It's Sunday

Though the weather has remained fine and sunny, a change in wind direction to from the south has brought out the track suit trousers, warms tops and mockies here on the Sunny Coast!

This continuing head and chest cold doesn't help either.  Hopefully I am beginning to improve but I still suffer from chest congestion and nasty bouts of coughing.  Most likely my cold is making feel the cold even more right now.

I did get to the doctor during the week on another matter but my cold has taken precedence now.  I am on new tablets now to ward off any possible infection and to aid clearing my chest.

I did try a bike ride or two but that didn't appear to help with my cold, in other words I was worse than I first thought I was.

So my PC has become my friend again, though even it seems to lose some luster after an hour or so.

I managed to get into town a couple of times for the doctor's visit and some home brew requirements. I got to the Home Brew shop for a couple of mixes of India Pale Ale, a brew I discovered at a boutique brewery in Fremantle W.A.  There was $80 on my 'tab', thanks from happy Android TV box owners after I had helped them out when their boxes failed to update properly.

I have been on the lookout for a light weight cotton jacket, just perfect for up here in that it is very casual and not too heavy to wear.  We just couldn't find exactly what I wanted anywhere, super casual and light weight.  We saw jackets up to $150 which was way out of what I was after.  We even had spent a bit of the cruise day in Brisbane checking out all the stores in the city without any luck

Eventually we found our way into good old K Mart where I spotted almost exactly what I wanted at the price of $35.  So you can imagine how pleased I was when the price scanned at $20! I couldn't pay quickly enough and get out the door.

I managed to get to Computer Club yesterday but probably should have stayed home.  I should be on a spotter's fee credit as I reckon I have sold another Android TV Box to someone there who was after some older TV stuff.

I am finding TV streaming more and more convenient as I get into my TV box more.  But I still get a buzz out of getting great copies of the TV Series episodes I enjoy.  We only have about three episodes of the latest (and final) series of Banshee.

More footy is on TV today so I will wrap myself up and settle down in front of the TV set!  Tonight we will finish off Banshee!

Hectic Couple Of Days

It was great to have our visitors arrive just after lunch on Saturday.  They arrived around 1pm.  Regretfully for me I managed to pick up a full blown version of Trish's recent head cold before their arrival so I have been coughing and spluttering my way throughout their visit.

As usual we ate too much, drank too much and managed to have a great time.  My cold worsened before it improved so by now, Tuesday, just before lunch I am around 90% over it but I remain stuck with that ever present cough I have endured for the last month or so.

I did hit the sack a little earlier than the rest over the last few nights and managed a few good nights' sleep.

Mick worked in the IT field before his recent retirement so we get on famously.  I showed him all over Kodi and he is heading off to give it a go when he gets back home to Newcastle.

Since retirement recently, Mick has become an "Apple" convert and now has his I-Phone, his MacBook and his Apple TV.  Apple doesn't make the installation of 3rd party apps like Kodi easy to add to their devices but it appears where there is a will there is a way.  YouTube guides could show Mick how he can install Kodi on his Apple TV.  How well it works when it is eventually installed there will be up to him to find out.

They have left this morning to catch up with friends for lunch in Brisbane before heading on to the Gold Coast Hinterland for a secluded hideaway spot.  It looks very nice.

Meanwhile we will easily slip back into watching streamed or downloaded shows, bike riding or getting involved with our local organizations.  With the trip to W.A. and the cruise and then home to welcome visitors we have been working hard for over a month now.

The weather is delightful and quite uncharacteristically warm for this time of year.  It remains in the the mid 20's during the day, perfect for sitting and enjoying or walking around outdoors.

Home Safe and Sound

The idea we sail on from Brisbane to Sydney to enjoy sailing through the heads into Sydney Harbour was a good one in theory. 

Most likely we sailed by Caloundra around 1am, we probably arrived at the heads the Heads at about 4am and into Sydney around 7am.  With the sun rising around 6:30 it seemed a great idea in theory but didn't work out so in practice.

But it was still light enough for us to see the Sydney Opera House in the predawn light and the Harbour Bridge as we sailed under it.

Viewing the Sydney city skyline from our balcony was great as well.

We had packed virtually everything the night before, our disembarkation from the Sydney Cruise Terminal to the Airport went well and we arrived with plenty of time to spare.

The flight back to Brisbane was packed.  On our way home we flew over Brisbane's Gateway Bridge, a couple of days earlier we had sailed underneath it.

Our friends were at the airport to greet us and to take us the last 100 or so kilometres back home.

