Leathmac

Wednesday 30th July

We woke up to a really nice sunny day and it was quite warm. The weather forecast is quite good for the next few days. Typical – We leave here today.

It was a little before 10 am when we were ready to hand the Motel Key back and head off to Noosa.

When we got to the Smith Street turn off, which leads to the Motorway, Sally was telling us to continue another few kilometers ahead.

I disregarded, and turned into Smith Street. The roadworks there are causing a lot of congestion and it took quite a long time to travel the first few hundred meters.

When we had cleared the roadworks area, we were off. I had set Sally's destination as Lisson Grove, a street not far from the Brisbane Airport. We have stayed in a Motel there a couple of times.

Probably about two thirds of the way to destination covered, I noticed a Motorway turn off to the Sunshine Coast. I almost took it but decided against.

As we got closer to Brisbane, I saw the Airport turn off. I almost took it, but again decided not to. I remembered previously doing this, getting confused and had quite a time to sort things out.

I continued on, wondering what had happened to the Toll Gate. Well, we missed it and the road took us right into Brisbane.

Sally, of course, was still attempting to take us to Lisson Grove. We drove along the Section of the river that we had taken a Ferry trip on, during our last vist. I knew where we were and we had walked along the section of road. I knew weof were close to the Casino. When Sally told us to turn right, we probably probably passed it.

We followed Sallys instructions for quite awhile. With my limited knowledge of the Geography of Brisbane, I knew we we going in the right direction. After some time, I saw a road sign for the Sunshine Coast. I took it and from there on, I had given up going to Lisson Grove. For awhile, Sally was telling me to turn right. As we continued on, I saw a road sign for Sandgate. Lisson grove was not far from Sandgate Road.

I found a spot to park. To do so, I had to turn off the busy road on which we were travelling. For miles, there had been nowhere to park. There were no signs but if a vehicle stopped, it would close off the entire lane.

I reset Sally for Noosa heads. We continued and after quite some time, Sally directed us off the Motorway. We found a road sign and it showed Noosa heads 49 kilometers away. I thought we should have been closer. I stopped at the University, which was the only sign of civilization around. A young student was playing basket ball against himself in the gym and doing quite well. He was a local and when I asked him the best way to Noosa, he just about had a heart attack and said he didn't know where it was.

I checked the Reception. The lady there had be in Australia two days. She was from Germany and didn't have a clue.

I saw a young woman getting into a car in the carpark. She has only been here two days but she was quite helpful.

We continued on and not much later, we were in Noosa Civic. I parked and asked a man if there was an information centre in town. He told me there was, he had just been there. Like us, he had just arrived and was a stranger to the area.

We went into the Mall and I got the address of the Palm Grove Complex from the Information Counter.

We bought some fish for dinner. The woman in front of me bought some fish called Basa – and it was only about 11 dollars a kilogram. I asked her what it was like and she said that it was very nice.

I bought enough for dinner for tonight and also for tomrrow night. Later, when we had our dinner, it was very nice indeed.

We stopped at Subway and bought a roll each for lunch. We sat out in the bright sun outside and ate or lunch. He was a change to be warm.

We had a bit of trouble finding Ivory Palm. I did not ask the lady for the street number.

We found the road without any trouble and drove along looking for it. We passed a roundabout and there were Motels after Motels but not what we were looking for. I found the road name had changed. We turned back and eventually found the place.

We checked in, paying the remainder of the required money and settled ourselves in the unit.

It is very nice indeed, with our own balcony next to the swimming pool. After we had set up camp, we had a drink out on the balcony and then grabbed a quick half hour rest. We left and went to Noosa Heads. We wanted a bottle of wine. After walking up and down the street, making an enquiry at the Information Desk, we found a wine shop. It was not the sort of place we were looking for so we set off "over the hill" in the direction given us by the lady in Information and we found what we were looking for. We got a bottle of Riesling and half a dozen cans of Carlton and set off home.

It was about 5-30 pm. We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed a drink. I turned the tv on and it came alive. Problem – Not one of the remote controls would have any effect.

It is a sharp tv and the only sharp remote was for the stereo system. I rang the office and I was not happy when I was told there is nothing that could be done until tomorrow.

I voiced my disapproval. He asked me if I could control it manually. I had tried and I could not get it to work. I told him so.

He rang back a short time later and told me his maintenance man was still here and he would have a look.

In the meantime, I found that I could change channels manually, but it was difficult.

The man arrived about half an hour later. He was a nice young fellow. He had found a sharp remote in his truck. He tried it and it worked. He asked me if I had searched around for it. We had of course, behind all the cushions, in drawers, cupboards and around the bedroom.

I gave him a hand to lift up the heavy two seater chair, and the missing remote was underneath.

Probably my fault, but it should have been found by the cleaners.

As it turned out, we could not find a lot on tv even with two movie channels.

We went to bed and after turning off the light, Ruth tried out the tv in the bedroom.

It was high up on a bracket facing down towards the beds. We watched it for awhile and then closed down for the night.

Tuesday 29th July

It was a sunny day today but if was very cold.

I am not sure if I have mentioned yesterday, that I broke a large dinner plate. I put in in the drying rack after washing it. There is not much to hold it in the rack and it fell out and smashed on the tiled floor.

I went and saw the Reception lady and she told me that as it was one of the older plates, she would not worry about charging for it.

She also told me that maintenance men were going around all the units this morning changing the light bulbs for energy saving types, and also, changing the shower rose heads.

The workman arrived a short time later with the manager. He replaced the plate that had been broken and the workman did his jobs. He was not here long.

At about 11 am, we set off for Coolangatta. It is a nice drive and takes I suppose about half an hour.

We went into what appeared to be an unimpressive shopping mall. While Ruth was looking around, I found an Internet Kiosk. I put in my two dollar coin for twenty minute access and prepared to send the first part of this correspondence to my Web Blog.

I had it prepared on a USB key ring. The first thing I found was that Gmail does not seem to accept copy and past.

I eventually tried Yahoo Mail, and I was able to do it there.

A few minutes later, I checked my Bl, and there it was – Success.

I just had time to dash off a couple of very short Emails and then my two dollars ran out.

We went back to the car, as we were on a one hour park and time was nearly up.

Ruth decided she wanted to visit a shop she had seen. She set off on foot and I shifted the car to a two car park on the beach front. It was about 100 meters from the Surf Club.

I left the car and went inside the explore. The dining room and bar look out across the sea and the high buildings at Surfers Paradise could easily be seen.

I phoned Ruth and told her to come in when she was ready.

I was not feeling well and I did not want a large expensive meal I would not have enjoyed it. We had a couple of glasses of Riesling and and Steak Sandwich. It was a good cheap meal.

We spent some time there and I headed back to the car to wait for Ruth When she arrived at the car, we decided to head back to the unit. Although it was a sunny day, there was a strong chill wind and it was not pleasant at all.

It was probably about 4 pm when we got back. We had a quick rest and then at about 5 pm, we went and explored the park at the end of the street. It borders the canals and at one place, there is a very narrow strip of land, about 6 meters between two canals and there is a large pipe under the ground connecting the two.

The tide was coming in and there was a large swirl at the pipe entrance as some of the water was held back.

It was very pleasant in this park. There were some birds, about the size of a thrush, with a yellow stripe on its wings. Some of them would come up and take bread out of our hand.

We came back home, and after watching the news on tv we prepared our meal. The rest of last nights chicken with vegetables.

That has just about ended or stay at Surfers Paradise. We leave for Noosa in the morning.