Last Weekend

This is it. Things have changed a bit.  Patricia just found out that her mother broke her hip and had a replacement, so we are going home 55 days earlier than expected. Patricia spent the day changing our bookings and informing all concerned that we are on the way.

I did spend a little time with Michaela in her studio watching her making a teapot and some cups and trying to be of some help.

Another beautiful Teapot

Then I went out with Dieter to get some sand for the chicken coop, so we cleaned that out

After we cleaned it it looked like a Hilton

and soon it was time to visit Arni and Urs at their home for dinner, and what a dinner it was, lots of food and more laughs.

Arni, Evelin, Dieter, Michael, Urs & Patricia. Michaela takes the picture

What a Paella

This is Urs's office

Time to eat and make conversation

 This was a great final day here in Surfers Paradise.

Now we are on our way back to Sydney, staying another night with Annette in Coffs Harbour. Then we pick up more of our luggage in Port Maquarie and say good-by to Mary White and to Rosie’s and head to Sydney to stay two nights with Neal and Pam.

Mary White. Patricia & I love this lady

Back at doing some work

Dieter picked us up at Robina station close to Surfers Paradise, and it was great to be back here after a year. Last year we house-sat here for Christmas while D & M went to stay at Annette’s, and it was raining for the entire 10 days we were here (remember the floods in QLD in 2010?).  This time the weather is just perfect.

I did have some warning. The fact is that I asked Dieter if I could help him at his trade’s jobs, and he let me. So next morning, I got up early looking forward to get my hands on some tools and do some real work. There is only so much vacation I can handle.

So the job is putting up fibro on the ceiling of a carport. I hate to say it, but I love it - for a short time.

First we went to the Hardware Store

If I am not seen in the pics, I take them, and I still do some work

For the last two panels we got Urs's help

I got to clean windows at the time, seeing that I am Computer literate

 As usual, Patricia asked for permission to take over the kitchen and all is well. Coming home after a workday, it’s so great to have Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and one of her meals on the table.

Last day @ Annette

Werner came to visit today. He is one of my friends who came to Australia on the same ship in 1971, and for a long time Werner and I both worked at the Sydney Opera House.

We had a great evening with lots of good food (thanks to Patricia), memories and laughs.

Annette, Werner & Patricia

Just as well I look so relaxed

 Then it was time to leave Annette and Siggi after having had a great week and take the train to Surfers Paradise to see Dieter and Michaela. 

Patricia, Siegfried, Annette & I

Not the flu

  I guess it wasn’t the flu.  Last night the fever came back, and we realized my toe was infected from a blister I got walking last week - worst night of my life trying to sleep in the humidity with a fever.

The next day my toe got worse, and we finally had to see a doctor to get some antibiotics. 

This is just a distraction, has nothing to do with the above or below.

And now it's 5 days later, everyone relax, I am still alive and can not remember how bad it was. 

Really that bad?

Another day

Thursday night and Friday was a time for me to rest; somehow I got a bug and felt pretty bad (headache, chills and fever) so I slept all day and did whatever Patricia (Dr. Stevens) told me to do – oscillococcinum - and was just fine again after the second day. I guess I should follow my honey’s recommendations more often.

Annette and Siegfried are great at entertaining friends. We spent Saturday sightseeing some around the area – Urunga and Nambucca Head - and discovering more great natural places and some man-made artifacts.

Great long walk out to the beach

Annette & I

This is a 3km walk with some great art and some not so great

This is a footpath in the city. Think about this in Encinitas

As has been the case wherever we go and wherever Patricia is allowed to, she takes over the kitchen, preparing delicious meals.  I, of course, do the washing up.

Patricia loves a kitchen

A proud chef

Back in the WWW

 It’s quit amazing how much I miss my daily hit on the Internet while we are staying with a friend who doesn’t have it, (the Internet). 
Occasionally I make fun of people with their iPads or similar handheld devices - they seem to be constantly connected to something out there, and I think of it as obsessive, but now I have been without a connection for only several days, and I feel lost and cutoff. What could be happening out there that I may have missed!  Anyhow, we had a great time at Annette’s place in Coffs Harbor. We left Eric’s on Wednesday by train from Wauchope, (How would you pronounce this?) and Annette picked us up at the other end.  

It is actually pronounced WHAR-HOPE go figure

This is the station we left from.

It will take me a few days to catch up to real time, just bare with me over the next few days. 

More Walking

I am not sure if this is good for me, but I bought in when Eric suggested that we go for another walk like yesterday, so we drove to North Haven (our turn around point yesterday) and walked along the river inlet, nice and level and not too much strain and for only 3 hours today.

Nice and strait forward, no strain

We stop to watch some fisherman cleaning fish and showing their kids how to do it. In the meantime, hordes of Pelicans were waiting to get there cut.

