Back on net!

 23/11/2012
  That was a nice couple of days up in Cooktown, even if there was nothing new to  look at. It has been smartened up but it will always be Captain Cooks town from 1777. Here at Clifton we are back in our usual spot in the yard, just a few metres from the seashore, listening to the waves (and the occasional bloody bus) …it’s nice to be back.
 We have done our Friday night out at Centrals and added to our two lamb joints in the freezer, by winning a big tray of prawns. Quite a feast when we get round to eating it all. If our luck holds and we continue to stock the freezer with goodies, we could supply the Christmas lunch for as many folk who turn up for the beach party.
 Yup, it’s that time of year again and our time in Oz is rapidly running out.

 24/11/2012
  We are now clear about our house sitting dates as Paul Mac came around this morning with a huge bag of mangoes from his trees and news of when they are going to be away. We move in next Sunday and the Macs leave on Monday morning for about 6 weeks.
 Most of our day today has been in the pool until mid afternoon when we walked the 40 minutes along the beach to Palm Cove. Generally we have a beer or two at Apres Bar but the Palm Cove Surf Club has just re opened after a couple of years of refurbishment. To say it re opened is not quite correct as it never actually closed. It kept going by having part of the building as the bar, limited kitchen facilities and an outside dining area under sails. All very primitive. Now it is one of the smartest venues in Palm Cove and will put pressure on the likes of Apres who have been charging top dollar for the time the surf club has been struggling. We will join as members even though our time here is limited.
 We have every intention of coming back here in the future for holidays and long stays. England is our home but looking at the pictures of the weather back there…..what can we say!?
  This was the seven day forecast on the TV last night for the Cairns region:-
      Temperature         Rain   Cloud
Min     Min       Max
Sat       22          32      nil        nil
Sun      22          32      nil       nil
Mon     22          32      nil       nil
Tues     22          32      nil       maybe
Wed     22          32      nil       nil
Thurs    22          32     nil        nil
Fri        22          32      nil       maybe

 25/11/2012
  A leisurely afternoon at Yorkeys Knob with my brother and friends and bumped into Glyn and Alana who were feeling very pleased with theirselves as they had finished all their Christmas shopping. Bah  Humbug!! We haven’t started ours yet.
 Later we met up with Allen and Lorraine for drinks and nibbles round the BBQ. Phil and Julie went to their first Christmas party at the tennis club. We can’t believe how quickly it is creeping up on us and, as usual, we are totally unprepared. I expect we will be organised by Julie at some stage.

26/11/2012

  Should have been my mowing day except Julie is not well and has taken to her bed needing peace and quiet. The last thing she needed was a noise old mower rattling past her window. So, as we are redundant we have spent the day mooching and trying to catch up with the blog.

 At 4 o’clock we wandered up to the stinger net for a play in the dumpers. It’s unusual to get big surf here because we are protected by the reef, but it was different today. Must be something to do with the moon and the wind direction. (Just made that up, haven’t a clue really!) Anyway it was good fun.

 27/11/2012

 It was supposed to be an odd job day and so it was until Julie decided to invite a couple of her girlfriends over for an impromptu BBQ.  One of them, Rae is a good friend of Alanas and has just moved up here and is renovating their new house. It isn’t habitable at the moment and so she is stowing away in one of the units for the time being. Phil and I ended up cooking the steaks while the girls got stuck into the wine.

 We had got most of our jobs done during the day, preparing the van ready for our trip to Townsville tomorrow to see the  ear ole wizard. 

 28/11/2012

 In Townsville after a 5 hour journey just to get my hearing aids re- calibrated which took just 10 minutes, but at least there was no charge! Mind you the ear wizards initial consultation fee was $300. The drive down was fairly stress free (400K) with plenty of roadworks going on. Again we can see massive amounts of money being spent on road improvements, which are very much needed, as  Queenslands roads are crap. Who knows, if we live long enough, we may come back to find it all completed, There is no doubt about I, we  will be coming back.

 29/11/2012

 The caravan park we used in Townsville has to go down as the noisiest park in all of Australia due to it’s position. As I have described before anyone who would like to  establish a van park must first look for a railway line, then build the park next to it. This one in Townsville has it’s regulation railway track running alongside and there is also a major highway used by heavy goods vehicles on the other side. To add to that, it right next to a military airfield and last night they were practising their landing and take off with their Chinook helicopters until midnight, then the jet fighters took over! It must have been noisy if I noticed it!

 We were back in Clifton mid afternoon in time for a cooling off in the pool, then up to the surf club for a meal with Phil and Julie. The meals are not expensive and now we are members there is a slight discount on bar prices. Having a membership is a good way of looking after the locals, whilst the holiday makers and tourists pay the going rate they are subsidising us. (We are classed as locals now!)   Any chance that happening in tourist Stratford?