Back in Brisbane

This morning we woke up with the damn crows at 5am - not happy! Ross got up but I put my eye covers back on and tried my hardest to sleep some more - not very succesfully. I got up about 7.30 and we had breakfast with the family.

Ross and I headed out to meet with our financial planner at 9. About an hour later we walked out with an update on our finances. Thank god the market is making a bit of a recovery!

We headed back to Ann's place, watched the last of the test match, had some lunch and then headed up the north coast again to see Ross' mate Matty and his wife Charlene. We hadn't seen them for a couple of years and their three girls, Sophie, Ella and Mollie had grown so much. We spent the afternoon catching up and talking about old times.

We drove back to John's place about 4.30 and spent the evening chatting, watching TV, playing Wii and eating Thai before heading to bed.

Last day in the Hinterland

We tried to sleep in this morning but nature conspired against us. Ross headed out to the hammock while I tried to get a bit more sleep. Once I finally surfaced, we showered and got organized to leave the resort.

We headed into Montville again and this time we had breakfast at a cafe next to the bakery. It definitely didn't match up to yesterday's brekky! From there we headed out and left the hinterland behind us. Once back down on the flat we thought we might stop into Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. As we drove close, we could see the traffic was nuts so we decided to drive on. A good decision considering the traffic was backed up for 5 kilometers coming the other way and all of them were going to the zoo!

Instead we turned off and went to the Mt Beerburrum lookout. We thought it would be good to have a walk so we headed out of the car. We read the board which said the walk was 700m to the top and steep. We were suprised it said 1.5 hr return journey for 700m - we should have known better!

We started up the trail and after about 50m of steep walking we looked at each other and asked if we should continue. How hard could it be? So we kept going. It was honestly the steepest trail I have ever walked up without steps. About 100m into the walk, our calves were killing us so we switched and walked up backwards for a while before our quads hurt too much and we had to switch back.

By this time I was swearing and muttering. I had worked up such a sweat. Each time I thought we were there, the trail simply turned and continued even steeper! But we finally made it and climbed the landing for a fantastic view over the Glasshouse Mountains. We took our time getting our breath back before heading back down which was just as painful as going up!

Once we were back in the airconditioned car, we were glad we had made the effort although I don't think we would have if we had known how hard it was going to be. From there we drove straight back to Ann's place to spend the night there.

We arrived about 12 to find Dad by himself as Ann was at work. Ross' foster brother Dennis and his wife Rhonda arrived not long afterwards. It was nice to catch up with them again as we hadn't seen them for 2 1/2 years since John's wedding. Ann came home from work about 1.30 and we had cold chicken and salad for lunch.

As usual for this time of the year, we continued to watch the cricket. I headed off for a nap in the afternoon and then we headed out to the Runcorn Tavern for dinner. On Tuesdays, they had a deal going - 2 meals for $25 including the salad bar - a bargain. We enjoyed dinner and a couple of bottles of wine while telling traveling stories.

About 9 we headed home and cracked the liquers we had bought for Ann and Dad. Ann broke open the Ferraro Rocher's which didn't last too long. We all headed to bed at 10 after a great night.

The recovery

This morning I got up and considering it was raining, I jumped on the cross-trainer for 25 minutes. It wasn't easy and I had sweated up a storm by the end of it. We had some breakfast and then headed to Chermside Shopping Center to hopefully go and see the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

We walked around for a while and then tried to get tickets but the upcoming shows were sold out. There were seats available at the 3pm show so John, Caz and Hazel headed home and Ross and I stayed to buy the tickets, wander around a bit more among the throng of Boxing Day bargain hunters and ended up in the pub watching the Boxing Day test match.

Just before 3, the rest of the family arrived and we headed upstairs for the movie. It was a packed cinema and the movie was pretty good. It left itself open to plenty of follow-on movies.

Back at home, we had (surprise, surprise) ham and salad for dinner. We played some Wii in the evening before heading to bed about 10 after a lazy Boxing Day.

Christmas Day at the Moore's!

We woke up reasonably early at Ann's place and Dad cooked up bacon, eggs, tomato and hashbrowns for breakfast which we ate with champagne seeing as it was Christmas and all. We just chilled out watching some TV until about 10 when we headed in convoy to John's place for Christmas lunch.

Caz's mum Hazel was there when we arrived along with John and Caz obviously. John played Santa and handed out all the presents. We did pretty well with a heap of stuff for the BBQ for Ross and a two-night getaway from John and Caz for the both of us. John and Caz had bought us all Christmas T-shirts which we all donned in the festive spirit.

After the present giving, we set up camp outside with some hors d'eouvres and some of Caz's mixed berry punch. Kelly and Alvin, John and Caz's tenants from Estonia, came over soon after with a platter of anti-pasta. We sat outside for a while before moving in for the main meal.

