Snoskred - Life in the Country

I’ve been meaning to write some reviews of the places we stayed - as yet I have not had the time. So while I am finding the time, I’ll post a few pics.

Cairns Novotel Oasis Hotel - Fruit Bats Galore!

This hotel had amazing trees around it and as we approached the hotel we discovered the trees are full of fruit bats. At dusk they all take to the skies. So these are not the best photos due to lack of light, sorry!

Obviously Australia is a little challenged weatherwise at the moment. I’m sure you’re all aware of the horrible fires in Victoria where the death toll is predicted to reach 200. The Other Half has a sister within flying ember distance of the big fires, so we’ve been worried but we finally got in touch tonight and she’s ok. It has been horrible watching the news and hearing what has happened to people. It also has me thinking about our personal fire plan - and if you live in Australia I hope it has you thinking about that too.

Up the top end of the country - where we are travelling to in exactly 10 days time - there are floods. And also Dengue Fever, which is something horrible you get from mosquitos. And just in case you didn’t know, mosquitos ADORE me. They’ll travel out of their way to bite me. So this = me covered in insect repelling goodness.

Sephy told me to make sure to get one with DEET in it. Note to Sephy - all those ones smell somewhat like a chemical warfare potpourri. With a squeeze of lemon! So I will smell bad, in case you all happen to be there and meet me or anything. Also, Cairns has no food in the supermarkets. Cindy from Artistsblog is up there, and has been writing some very interesting posts like this one.

So the whole fire thing and travelling to somewhere there is a nasty mosquito thing that could possibly dead me and floods and possibly not brilliant roads has me thinking some pretty weird thoughts. Would it be bad to say that if something happened to me tomorrow and I died, I’d be thinking that I had a pretty decent life? That is if I were able to think, of course.

Because I have. As I sit here now, I’ve had 10 wonderful years with a man I truly adore and who makes me laugh all the time. I’ve lived in a couple of places that have made me vastly happy. I’ve been blessed with a fantastic family who have only made me want to banghead very occasionally. I have a wonderful online family - the mudflats, and aussie bloggers - who have made me laugh, cry, and every emotion in between. I’ve been the President. Not of anything especially important, but of something I cared about and believed in.

The only things that would upset me would be leaving people I love behind and the concern of who would take care of my pets, and a concern over would they do it the way I feel it should be done as far as keeping them inside.

I think that since I have taken up kayaking and the exercise thing, some kind of bizarre inner peace and general contentment has settled in. It is hard to explain. I’m not sure I want to try and explain it.

Anyway, I will be blogging more than usual while away, we have organised wireless for the laptop and I can even do it while we’re driving, how cool is that? It’s an easier way for people to keep up with what I’m up to, etc.

First we go to my sister’s wedding on the Central Coast of NSW. I bought a dress, and I have shoes! w00t! I might even post a photo of such - with the face blurred for obvious reasons.

We’re going to the Marriott on the Gold Coast for 2 nights, the one with the lagoon pool and actual real live fish in there. I’ve got swimming goggles which are prescription so I can see the fish. We got nose plugs today so we will still be able to use the snorkels - I actually think this will work better than using the masks.

We’ll be staying overnight in Rockhampton, 2 nights in Airlie Beach, 3 nights in Cairns, 1 night in Mackay, 2 nights in Maroochydore, a night in Port Macquarie and then back home. We’re heading up the Pacific Highway and then onto the Bruce Highway I think it is - if there is anything must see that you know about, leave me a comment. Especially butterfly houses, because we love that kind of thing. The furthest I have been before is Brisbane (World Expo 88 - how many other people went too?) - we do plan a stop at Australia Zoo while in Maroochydore.

I’ve almost got all the ironing done for the trip already and we’re still 10 days away from leaving. I have begun to collect items to pack on the dining table. I plan to be organised this time.

I also have been fake tanning. This is not out of any desire to look pretty or because I am wearing a dress, but because I got very badly burnt on my hands a few weeks ago while wearing a rash vest - so my arms were completely covered - and I look a bit like I dipped my hands in brown ink or something. So I am just trying to even it out so people stop looking at me with the “OMFG WTF HAPPEN TO YOU” look on their face.

In fact one guy in a surf shop actually asked me what happened, this was right after it happened. I was in there looking for longer shorts that had SPF protection in them. I told him what happened, which went something like “Well, I bought some new sunscreen because I didn’t like the one we had, and it was sucky and didn’t work even though I reapplied it more often than it told me to reapply it, and therefore I got extremely crispy even though I am totally anti sunburn”. I think the only reason he asked was because he was a Him-Bo. Blonde, pretty, thick as a brick.