There was little rest for us as we had visitors arriving from Newcastle after lunch on Saturday so there was luggage to unpack, washing to be done, lawns to be mowed, pool to be cleaned and the house needed a spruce up as well.

My cough is kind of under control, Trish's cold is on the mend and the weather here is high 20's, despite it being late May.

In a few days I will post a summary on our Cruise experience with the Princess Line.  Cruising is probably off our agenda for the immediate future.

As I type the major Telstra/Bigpond internet network is suffering from continuous connections and disconnections.  Since I began typing this the net has been off and back on again twice.  As you can guess businesses across the country which depend on this network are going ballistic!

Brisbane and the Final Leg

And so the cruise show rolled into Brisbane. We did the back in Australia Immigration bit, then boarded a shuttle bus and headed into town for a bit of shopping.  An hour or 2 of that was plenty so it was hop on the return bus back to the ship.

Trish's coughing has worsened during the day, not a good thing when you are on a cruise ship! She decided to stay in the cabin and give dinner a miss that night which has was a good move.

We had received our disembarkation instructions. Our Stateroom should be vacated by 8am Wednesday and our disembarkation time was 8:50 am when we would leave the ship, go through customs and hop on a shuttle bus for the airport. Our plane was due for take off around 1pm Wednesday. We had been requested to leave our main luggage cases outside our room by 9pm the night before so we can collect them after disembarkation.  Staff would take all the large bags to the customs area on the wharf for us to collect.

Tuesday would be our final full day on this cruise prior to heading home.

As we sailed south along the Australian coastline we had mobile phone coverage for some of the trip, and a chance for me to post this online.

The photo shows the top deck and the swimming pool.

New Guinea, Alotau

Alotau in PNG was most likely the highlight of the whole cruise. After 4 long days at sea (which probably cured us of the desire to do another cruise in the immediate future) we arrived at Alotau, Milne Bay. Milne Bay was an important battleground during WWII when allied forces, mainly Australian, stopped the advance of the Japanese army towards northern Australia.

It is a pretty basic PNG town, no real large stores as we know it. It had a couple of banks with 15m long queues at any working ATM. So changing money was not going to happen. The local currency is the Kina with an exchange rate of 2.3 Kina to 1 Australian dollar. For convenience all stores offered a 2 to 1 exchange rate, anything to help out the local economy.

The walk into town was a 30 minute trip in the tropical heat so we made an early start. The people were so friendly with heaps of morning greetings coming as we made our way along the streets. It was a lovely small town in a tropical paradise. A cooling sea breeze came in late morning. Trish had a bit of a cold so we grabbed something for her at the one and only chemist in town and wandered around the streets and several markets.

All the time we were approached by locals wanting to know where we were from. Rugby League is the local sport so when they found out we were from Queensland we were quizzed on which NRL team we supported. They knew more about the NRL than I did! But that's not hard.

Kids darted around between us laughing and playing as we walked along. The markets were overpriced but not too extravagantly for our pockets. We bought 2 cans of Coke which cost 5 Kina, we gave the lady $4 and took our drinks and walked away not wanting any change. We had paid her over 9 Kina and she was over the moon with the deal. $4 for 2 Cokes was a great deal for us too we thought.

I had my photo taken with a local guy with a great T-shirt. But he was also enjoying some betel nut at the time. That is the red all over his teeth! Betel nut is a huge favourite in this part of the world.

On our way back to the ship we spotted a small shop as a part of a larger building and Trish said she wanted to have a look around for a few minutes. As we went inside the lady said I was welcome to look around out the back, have a cool drink and take some photos if I wanted. It was actually a hotel with a sensational outdoor bar right on the sea and under an attap roof.

The sea breeze had come in, the local beer was cold and the view from our seats in the semi outdoor bar was of a tropical paradise. (photo above).  After a cool drink we walked back to the ship after a wonderful morning in a beautiful idyllic tropical town.

After arriving back at the ship it was time to sit back and recall our visit to the delightful Alotau.

The next 2 days were spent at sea heading to Brisbane. We had been told that as there was a manageable problem with the ship's engines meaning it couldn't travel at full speed, the visit to Cairns had to be bypassed to conserve time.  In place we would spend the 4 days at sea, 1 day at Alotau and then 2 days at sea until we reached Brisbane. To the novice's eye, the distance from Darwin to Alotau looks almost identical as the distance from Alotau to Brisbane.  The former took 4 days, the latter 2 days.

We seemed to be getting the run around and not being told the truth. It was quite rough for one day on the way to Brisbane, free sea sick bags were available all over the ship. The wind blew a gale outside on the open decks. The rough weather did not bother us.

Our cruise was now heading into its final phase.