Caz had done well with lunch - ham, turkey breasts, salads and other bits and pieces. As always we pulled our crackers and cracked the wine, undid a notch in our belts and settled in for an afternoon of gastronomic overindulgence.

After the healthy lunch, out came the desserts. Brandy and macadamia Christmas pudding with custard, Ann's trifle, rum balls and apricot balls and of course the homemade Baileys. Needless to say we were stuffed by the end of it.

I took up my position on the couch for the afternoon and everyone else found suitable places to lounge. Dad and Ann headed home reasonably early and by about 4, everyone had left except for John, Caz, Hazel, Ross and I. I can't say any of us moved too much in the afternoon.

Ross and I felt obliged to get off our butts and go for a walk just before sunset. We walked for ages and it was great because we had been so full. Believe it or not, we were ready for food again in the evening. Plenty of meat and salad was left along with the desserts that we made the most of again. I think we all headed to bed pretty early full as very full things.

Christmas Eve

This morning, Caz and I went for a walk down to the shops while the boys got busy building a garden shed. The walk was pretty good with some good hills to get the heart rate up but nothing too strenuous. Once we got to the shops, we stopped and had a coffee at Zarraffa's before walking back. The hills on the way back were a bit tougher but it was still good.

By the time we got home, the boys had done well on the shed getting everything except the roof put on. About 11, the boys called it quits for the day.

In the afternoon, Ross and I drove over to Ann's place to spend the night with her and Dad. Ann cooked up corned beef for dinner and then we went for a walk around the suburbs to see the Christmas lights. A few houses had gone all out but on the whole the showing was pretty poor.

Back at Ann's place we had a rum ball and tasted the homemade Bailey's even though they were meant for Christmas day we snuck some anyway. We all headed to bed pretty early.

John's 38th Birthday!

This morning, Ross and I headed into the city to visit a Chinese medicine practitioner, David McCleoud. He prescribed me some herbal medicine that I could take in tablet form and I also had half an hour of acupuncture. The acupunture was incredibly relaxing even though I had a needle in my left ear, the top of my head, both hands, both feet and my tummy.

While I was having my acupuncture session, Ross chatted with David who prescribed some things for him too. We walked out an hour later with a big bag of medicines.

Back at John's place, we had some breakfast and about 12, we drove into Southbank to meet up with Ann and Dad at the Ship Inn for lunch. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside enjoying watching the people walk past whilst sipping our drinks. We had lunch and chatted for a while before Dad and Ann headed off to catch the train home again.

Shortly after, Dee arrived. She had just flown in from Melbourne and was spending the night in Brisbane before heading off to Wellington for Christmas Day. Unfortunately, all this travel was for work :-(.

We walked to the Pump Hotel and found a spot on the balcony upstairs to continue having a drink or two. After finding out that they didn't serve food, we moved on and ended up driving to another spot on the other side of the river. We found a great spot at one of the restaurants/ bars with open air seating. The place was packed with after work drinkers celebrating their last day or two of work.

We sat there and drank two bottles of wine between us and had some snacks while watching the sunset and the lights come on on the Story Bridge. It was really nice.

About 8, we were all pretty shattered so we dropped Dee back to her hotel and headed home. We sat up for a bit before all of us head to bed full of too much alcohol and crap food.

Heading up to Brisbane

This morning Ross and I set the alarm for 7 and got up to go for a walk. We walked for about 50 minutes along the coast, up hills and back again. It was beautiful this morning and heaps of people were out and about. It was a great walk and we ended up back at the apartment around 8.30 to find John and Caz having breakfast on the balcony. We had some breakfast with them before packing up our stuff and checking out of the apartment.

Caz drove us up to Pacific Fair where we stopped for coffee and and some food. Caz and I wandered around the shops for about an hour before meeting up with the boys again about 12. I did some last minute Christmas shopping before we headed back to the car.

We drove back up to Brisbane and stopped off at Ann's place. She pulled in the driveway 3 seconds before we did! We had some lunch with her and Dad and caught up on the latest news. Ross and I hadn't been to Brisbane since 2007 so it was nice to see all the work that Ann had done on the house. The new kitchen that Dad helped her with looked great and they were working on the laundry the day we arrived.

In the afternoon we went to an electrical store to sort out one of the Christmas presents before leaving Dad and Ann to drive to John and Caz's place. This was the first time that we seen their place and the renovations. They have put so much work into the house and it is looking really good.

We spent the night watching Inglourious Basterds after Caz cooked a yum meal of turkey steaks with cous cous and carrots. We stayed up for a while longer before heading to bed. Zeus the 3-legged cat decided to spend the night in our room but about 2.30am I kicked him out as he was licking Ross on the head and being a general nuisance :-).