He’s a good man.

We’d eaten breakfast, unpacked our suitcases and laying on our beds exhausted by 10.30am

I cuddled with Harley on my bed most of the day, dozing on and off until it was play time.

I heated up spaghetti sauce and we ate spag bol for dinner. There was leftover gelato from sunny coast for dessert and STILL some leftover for tomorrow!

So glad I froze water bottles to keep it frozen until we arrived home.

So … holiday is over … but I hope to have a solo trip in late May, early June.

I am SO looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. Even though the bed was very comfortable in our accommodation, I couldn’t sleep to the sound of loud angry surf crashing all night. Normal surf is lovely to sleep to - but not angry surf.

Nite all.

Final Day

Thank you Alfred, for allowing us to finish our mini break, before wreaking havoc on SE QLD.

Adoring Husband and I have a lot of friends and family living on Sunny Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast and even further south which will also be impacted, so it is worrying and leaves us feeling pretty helpless as we watch things unfold.

Except for very early this morning, when it rained enough to put us off going to Eumundi markets, the weather has been dry and breezy - not too windy, and certainly not like there is a cyclone looming, so we decided to stay here for our final night instead of leaving a day early.

We'll be leaving bright and early tomorrow to hopefully beat the weather and any traffic that might be heading north to escape said weather.

Today was more shopping.

We ate breakfast on the esplanade in Mooloolaba, browsed a few shops and decided to walk off our breakfast by wandering down to the Wharf where normally there are clothing shops and gift shops to enjoy, but today there were signs up advising that they were closed in preparation for Cyclone Alfred.

Disappointing, but understandable.

So we decided to return to Sunshine Plaza and find the shops that we missed yesterday.

I found a great shop called "Dangerfield" that stocked amazing clothing that Chicklet would love so I purchased some sale items (because normal prices are a little high) and I'll send them down with the next letter I write. It is a shop for the weird and wonderful people of the world.

We were there for an hour and decided to stop at Maroochy RSL on the way home.

By the time we left at around 2pm, we were starving so we walked the esplanade again looking for food - most places were closed because of the predicted weather, others weren't selling food until after 5pm so we returned to the Thai kiosk near the Surf Club and ordered Hokkien Noodles with beef, Duck Yum and Fried Rice.

We also purchased 1/2 litre of gelato EACH!! 

BGWLBH got half chocolate, half lemon sorbet.

I got 1/2 passionfruit and half choc mint.

It was ridiculous to think that we could eat ALL of that food!

So I've frozen three bottles of water and hopefully we can get our gelato home without it melting.

Now it's time to sleep. Big day tomorrow.

Nite all.    

Day Two of Fun

Sunshine Plaza was our shopping destination of choice today.

It's really just the same as any other shopping plaza with the same franchise outlets and not a lot out of the ordinary. 

I always like to browse through Myer and today I purchased 3 bras there - which I could have purchased in Hervey Bay at a couple different places.

I got some leggings from Kmart, which I could have purchased in HB.

I bought a diamante whale brooch - I once sold them in my shop, so it's probably available in HB too!

Feeling thirsty, I bought a 'peach paradise' juice, but it tasted mostly like syrup and I threw more than half of it away.

We thought we'd missed a few shops yesterday along the esplanade, but having gone back there today, there was nothing that interested either of us.

BGWLBH wanted to eat out at a restaurant tonight, but I wasn't in the mood, so we found some takeaway - she found a chicken and salad place and I found a grilled fish and chips place. There was a little coffee booth tucked at the side that sold GF and DF cakes so I bought a couple of citrus and poppy seed cakes for dessert.

The weather has been glorious today. Virtually cloudless and not too windy. The surf is still very rough which reminds us that Cyclone Alfred is still lurking off the coast.

We are waiting until tomorrow to decide whether we stay until Thursday or whether it's in our best interests to hightail it home early.

There are so many differing opinions from so many different meteorologists, it's hard to know what to do.

The view from the rooftop of our accommodation ...

Now it's time to sleep.

Nite all.

Holiday Day One

A lovely shopping day was had by all! 

Well ... by me.

I purchased nothing in the first 5 boutiques and was feeling a little dejected because I have money to spend!

In the end, I purchased three tops, three necklaces and three bracelets. We filled the fridge with large bottles of water because it's SO hot and muggy, we are perspiring litres during the day.

We left the room at 9am and found somewhere to order some bacon and eggs for breakfast. I contemplated chilli crab scrambled eggs but wasn't certain how my tender tummy would react and I didn't want to spoil my shopping day.

After shopping, we created our own fresh juice combinations and carried our huge loads back to the room for a rest/nap before heading out to the Maroochy RSL. We played pokies and keno briefly before ordering a very early dinner.

I had bangers and mash with peas and parsnip crisps. BGWLBH ordered rump steak with chips and salad.

On the way out, I picked up a pear and walnut mini cake with cream to take home for dessert.

The day has been anything but cyclonic. It rained a little before 10am, otherwise, the wind dropped considerably and the sun was shining for most of the day.

Apparently Alfred will be here on Thursday ... there is no indication of that right now.

Sadly I missed submitting my photo this week in the 52Frames site. I had submitted for 8 weeks in a row and now I've broken my streak and it's very annoying ... because I took a photo with my phone this morning with every intention of submitting before 4pm ... but time got away from me and I looked at my watch at 5pm with disappointment.

Ugh 😖

Tomorrow is Sunshine Plaza day.

I expect we will be just as exhausted tomorrow evening, as we are today!

Nite all. 

We Are Here

What a welcome!

It’s windy. The surf is pounding and making the earth tremble. People were lined up along the foreshore watching the huge unpredictable waves, and cyclone Alfred is still north of here!

Parts of Bribie Island have been washed away and so many beaches along the coast are eroding away. It can only get worse in the coming days, but selfishly, I hope it waits until our holiday is over before doing its worst.

We took the same amount of time to reach the Sunshine Coast as we always do, so the new Gympie bypass didn’t seem to make any difference to the timing. It was a good run too. Not much traffic, but gusty winds buffeted the car a bit.

It was 11am when we arrived at our destination, but our room wasn’t ready so we were given a card to access the underground parking and we walked the short distance to the beach.

The surf club is very close, so we got ourselves a drink, watched the heavy surf for a while and decided to play the pokies while we waited for a text advising that the room was available.

On the way back to our accommodation, we stopped at a Thai takeaway for some lunch. I had crispy squid with a sweet dressing and a prawn and rice dish.

It cost me $50 for our 3 containers. The squid was as tough as boot leather and there were only 4 prawns in my other dish. BGWLBH ordered Hokkein beef noodles and gobbled it up quicker than I could blink!

After lunch, we lay like broccoli (Pretty Woman reference) and watched two Pitch Perfect movies. This was necessary to recover from our buffeting car ride and unsatisfying lunch.

No dinner … and I’m feeling quite hungry now so I’m already looking forward to breakfast.

Our accommodation …

Sleep time for me because I’ve been awake since 4am.

Nite all.