December 23rd 2009 until today, January 5th 2010

Surfers at Byron Bay


Regent's favorite Kangaroo Scrotum "pusher's" stall in the market in Brisbane ...

Regent bought a few more to be able to offer as gifts...





The Lighthouse in Byron Bay

The rolling hills in Byron Bay

Regent and Gabriele at Byron Bay...

we walked them thar hills in Byron Bay!

Regent and Dirk working on their tans in the pool on ...ummm, let me think ? Of course, on Christmas day!

Regent and Gabriele showing their colors on the beach on Christmas day.

Notice that I am wearing sunglasses!

My handsome favorite husband at the cliffs off Byron bay.

Regent and Gabriele at the ends of the earth...The Eastest end of Australia!

A nice steak dinner in Brisbane at the end of a day of shopping with Dirk and Monika.

Do I hear "Charge it!".

Dinner in Broadbeach at our favorite Thai restaurant on December 26th.

On December 23rd, our guest arrived from Germany, Dirk and Monika ... well actually they arrived via Singapore as they had left Germany in a manic snow storm two days before arriving in Brisbane and spent a day and a half in Singapore.

We drove to the airport in Brisbane at midnight to pick them up and the rain started while we were driving on the ramp to the Arrivals pick-up area. By the time we got them all settled in the car, the rain was pounding like it always does in this sub-tropical climate...it is always a very serious affair for about 7 minutes until the sun comes back out. Regent joked that they had brought the rain over from Singapore as it never, ever rains in Queensland ! Hummm, Famous last words.

The next morning, we got up late and it was raining again (or still...) and so it went with showers and thunderstorms throughout the entire festive season and until our guests left on January 1st 2010! We will never, ever again claim that it never, ever rains here! Because as we later found out, it always rains here in the summer time and only more so during Christmas holidays. But Aussies are minded for that and are not deterred from their usual favorite outdoor activities, such as the people in the building next door to us who were enjoying their time in the hot-tub under an umbrella (I'm not quite sure how safe that was...).

With Dirk and Monika over the wet week, we went to visit Surfers Paradise, did some shopping at Pac Fair, drove to Brisbane on the Sunday after Christmas to visit the markets. Although not very many vendors showed up because of the weather, many bargain hunters were out and about in Brisbane. We enjoyed a most wonderful day and a great Steak dinner! We took a day to head out to the north coastal region of New South Wales (NSW), destination Byron Bay. The unspoilt gem of NSW the tourist brochures promise, Australia's most easterly point (we got a shot of the exact place!). This area is home to many who prefer an alternate lifestyle (read hippy lifestyle!) away from the big cities and the rat race and is most appropriately a haven for surfers. We got some great shots of what is to me the Australia of my imaginings: rolling hills, large farmland, animals in the fields, coastal rain forests, crashing surf, etc... Even though we ultimately got caught in a downpour, it was a wonderful day communing with nature...

On New Years Eve, Regent and I walked into Broadbeach after dinner just to see what was going on. In town there is a nightclub called "Howling at the Moon", that has a Neon sign on the top of the building that pictures a wolf howling at the moon (how appropriate!). Out of the neon sign, there were flames jutting out and just as I turned to Regent and asked him "Do you think those flames are usually coming out of the sign?" we hear the fire engines from afar... Now this is what I appreciate about living in a relatively small town...we were all kind of spectators to this huge event and all had a front row seat to it even though the fire crew did set out a safe parameter so that they could do their work. Never a dull moment! By the time they reopened the ice cream place under the nightclub that was able to serve us the ice cream we came for in the first place, it started raining again and so we headed for home, in the pounding rain as it started raining just as the firemen had extinguished the fire!

Once home, the rain continued past 8 p.m., when the first set of fireworks were exploding in Broadbeach, so we watched those from the balcony of our apartment with Dirk and Monika. The second set of fireworks were scheduled for 12:00 on the nose and would be shot from the highest building in Surfers Paradise, as well as in Broadbeach from the beach. We sat around in the apartment and had a few bottles of Wine and Beer making bets on whether or not the New Years fireworks would occur. Well, I guess it should be considered a good omen that the rain stopped at 11:35! So we headed out to the beach at that time with our bottle of Champagne and glasses; the beach was full of revellers! What a wonderful time we had and the light show was spectacular! So Dirk and Monika called their son in New York City (he went there with 5 friends from Germany to experience NYC on New Years Eve!) and their daughter in Prague (she wanted to experience New Years Eve in Prague! )...you gotta give Europeans that, they really love to travel!!!
We called our family and friends in Canada to be the first in the world to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!!