A "Lovers" weekend in broadbeach

After a long walk on the beach and a short dip in the pool, is there anything sweeter than a beer and a Cuban cigar on the balcony?



Saturday night dinner at Mama Roma's in Broadbeach...yummmm.
The food was great and the company was hot!




Weiss bier, Aussie Wine and a couple of coolers from Dan Murphy's and we are all set for the weekend.

Getting our weekend supplies at Dan Murphy's in Mermaid Waters! If Dan doesn't have the beer, spirit or wine that you are looking for at the best price in town; then it does not exist!

Look at the satisfied smile on the customer's face! He has a basket full of his favorite Hefe Weiss bier, namely Weinhenstephaner! Yessir, he cant get that one in Canada!!!

Kite boarders on the Gold Coast. Love to see them flip, flop and fly!

Do these thongs make my butt look big?

Zoe and Jessica in Oz

My sister in law, Zoe and her daughter, (my niece) Jessica arrived in the GoldCoast at Coolangatta Airport on Sunday February 7th in the afternoon on Jet Star. As Murphy's law dictates, the 45 minute flight arrived one hour late! No worries!

At least, by the time they arrived, the sun finally came back out after quite a few days of rain because of the King Tides. The weather mate was finally forecasting a gradual clearing over the next few days. WoooooHoooooo!



So, we got to spend some time on the beach, where Jessica tried her hand at boogie boarding announcing that she would be spectacular at it !

Jessica finally concluded that boogie boarding is not as easy as it looks and that Ocean water is mighty salty!




We also spent some quality time at the pool, which we had to ourselves a lot of time!





I never realised how much that "Calgary girl" of a sister in law of mine loooooooooooooooooooooooves water!
Zoe can swim and float; now that's impressive to me as to my knowledge, none of the Winkler clan (including me!) can float to save our lives! We are buoyancy challenged... must be our heavy big bones!








We took a trek to Surfers Paradise one afternoon and enjoyed a day at the Spa!








...but I think that the highlight for Jess was our day at Currumbin Sanctuary. Every animal there that could be fed, held, hugged or otherwise loved was granted an audience with Jessica...she stopped short at the salt water crocodile as he just did not look like he was in a very loving mood!

What looks like a green field in back of ladies is actually a billabong (stagnant lake attached to a waterway), where the crocodiles enjoy hiding out. Salt water crocs can hold their breath under water for as long as three hours, and are the fastest moving reptiles so one toe stuck into that water can make you lunch!

A baby crocodile that has succumbed to Jessica's charms!

This lizard, lizard stalked out through the park all day! Sometimes he was in disguise, but we recognised him!

A Red Tree Kangaroo!

Zoe and Gabriele caught on film!

There is our stalking lizard lizard again!

Jessica snake girl of the wild, wild east!

Oh man, said the Koala bear, I'm so tired!

Jessica feeding a Roo!

As the girls slept with the window open at night, they heard strange noises in the trees outside their room. We started watching the next sundown and soon realised the tree was the local night time hang out for the Black Flying Fox bats. Firstly, they are very big, with a wide wing span...they cannot see, so they emit a type of squeaking sound to locate a tree to not so much land on a branch as fall into the foliage! Once a branch is found, they hang upside down in the tree until they feel danger approaching! They are so cool!

A visitor at Britannia Avenue

Back to Cav's Steak House with Jean Paul!

Jean Paul is a longtime friend of Regent's from Rosemere, Quebec. He was in Thailand for a couple of weeks at the end of January and decided to drop in

on us in Australia on his way back to Canada as he was in the neighborhood (just an 8 hour plane ride away!). J-P worked on a project in Thailand for a couple of years and lived among the population in an apartment and shopped locally, etc...and now can actually speak their language with a short language course and a lot of practice ! Appears that in the Thai language, a single word can be used for perhaps 5 different meanings and only the "intonation" is changed to completely change the meaning of the word!

Could lead to some comical and/or embarrassing situations!

So, I figure that if J-P can learn the Thai language (which does not resemble any language that we speak in any way shape or form!)that then Regent could easily supplement his limited knowledge of German since he will be spending every waking (and sleeping!) hour with his teacher!

Unfortunately, it rained here the whole time J-P was here...it is the rain season! So Saturday night, we decided to introduce J-P to our new crush in Labrador...Cav's steak house! It was great fun and yummy all around!

Regent's Birthday

Cav's Butchery and Steakhouse in Labrador

On the occasion of Regent's birthday on Saturday January 30Th, we decided to try this Steakhouse in Labrador (still on the Gold Coast about 20 minutes from our place by car) called Cav's for Richard Cavill the owner.

He is the great-grandson of James Freeman Cavill, an early pioneer of the Gold Coast. In the 1920s he won fame and fortune by becoming one of the first to swim the English Channel. In 1925, Jim opened a hotel in Elston and named it the Surfers Paradise Hotel as it was near a fine surfing beach. In 1933, Jim and a group of activists had the name of the town of Elston changed to Surfers Paradise and the rest you could say is history!

The first picture is from the 1920's, Jim's Surfer's paradise hotel and the second picture is the modern day restaurant that we visited on Saturday. The Butchery is in a building right next door to the restaurant.

