Valentine's Day

Not a lot has been happening in the last few days.  Sunday we joined the family for a lovely cooked Brekkie and afterwards DIL Fiona and I went to the movies at Capalaba and went to see Valentine's Day.  It was a typical chick flick but I rather enjoyed it and managed to have a good Laugh.

The weather has been quite different the last few days, yesterday it was so humid I felt that I was constantly bathed in perspiration all day.  Now last night and today it has been raining in fact quite a few places in Brisbane are flooded.  We are lucky we are on high ground otherwise we might float away. LOL.  Thursday we will move out of this park for a week as part of the deal in staying here is that you stay a month then moved out for a week and so on.  The caravan park is quite close just down the road in Tingapala, I think that how its spelt. Monday we are taking the bus into Brisbane so that we can have the hinges on the bins underneath repaired and on Wednesday we are having the gearbox serviced. She should be OK for a couple of more klms hopefully.

Talk again soon

Lunch at the Gold Coast

This is only a short blog today.  We spent a very pleasant day in the company of two lovely people.  We had lunch at Burleigh Heads Tavern and the food was great.  We discussed today when we first met up with Noelene and Ken, we think it must be at least 6 years ago.  They were travelling around Oz and joined in with our local CMCA chapter meeting in of all places a small town called Greenbushes in the South West of WA.  It used to be a mining town, but I'm not sure if it still is or not.  Whenever we are over here in Queensland we try and catch up with each other.  Ken has spent the last couple of years building his new bus and it is now completed.  It is presently in Tasmania and they are flying back over there on Sunday. They hope to spend some time travelling over there.  We wish them Happy travels and we hope to catch up with them on the road again someday.

By the way I forgot to mention that we babysat the grandies last weekend while their parents had a well deserved break.  We made fairy star cookies and I also overlocked the prayer cloths for Finn's class.  They were very well behaved and we loved spending time with them.  On Wednesday we joined the family for dinner and I was presented with a lovely thank you note signed by all the class I felt quite overwhelmed and I will treasure it forever.

My Award

Talk again soon

Brisbane Qld

It has been so long since I last entered into blogland that I have almost forgotten how to do it.   LOL. 

This is what I have left behind

 We spent a memorable if not hectic 5 weeks at home in WA.  Catching up with family, dear friends and fellow CMCAers.  I was also blessed with spending two sewing days with fellow girlfriends I miss them already.   On the 19th January we arrived back in Qld and after spending lovely days with the kids we picked up the bus from Ipswich and moved her to her new home in Belmont. 

Our view from our window

We have managed to secure a camping spot just 15kms from Brisbane and about 13klms from our Qld family.  We are joined by only one neighbour namely Shirley and Rod from Darwin. 

This is our home for the next couple of months

 We were able to spend the first day back at school for the little ones.  How they soon grow up.  

Here they are dressed for school in their uniforms

Last week we bit the bullet and had the carpet removed from the bus and replaced with strips of lino with a wood rain pattern.  The boys from All Transport Flooring did a wonderful job, i highly recommend them. What a transformation.  Much easier to manage and it looks great.  

The new flooring

We are driving to the Gold Coast tomorrow to catch up with fellow motorhomers and great friends.  Hello Noeleen & and Ken looking forward to spending time with you both. Today we visited the Information bureau to see what exciting places we can visit while we are here.

  Talk again soon

Quess What!!!!!!!! Only two more sleeps

I am starting to get excited now as there are only two more sleeps before we get home.  It is much cooler here today makes packing up a lot easier.  There is a Christmas Festival here this evening so we will join in the festivities.  They have a chocolate wheel where you can win a ham ( I think there is 60 hams to be won altogether) lollies and goodies for the kids and of course Santa.  My brother keeps telling me that Qantas is going on strike I don't think he is very nice.  Come Monday lunchtime I will be home Yippee!!!!!!!!

Talk again soon

Only Three more Sleeps

I am sitting here in picturesque Lowood writing this blog after having spent 3 lovely days with the grandies.  They were great fun and very well behaved.  It was much cooler in Brisbane, when we arrived back here yesterday the bus was all closed up and the temperature was 45 degrees.  It took a while to cool down.  I am hoping for cooler weather when we are home but knowing our luck WA will be experiencing a heatwave.  Today we are relaxing as it is so hot.  Tomorrow we will pack up ready for the flight home and Sunday we will shift the bus to its storage place and will spend the night in Brisbane and will be on the flight home Monday morning.  Talk again soon

Christmas Party

The showgrounds were abuzz early Friday morning with the arrival of some of the rigs for the weekend hosted by the CMCA Chapter the Albert Valley Rovers.  By the afternoon there were at least 20 motorhomes of various sizes surrounding us on the oval.  They were a very welcoming lot and it wasn't long before we were invited to share in the festivities.  Saturday morning we were treated to a cooked breakfast enjoyed in the breezeway near the hall followed by morning tea, afternoon tea and then happy hour.

Roy, Gloria, Terry, Freda, John & Beth

 At 6.30pm we all dressed up for the Xmas party.  We were greeted at the door with a wrapped bottle of wine and some door prize tickets.  It wasn't long and we were all seated and the meals were served.  Lovely turkey and ham with beautiful homegrown baked vegies, followed by either homemade Xmas pudding or apple pie and custard.  Lots of laughter and frivolity followed while we were entertained by a local two piece band.  They were excellent, they seemed to be able to play all kinds of music, though their jokes were a little less desirable. 

Some of the more agile ones danced the night away although as usual I had to sit out due to my partners lack of interest.  Lots of raffles of hampers of various sizes were won by all and sundry (not us of course).  We did win the meat tray at the local RSL club on Thursday night when we visited with Roy and Gloria.

Roy & Gloria

 Sunday afternoon as I write this there are only 6 happy campers left to spend the night we will be back to just two rigs tomorrow.  I didn't forget- there is now only 9 more sleeps before we fly home.

Santa's helpers in the corner

Talk again soon

Wivenhoe Dam-Lowood Qld 10 more sleeps

The Wivenhoe Spillway

Rain, rain glorious rain!  We have experienced some rain at last our first good dose since we left home in March or I might add since the winter before that.  It brought with it some much welcomed cooler weather.

The Picnic Area Wivenhoe Dam

 We drove out to Wivenhoe Dam where a lot of Brisbane's water supply is distributed.  The countryside around here is very beautiful with lots of green hills and country houses.

Some of the locals (it was most unusual to see ducks gathered around the cows)

Some more locals

 We drove over to Ipswich yesterday to my favourite Riverlinks Shopping Centre.  Didn't purchase much, just a new external hard drive to store my enormous collection of photos, I would hate to lose even one of them.  I have nearly finished putting photos onto DVD's maybe that will solve our Xmas present problem I could give all the family a DVD of our photos won't they all love that?  I think not! LOL you are so naughty Jan.  I am recording our trip into books and DVD's hopefully they will bring us many happy memories in our old age.  I am on the countdown for when we fly home it will soon be in single figures.  Did I mention that it is only 10 more sleeps.  My thoughts have been with my son yesterday and today as he recovers from his shoulder reconstruction operation.  I pray that all is well.  I am thinking of all the members in our CMCA Chapter celebrating Xmas this weekend in Bridgetown.  Merry Xmas to you all and we hope to catch up with some of you soon.

The Brisbane River

Talk again soon