Well, this has been a bizarre post. But that’s what’s going on here at the moment.

Over the weekend The Other Half and I travelled to Canberra for a meet with fellow Aussie Bloggers. We stopped in Goulburn, as you do. Here is The Big Merino, which seems to have a distinctly superior expression on his face.

It is not until you drive around to the back of The Big Merino that you see why he is looking all superior. But why would you put an enormous pair of concrete testicles on a sheep that is a tourist attraction when you know that kids are going to ask their parents what that is about?

And why would you move the sheep to a new location, build a lovely new tourist centre around it, but make the sheep’s butt (and consequently large testicle/s) be the major thing that people parking at the centre get to see?

I’m surprised they didn’t install some lovely concrete poop just to make it a little more realistic. They now have a lovely shop attached to the sheep which contains some of the most expensive woolen things you will ever see in your lifetime. $316  for a thin woolly jumper? Err, no thanks. Even though it feels very nice.

I went there because I was hoping they would have a sheep snow globe. And they did, for $7.25 or some crazy price like that. I would have bought it but it already had air bubbles in it, which is something you want to avoid when creating or buying a snow globe.

So instead we went to Mcdonalds to get a coffee as we’d missed out on coffee at breakfast due to 16 zillion screaming families trying to eat the buffet breakfast at the same time we were there. I guess that is what happens on a Sunday morning when everyone wants to sleep in and show up to eat breakfast 30 minutes before the buffet closes. We threw some food on a plate and retreated to the safety of our room where I discovered that I had found some of the most incredible mini croissants  ever, and only taken two of them. I would have gone back for more but I could not face the adults literally fighting over food and berating the service staff when the scrambled eggs ran out.

I spoke about how brilliant the croissants were most of the way from Canberra to Goulburn, much to the dismay of the other half who had not taken any croissants - he went for the hot food but I allowed him one tiny bite of croissant heaven.  The moment we stepped out of the car at Goulburn we were hit by this freezing cold wind. Some evil beyotch had tied up her poor dog right where it was getting hit by the freezing wind and the poor thing was shivering, whimpering and crying while she was inside getting her immense rear fed - I felt so sorry for that dog! Sometimes you *should* leave them in the car, with the window down. And an 8 degree C day with a biting wind is one of those times, providing you park the car so that the wind isn’t going right inside the car.

Our drive back was lovely and we arrived home to find the kitties were fairly happy as we’d managed to leave the heater on. That is especially hilarious in light of the fact that we’d unplugged every other appliance from the wall. Yes, the TV’s computers etc were unplugged in case something went wrong, but we left the heater plugged in and switched on.

We have another meet in one month, this one closer to Sydney. So if you’re a Sydney blogger and you’re reading this and would like to go to a meet, let me know.

I’m counting down the minutes until this weekend because we’re going to Sydney for a little bit of a shopping spree at IKEA and a couple of days break.

If you have never been to IKEA I am terribly sorry to hear that. My condolences. I don’t get to go very often but the memories keep me going until the next time I can get there.

What is it that I love about IKEA?

The Swedish names for things. None of which I can pronounce but it is so much fun to mis-pronounce them.

The temporal vortex created by so much mind blowing stuff all in one place at once.

The fact that a little money goes a long way there.

The beauty they put into in every day objects.

What’s on the shopping list for this trip?

A vegetable strainer (this one probably)
A candle snuffer (I have always wanted one and the other half says no but this time he can’t! I think this one might do the trick)
A new mixing bowl (I have my eye on this one but I might get these as well, they were out of stock last time.)

But IKEA is not the only thing we are doing. We’re still not sure exactly what we are doing yet but probably a visit to the Lone Star steakhouse will be on the list of things to do. If the weather is bad Sydney Aquarium will probably be one of the stops - they’re open till 10pm, wow! From my last trip to Darling Harbor, comfort is the number one important thing when it comes to shoes, this I have learned. We might visit Chinatown or the busy city shopping mall. We might end up at the Imax theatre. The forecast is for showers, so inside is looking like the go.

Whatever we end up doing, I’m not going to leave you guys in the dark. With the help of Sephy photographs from my mobile phone will be coming to you as a surprise.

The next couple of days will be pretty busy with getting ready, so apologies if I’m not dropping by places. I am still reading you with google reader though.

Other IKEA related posts -

Am I obsessed with Ikea?
You’ll never guess where I’ve been.