After you are shown your seat, you are given a menu. Once your choice is made, you go up to the front of the restaurant, where all the uncooked meats are showcased in a refrigerated counter that allows you to point out a steak of your choosing that you will be eating, as well as how you like it...and you better not say "well done"!

It was a lovely dinner in good company, in a great atmosphere and it marks the annual close of the "tease the spouse season". I can no longer be accused of being a cradle robber, a cougar or witness Regent asking the guy at the Pizza Hut if I can have the senior discount ... as my dear husband has now caught up to me! God bless him; does he not know that 55 is the new 30!

Regent's sister, Rolande, also celebrated an anniversary two days before on the 28Th January which we toasted richly in her Honor!

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the Sun;

And find your shoulder to light on;

To bring you luck, happiness and riches;

Today, tomorrow and beyond! An Irish Blessing

Australia Day

Australia Day - 26 January

This is the date Australians celebrate the anniversary of the landing of the first fleet at Port Jackson in New South Wales in 1788, a date popularly considered to be Australia's birthday. All around the nation, local councils and authorities mount concerts and firework displays to help celebrations get under way with a bang. Fireworks are considered a centrepiece of the occasion ... as everyone needs an occasion to let off some rocket!

This year, the 26th fell on a Tuesday (also the last day of the school children's summer vacation). In order to attempt to curtail the whole nation from "chucking a sicky" (refer to Aussie colloquialisms back in a September post) since last week there have been numerous public announcements advising that calling in sick on the Monday or the Wednesday when one is not sick and scheduled to work would be considered very un-Australian indeed!
Judging from the crowds on the beach on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, I would say that frolicking on the beach with a huskie (cooler full of beer) buried in the sand, was very Australian indeed!

On this highly auspicious occasion, here are just 10 things that I love about Australia:

1. The 22 million Australians!
2. The weather! Weather it's good or bad, it's never boring!
3. The way everyone greets you with "how ya going mate!" and actually listen for a reply!
4. Nature, it's in your face!
5. The cost of magazines! Double the price of the rags back home, which finally managed to cure my addiction to newsprint, especially that the American mags come out one month later here!
6. The way politicians do not get away with anything that they say or do here. Now the stores plan to ban politicians from malls during elections campaigns...referred to as Pollie-free zones!
7. The beaches and the lifeguards. I know, I've mentioned the lifeguards before, but they do an excellent job, I cannot stress that enough!
8. The formally thunderous young iron men (sport wise, not iron workers) who are now dads...I see them on the beach teaching their boys and girls to surf on their boogie boards. Very nice!
9. The Aussie wine and Amber fluid (beer)! I'll drink to that!
10. The way Aussies shorten everything! i.e. : Brissie (for Brisbane), Ute (for Utility Vehicle- I know the word "truck" would be just as short, but not the same...), Aussie (for Australian), Pollie (for Politician), you get the picture!... You gotta lov' em!

...Crikey! I almost forgot, the Breeze radio station @ 100.60 FM as their key catch phrase is: "We play the music other stations have forgotten existed!" ... and it's true, all those great 70s and 80s tunes that never get played anymore! We have it on all the time and are constantly saying "I haven't heard that one in years!

Sunday morning at the fair

This weekend we went to the Jupiters Casino (a hop and a skip across the Gold Coast highway from our place) to the Rotary Antiques Fair including Gold Coast Cars & Book Fair.

I noticed the car fair portion re-ignited my husband's love of ownership of a vintage cars ... as I believe that he has since been "surfing the net" looking for a prize to perhaps own again...hard to fight off what we really love even by arguing the practical side of the passion! ... one just cannot be practical all the time. He just sold his 2 vintage vehicles with no outward sign of "seller's" remorse, but now ...well, time should tell.

As for me, there was no hiding my joy at the sight of old books, maps, furniture, dishes, keys, pictures...one vendor offered to sell a whole set of "antique" relatives for which I could make up any type of family history that my imagination could wish to invent! I passed, because truth be told, fact is far more amazing than fiction, especially when it comes to relatives!

I did however manage to find a few treasures that I just could not resist:

• 2 sets of antique keys ( a gift from my favorite husband, that he gallantly attempted to barter, however his bartering technique just does not appear to have a positive effect here...it's not the first time! (the radio episode still being tender in our memories!).
• Some lady linen hankies, just because they are nicely embroidered and because nobody carries them anymore. A piece of ancient history! It did remind me that when I was young, I loved watching my dad get ready for work. I recall that the last the would do was to take out a fresh linen handkerchief from his drawer and before putting it in his pocket, he would always put a drop of mom's perfume on it . I remember finding that very romantic at 10 years old and still find it so romantic at over 21!
• An antique hat pin just 'cause it's cool.
• A birthday postcard with an inscription to Pete from his cousin Winnie in the back dated 1923.

And last but certainly not least, a British edition of a Winnie the Pooh book of verses (poems)- not an antique book per say, but a British edition that we could not find in Canada, for our dear little Lily who's first look on the world will be a bedroom decorated in the world of Pooh!

"Sometimes, said Pooh, the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts!".

My Forrest Gump moment on Broadbeach

The Na'Vis from Pandora were found hanging out on Broadbeach Saturday morning! A well deserved R and R after the success of their latest venture! I am not aware of how the film Avatar is doing elsewere, but here in OZ it's a great success!!!
Hanging with my peeps On Broadbeach!