Six Months

It has been six months since we packed up and moved north!

So what have we learned from our experience so far? Here are my top ten things to consider when packing up and moving interstate...

1. Rent before you buy. If you must buy then...
2. Fly up and do a full inspection in the week prior to settlement and detail all things that require attention prior to settlement.
3. Don't plan to move until at least a week after settlement, give some time for the little things like contract settlements to get done properly!
4. Pay a little extra for a quality, specialist lawyer/conveyancer, if issues arise it will save you in the long run!
5. Don't sweat about your kids settling in, they adapt quicker than you could ever imagine.
6. Make the effort to keep in touch with friends and family, social media and blogs help no end!
7. Make the effort to meet and socialise with your neighbours, kids friends parents and work associates, it is a great way to meet new friends and like minded people.
8. Get out and explore your new surrounds, see the sights and take it all in.
9. Thoroughly check out where you want to live and why, we did and we are enjoying the results.
10. Do it you won't regret it.

We got a little more work done in the back yard on the weekend, we stacked another 500kg of rock into our gabion wall, it is now near enough to complete.

I had a call from a friend in Ballarat through the week, they wanted to make a purchase on eBay and asked if I could do a pick up. I was more than happy to go and collect the item, especially given its sheer size and weight would more than likely mean the would be visiting to collect it at a later date!

Any way Charlie was quite interested in it as you would expect...

The girls took a swim this week, the locals think we are mad, but the water temp is not too cold and the air temp of around 22 deg C is warm enough for the Pullenvale Penguins to get wet! In fact it was warm enough to coax Karren into the pool on Sunday, she jumped in then straight out - happy enough to say she had been in.

I have started the long process of educating the girls on how to perfect pool shenanigans. Starting off slowly with the basics e.g. The pin drop, the bomb, the sit, banana or horsie, back spray and so on. Rosie and Emily have progressed well and got the basics all most locked away, both are struggling with some of the more difficult manoeuvres. At the moment the banana is proving to be the most problematic, any efforts to attempt the banana are resulting in landings more reminiscent of belly flops. Still practice make perfect.

North Stradbroke - Queens Birthday Weekend.

We have just returned home from a magnificent weekend on North Stradbroke Island. It is a great spot!

Map of Nth. Stradbroke Island

Our friends Barb and Tim kindly asked us over to join them at their shack for the weekend and we had a ball!

We had to book a return ferry ride, yes it's best to book to avoid disappointment if the ferries are full when you arrive, which is quite likely on busy weekends! There are two ferries, the Moongalba and the Big Red Cat, we used both, the Cat had a cafe and carried many more cars and was determined by the girls to be the better option!

The trip to Nth Stradbroke 

Hilux on the Moongalba

When we arrived on Stradbroke we were immediately breath tested, along with every other car on the ferry, just as well we weren't on the Cat with it's licensed cafe. We then headed to Barb and Tim's shack at Point Lookout. The shack was very well set up, perfect for weekends away and obviously big enough for two families. It was a superb location, right next to the Bowls club meaning cheap beers and a counter meal were only metres away!

We headed over to Amity to do a little fishing, hoping to also see some dolphins and we weren't disappointed! We headed up along the beach, the Hilux had its first taste of sand driving ( I will give it a thorough clean to try to get all the salt and sand off it ). A permit is required to drive on the beaches on Nth. Stradbroke. We dropped the pressure in the tyres to about 18psi and away we went. It is amazing how many people refuse to reduce air pressure in their tyres.

The beach drive to Amity

The jetty at Amity was busy with people who were quietly going about their pastime, hoping to catch a feed, and quite a few were putting anything caught into the buckets regardless of size, it seems as though bag limits and size restrictions mean nothing to some people.

It was peaceful and quiet until some young lad arrived and then spent the next two hours annoying all and sundry by loudly espousing his expertise in everything from catching Snapper (they were actually Bream) to feeding dolphins, cooking and identifying rare and obscure fish species. I am disappointed I didn't get to pick his brains on the Middle East, politics and the stock market. The highlight for me though was when he claimed he knew the name of a colourfully striped little fish that was caught on the jetty, after shouting to all and sundry he knew exactly what is was, he proudly and completely ignorantly proclaimed it a reef fish, yes a reef fish. Brilliant stuff.

Just on dusk a dolphin and her young offspring then started swimming about looking for a cheap feed. Tim encouraged the larger dolphin to come in close enough to be hand fed, all the girls got to hand feed the gentle creature. Rosie summed it up by telling us that this was a better day than her birthday, in fact better than all her birthdays put together, in fact the best day EVER! After watching Tim and the girls feed the dolphins the young and loud teen then set about telling all and sundry how to hand feed dolphins, his knowledge knows no bounds and he was only too willing to share it with anyone in earshot. 

Dolphin Feeding

We headed back to Point Lookout for a feed at the bowls club and along the way we came upon another wriggly stick. The small python was warming itself on the road and would not be moved, hopefully it survived all the traffic before it decided it was warm enough to move on. In the photo it looks as though it is moving, but alas it would not budge, camera flashes, a small tail touch and excited girl squeals could not encourage it to move along

Carpet Python

We had a nice meal at the bowls club, played a little Keno and lost a little on Keno, we then headed back to the shack and had a few quiet drinks.

We got up bright and early Sunday and went down to the beach to build some sand sculptures, a mermaid was high on the list of things to make out of sand so with some help from Karren the mermaid was formed.

Lovely Mermaid Sculpture

We headed up to the SLSC at Point Lookout and were amazed by the weather lashing the eastern side of Stradbroke. The sign at the beach said it all!

Ominous Sign (click for bigger image) 

Point Lookout 

Pretty Heavy Seas

A photo from the sheltered side of the headland, taken only minutes after the one above.

We did a little more beach driving to finish off a busy two days of fun and adventure.

The trip home saw us on the Big Red Cat, a much bigger and better equipped ferry than the Moongalba.

Busy ferry ride home

Bye Bye Straddie

We had a brilliant weekend, thanks to Barb and Tim for inviting us across, we had a ripper time and can't wait to do it again. Even better, when we got home we were relieved to see Charlie hadn't burnt the house down while we were away.