Fishing for fun

Bradley and I wet a line and caught a couple but Eileen made us let them go.

Bradley, Pepper and Grandmar.

Bradley came for a visit and stayed three nights, I hope that he enjoyed his stay as much as we enjoyed his company..... Grandmar can't wait till the Christmas holiday's.... hint hint.

Mistletoebird

Mistletoebird

This little fellow is not all that easy to see, so we were quite happy to catch this shot of this one





More information can be read here
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/finder/display.cfm?id=134

When a Van is a Home......

Eileen has almost finally converted the van into our home and I have to say that it is nice to have some of the memories around.

It is surprising just how comfortable such a confined area can be when it is just the two of us and we are both happy that we chose this lay out with the slide out and head height. The recliners are very comfortable and I find that I can sleep in them just as easily as I did at home.

The table not being in a fixed position allows us to push it up against the front wall while we only need the use of two chairs. We will move it back when we entertain guests...... hint hint.


While the absence of an oven was originally a concern to Eileen, we have found that between the webber BBQ and the Cookwell that we have purchased, we may well save the $800 required to install one.

The Kitchen is fairly well layed out and the fridge is more than adequate for our needs, I have made a couple of moderations to two of the cupboards to give us a little more useable space.

The front loader washing machine is located under the sink next to the entry door and I fear that I may have to do some modifications to the plumbing as it is fitted into the galley gray tank and we occasionally get a bit of odour from the vent.

The Dining and Entertaining area could not be better and there is ample storage for those things that we seem to need like, DVD's, Books, Cameras, Alcohol and Puppies toys and tid bits.

We had a little difficulty with the DVD player and to their credit PlayMore sent us another DVD player which I had wired in to the back of the Jensen and we have since found that we can play some DVD's on the old one (different regions).

The Jensen has speakers outside in the Annexe area so we can listen to music while relaxing in the cool in the evenings.

Rainy, rainy nights.....

After four nights of reasonably heavy rain we were baptised into wet weather living in the van and must say that we found it more acceptable than we had expected. The sound of rain on the roof was strangely quite calming.

The grounds around the campsite got rather waterlogged and it was good to eventually see the sun break through the clouds

It was, however, quite nice to get out and have a short drive around to see what the area had to offer. We drove over to Coolangatta and up to Greenmount lookout and captured this wild looking photo looking back to Surfers Paradise.

The seas were fairly choppy and I'm sure the water would have had a cold chill to it, not to mention the gusting winds blowing sand all over the place.

Tweed Heads River Retreat. 12th June 2009

We took delivery of our new home and set up camp at the Tweed Heads River Retreat caravan park situated on the bank of the Terranora Lake.

Talk about steep learning curve for the first week or so as we discovered all of those little things that are required in order to 'set up' that we did not have. It was all fun while we rose to the challenge and I'm sure Bunnings for one were very happy that we decided to make Tweed Heads our new temporary home.

I must say that our first night was very plesant and both Eileen and I slept well in our new bed as did Pepper in her beanbag in the living room which she has made her home. Pepper got us up early and we went for a short walk along the bank of the lake - very peaceful at 7am in the morning and the smell is clean and clear.

In The Beginning......

It is not easy to explain exactly why Eileen and I have taken the path that we now travel, suffice to say that it was a combination of the effects of the World Financial Crisis, job dissatisfaction, high debit levels, health issues, getting older and not having had a great deal of time for 'us'.

It was Eileen who first planted the seed and it took me some time to understand that I was somehow trapped on this invisible tredmill of going to work to pay for all of those 'things' that we now find are mostely superficial and can be easily done without.

Having devoted much of my (and Eileens) time to 'The Business', it was a shock to finally realise that we had only had two actual hollidays over the last 18 years, both at Tangalooma and both thoroughly enjoyed with many promises to each other to 'do this again soon'.

We realise that we are not getting any younger (or healthier) and it did not take long, once we were on the same page, to realise that it was time for us to get out from behind the pressures that we had placed ourselves and have a look at a bit of the Big Paddock that is Australia.

Once we had made the decision to take this route, it was surprising just how quickly things eventuated. We placed the home on the market and sold it at the first open house, we sold (or gave away) all of the 'posessions' that we had accumulated throughout our lives, we closed the business down, cancelled all of our accounts (Phone, Power, Rates, Security, Internet) and paid out all of our debits and then went to the Brisbane Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show and purchased our new residence - a 24' Play More Drifter fifth wheel van with slide out in the living room and a Holden Rodeo Crew Cab 4x4 to tow it with.