Prep for Christmas

 17/12/2012
 Phil and Julie are back tomorrow so that will mean one job less and I can stop pretending to be a security guard. Not that I would be much good, as last night I went out like a light and didn’t surface until 7 30.
It has been another busy day looking after our estates with hardly time to cool off in the pool, though I did manage it.  Kevin’s pool is a beaut and quite deep, over 7 ft. He can easily check out his own dive gear in it, much better than lugging it out to sea, on and off a boat just for a check.
 I spent some time on Paul’s ride on mower and whizzed over about a 1/3rd of his grass. Bit of a joke really as everything is brown due to lack of rain. We spend a lot of time watering plants but the grass has to look after itself. There doesn’t seem to be any prospect of rain in the offing and already they are talking about the bad old days of drought after drought. This time last year we had had significant amounts of rain and everything was green. Just as long as it is dry for Christmas Day on the beach!

 18/12/2012
 Our priority today was to pick up Phil and Julie from Cairns airport, probably one of the most civilised airports in the world with it’s cheap parking and laid back attitude. No officious jobsworths like you find in U K airports.
 Once we had delivered them back to their unit and done a trip to see good old Dan Murphy, we had the afternoon free and spent it in the pool and topping up the tan. Then it was back to Phil and Julies for a BBQ and welcome home drink (any excuse!) We retired slightly damaged much later,  herself full of champagne.

 19/12/2012
  All plans made last night for today seemed to have got lost in an alcoholic haze. Apparently we were all going to meet up for coffee at Coffee Haven at Palm Cove, the only one to remember was Lorraine as she actually called it and was sober!
 As it happened we had enough to do here at the Ponderosa and at Kevin and Joan’s next door. Our  efforts at watering seem to be showing results as the fruit trees are doing well, with the exception of the lychees. The grapefruit, lemon and limes look really well, just hope we can harvest some before we have to leave.
 Christmas is approaching too quickly, we still have some presents to buy and  not sure when we can fit shopping in as our social events seem to get in the way of everything! I did chat up our local butcher today to see if he can get us some Wagyu steak for Christmas Eve, we already have the  prawns in the freezer.
 Everything for Christmas Day is in hand with Julie in charge and delegating like mad. It’s going to be a hectic week.

 20/12/2012
 Feeling rather smug right now as we have knuckled down and gone out to finish our Christmas shopping, we even bought one another a present, how good is that? Shopping out of the way we felt we deserved a couple of hours lounging around the pool before an evening at Yorkeys Knob Boat Club. Tonight was their grand Christmas draw with heaps of prizes as well as their meat raffle, which was mostly lots of hams. There were a couple of members only draws , one for $1300 and another for $1000. We were one number out for the thousand buck draw……bugger….Never looked like winning any of the other options.
 Again the courtesy bus took us home through residential estates we have never been to, it’s amazing the number of households who go to a lot of  trouble to decorate their homes with Christmas lights. People spend whole evenings just driving around to look at them, moving from one estate to another. It has to be said that most of the light shows are spectacular, but some are rather tacky.
 We had a pleasant evening at the boat club with my brother and Charlotte, now we have to do it all again tomorrow night at the rugby club with Frank and Julie.