Lets see if I can do this, learning by doing

This is how it's done

He wants to see it close up

They are waiting at a distance for the scraps

We visited an Oyster processing farm, and I was surprised to find out how much work and risk it takes and that it takes 3 years of growing time before I can eat an oyster.

Each one of the white posts shows one year and what is used to grow them.

Along the river’s edge, we found polls showing how high the water has been at flood time and how high they estimate it could climb.

This is how high it was in 1963

Arriving at home, the time has come to have a bite to eat and a beer for lunch. 

Simple lunch, Patricia is making a curry for tonight

Great Start into the 2012

The first day of the New Year is over, and we had a great start.  Eric suggested that we go for a walk to check out the area a bit, and we decided to head south. The weather was perfect for hiking, and after feeding the fish in his backyard pond, 

Eric started of with 5 fish and there are a hundred now

we drove to Bonny Hills and headed into the bush, mind you, we couldn't start until Patricia took a few pictures of the spectacular view from up here.

What an Ocean

This is just mind blowing beautiful 

Walking thru the bush in the shade of the trees is just the best, especially with the occasional glimpse of the ocean.

The camera distorted my size 

We then arrived after about 6km at North Haven beach and relaxed with a refreshing drink before starting our walk back.

This tastes great

It had me appreciate that I need to do a bit more walking; I was a bit out of breath after just a few miles, while Eric, 15 years my senior, was just chugging away at a good clip.  All in all, we were out for 5 hours and covered 12 km!  You convert it for yourself.

Eric leading the charge

Moving a long

After spending Christmas and more time than originally intended at Rosie's and the farm in Hannam Vale, it was time for us to leave the place of rural peace and tranquility and start moving north to see some sites and visit friends. We’ve had a great time at Johns River and Hannam Vale.  I got to play at Rosie's Cafe just like in the old days when we had restaurants in Sydney, and Patricia helped to set up the Gallery with her donated photographs of the local birdlife, which look great and are very much admired by the visitors.

Part of the Gallery

 The Cafe is starting to pick up, and Luke and Lorri will make it a place for people to come and enjoy an hour of relaxing with great food and coffee and browsing through the Gallery and the gift-shop. 

Our first destination is Port Macquarie where we are staying with my aunt, Janet, and Eric.  Mal was generous enough to drive us here, which is about 30 miles north of Johns River.  Because we arrived a bit early and no one was home, we dropped our suitcases in the garage and walked to the beach. We just love the ocean, and the beaches here are so beautiful and seemingly endless.  At the beach, we encountered an unfamiliar site and wondered if we could get away with telling everyone that we made a quick stopover in Dubai.

What a great idea

After walking for a while along the beach, we found a coffee shop (Bitter Sweet) and treated ourselves to a cup of tea and some eggs for breakfast.

Back at the house, we spent the afternoon with Eric and his daughter, Sue.

After Sue left this morning, Eric took us to Ricardoes, a hydroponic farm with 2 acres of tomatoes under roof. Apparently, around here, every shop has tomatoes from Ricardoes, so what follows are pictures from our visit there. 

You don't have to bend down to pick the strawberry s

Eric & Patricia being good students 

Beehive is attached to the building for pollinating the strawberry's 

Great crop of  tomatoes 

I was exited to see the same products as we have at Roie's

My favorite display in the shop 

You can not get it any frescher than this

Patricia thinks she has gone to haven

Christmas day 11

This has been our day so far, Dinner is still to come, Grilles Salmon and Ricotta Cheesecake

It's Monday lets move

Having had a great time on the weekend with the family, it's time to move on to go south to see some more of the coast beyond Sydney. We rented a car and started driving; it seemed that we never got out of Sydney. We thought we had driven hundreds of miles and had only covered about 60km.

The first sight of the coast south of Sydney

This is what's ahead

We got to Kiama. It had been raining all day, so we were ready to call it and settle into a place for the night. We found a nice and not too expensive motel and decided to get a movie (The Tourist) and relax.
On Tuesday, we explored Kiama, a very nice little beach town with lots of cafes and great little shops. Kiama is known for it's Blow Hole, and we went there to take several photographs.

This is what the hole looks like.

and how it comes about

This is what it looks like in action.

We also found a great saltwater ocean pool, and Patricia was just about to go in.

Come on, don't be shy:>)

Walking & almost swimming a lot made us hungry, so we went to the market and got some bits and then to have a picnic in the park.

No tools to eat with, so its back to fingers.

Cut the Mango with my Driver License.

But what a view for lunch

Any time

This evening, we got another 2 videos (Red and Sherlock Holmes) and decided to take it easy. The next day, we headed back to Narrabeen to relax for a few days.