Monday Morning!

Not a lot of news from the last few days.

Trish has arrived safely 'down south' and after spending time with son Chris, Wendy and family on Saturday night she spent Sunday with youngest daughter Kim where she spent the night.

Today she moves on to Kate's home where she will stay and spend the rest of her time in Melbourne.

Life here on the 'Coast' continues to be dominated by me watching the Second Cricket Test live from Hobart in Tasmania.

My back has been very tender the last few days but I was able to do 10 k's on the bike yesterday morning around the lakes which are the centrepiece for this estate. As the estate is extended so to are the bike paths. The lakes in the middle of the estate provide the 'hub' for the area. Ducks frequent the lakes along with a variety of other birdlife. There are benches around the lakes making this area a very popular one with residents.



I had a call from people down south who will be visiting Noosa next weekend and I have made arrangements to catch up with them 'over a few drinks' on Sunday afternoon. One of the kids we took to India in '96 will be there. Daniel is now a successful engineer who has worked on the massive new building in Dubai. I am looking forward to seeing them all again very much.

My kids have got me involved with "Facebook" on the web and another former student "Dani" has invited me to be her friend.

Gilgandra!

Trish was able to miss most of the severe accident on the Bruce Hwy Thursday morning though they were still delayed with slow traffic for some time. However they will have got to Gilgandra which is half way between the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne. It is about 1000k's from here!

Hopefully they will arrive at Tullamarine tomorrow at about 5 pm on Saturday evening!

This arrived in an email recently. As a Baby Boomer myself I am not too sure about this!

It was fun being a baby boomer...until now. Some of the artists of the 60's are revising their hits with new lyrics to accommodate aging baby-boomers.

They include:

Herman's Hermits--- Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Walker.

Ringo Starr--- I Get By With a Little Help From Depends.

The Bee Gees--- How Can You Mend a Broken Hip.

Bobby Darin--- Splish, Splash, I Was Havin' a Flash.

Roberta Flack--- The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face.

Johnny Nash--- I Can't See Clearly Now.

Paul Simon--- Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver

The Commodores--- Once, Twice, Three Times to the Bathroom.

Marvin Gaye--- Heard It Through the Grape Nuts.

Procol Harem--- A Whiter Shade of Hair.

Leo Sayer--- You Make Me Feel Like Napping.

The Temptations--- Papa's Got a Kidney Stone.

Abba --- Denture Queen.

Tony Orlando--- Knock 3 Times On The Ceiling If You Hear Me Fall.

Helen Reddy--- I Am Woman, Hear Me Snore.

Leslie Gore--- It's My Procedure, and I'll Cry If I Want To.

And my favourite:

Willie Nelson--- On the Commode Again.

Tour Of UK and Ireland

When we do the UK Europe bit in 2008 we will be taking two escorted tours. I have put a map of the second and largest tour on yesterday's post. We are also doing a shorter 13 day tour of UK and Ireland. This map gives you an idea of where we plan on going. Trish's father was born and raised in Warrington so Trish was pleased that this tour has a one night stopover there.

Last night we attended an Information Night put on by the local Travel Agent. It provided a deeper look at the company Insight who are the tour people for both tours we are doing.

They have some give aways there and we scored a baseball style cap and a bottle of red wine. Made it all worthwhile!

A nasty accident on the main highway down to Brisbane this morning has closed the highway. This may have caught Trish as she set off to Melbourne this morning. This may delay her arrival time in Melbourne as the highway is to be closed for at least 4 hours.

Surprise Visitors Pop In

Melbourne friends Carol and David Hewitt are sharing a holiday house at Noosa (60k's north of here) with their daughter Sian and family (Craig, Lilly and Jade). Craig is a keen bike rider and has been competing in the Noosa Triathlon and other more recent cycling events up there.

They dropped in for a long visit yesterday afternoon and the the youngsters arrived several hours later.

From there we were all to the King's Beach Tavern for an evening meal than back home for coffee. Carol and David eventually headed back to Noosa at about 9 pm.

Trish is busy packing for her trip to Melbourne tomorrow. She will be away for over 2 weeks. I expect to catch up with her later.

Our flights to UK and Europe have been booked. The tours have been booked and the final accommodation is still to be finalized. Here is a page from the tour guide giving the tour outline. We are also doing a 2 week tour of UK, Scotland and Ireland. Click on the picture for a larger view. Then click on "Back" to return to this page.

The Travel Agent with whom we are travelling is having a public Information Night tonight at one of the local clubs and we are heading along to discover as much as we can.

They Got me For The First Time in 2007

Despite Trish being swooped the other day by a couple of nasty magpies, so for in 2007 I have escaped. This has now changed. I was feeling a little adventuresome and it is getting towards the close of the swooping season so I rode along a section which has been notorious in the past for magpie attacks. And 2007 is no different. Though not a vicious attack I was swooped a few times and made a hasty escape.

Here in South East Queensland we are still under the influence of the recent Australia wide attack of Equine Influenza, (horse flu). Horse racing has been shutdown in this corner of the state but is due to resume early December. Our local race course has not hosted a racing for a couple of months now. Even the specially erected marquees have been empty for some time. However some much needed maintenance has been carried out while getting ready for the season opening in a few weeks.

Trish has been busy planning for a UK Europe trip in May 2008. It looks like we will be away for about 6 weeks and doing a couple of 'whistlestop' trips around UK and much of Europe. We are at the stage of booking tours and finalizing air travel.

The weather remains coolish with temps around the mid 20's.