So, the rain decided to give us a miss today. The sky was blue, the temperature up at about the 28 mark and not even a sniff of rain. At last. Fantastic.
Mum managed to dry her 24 loads of washing without any problem at all. I had two swims – the first with two very well behaved children and the second with some noisy Americans – and a lovely walk by the canal.
A lot of people had managed to squelch themselves out of their homes and were gallivanting around the park down by Double Bay beach. I even spotted a wedding going on near the cafe. Talk about lucky! One day earlier, the bride would be wearing a wetsuit. And they don’t look that good in white.
This morning we went into Caloundra again so we could change the slowly deflating airbed I’ve been sleeping on for one that remains inflated. It’s very odd on a queen size airbed because the two sides lift up as the air goes from the middle and you end up cocooned. There was no problem exchanging it. In fact, it must happen a lot because the girl on the check-out seemed to be expecting it.
Mum then drove off looking for photographs while I went to Sanity to buy our Christmas presents from mum & dad (a load of DVDs). After buying the shop out, I wandered over to the Coffee Club to wait for mum. She, meanwhile, had pulled into the car-park (it’s a very big, spread out car-park) and, coincidentally parked next to Trace.
Mum then went into K-Mart and texted Trace to see where she was. ‘In K-Mart’ came the reply. And there she was. So they both did whatever they had to do then came and joined me for a coffee. A lovely surprise.
Back at home (which is a duplex rather than an apartment!) we unpacked the shopping (including a few thousand Cherry Ripes for Dawn) then realised the Internet was finally on!
It took me a while, but I updated my blog and blips and FB, read and discarded most of my 300+ emails and downloaded The Archers episodes I’d missed. Mum went through her emails as well, getting rid of lots of rubbish. It always happens.
Because the sun was out, I managed to get some nice shots around mum & dad’s little community. Here’s one of the roads that leads to their place.
The road to mum & dad's
And here’s one of the canal just across the road. Down a few streets and through a small alley.
The canal separating Kawana Island from the rest of Queensland
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In the meanwhilst, Mirinda had to say goodbye to her mum as she left for Singapore this afternoon. In her words, she was ‘utterly miserable’. Completely understandable. She has been with Claire (and Bob, of course) for over two months now so it’s obviously going to be a wrench. For all of them. I hope she has a good time in Singapore over New Years.
And my best wishes to Claire (I’m assuming Bob will be reading this to her) and I hope the damned trachy is gone soon!
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In other medical news…dad is slowly getting stronger. The length of the hallway means he gets the equivalent exercise of an iron-man every time he moves from the bedroom to the lounge. We’ll get him on a surf board very, very soon.
He came for a ride with us in the car yesterday which was a big step.
So happy the rain has stopped I hope it stays away now for awhile! The news here said that it was already costing a billion $’s in damages that Australia has ran up through the rains! Exciting news about Fred getting slowly better. And we send good wishes for Mirinda’s family and a safe trip to Singapore! The photos of Josie and Fred’s new abode are lovely and I can see she will enjoy great walks around her home!
Well happy new year Gary to you and yours. Thanks for the fine reading Nefu! Love Jan, Dan, Idonarose and Arthur. (hugs)