11 July, 2011

Hi Everyone!

This is my first attempt at blogging so if there’s any mistakes, I apologise now!!

My mate Val picked me up from the airport when I finally got to Brisbane – 1 day and 1 hour later than scheduled but that’s a whole different story and to be honest I was so p…ed off you wouldn’t want to know!!!  Life got a whole lot better when we went shopping – before we even got to Val’s place!!   I bought the first of my ‘little bits and pieces’ for Ella!!   Loved it!!

Sunday I met up with Gordon at the Apartment on Bribie Island.  Bribie Island is about 1 ½ hours north of Brisbane with a total population of 16,000 (as at the last census).  The Apartment is better than I thought it was going to be.  We booked it on the internet and I have a fundamental mistrust of the internet and things I don’t understand!!   But it’s all good – another needless worry!!

 

This is the Apartment Block and we

have the 3 levels on the right side of

the building starting with the garage,

 1^st floor living and 2^nd floor

 bedrooms and bathroom.   I’m hoping

 going up and down the stairs a

hundred times a day will help enhance

my figure!!  

And this is the view from the

lounge on the first level  …

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of people around at the moment so a stroll on the beach usually only involves a couple of ‘Good Mornings’ to others also enjoying the beach, otherwise it’s beach for miles ...    You can swim here but it’s a bit cold for me!!

We’re in Woorim which is on the seaward side of the island and we look out onto Moreton Bay and Moreton Island.  Bribie Island has 4 main parts – Banksia Beach (a bit more upmarket, ie newer);  Bellara;  Bongaree (the original settlement when people had to boat across before the Bridge was built in 1963); and Woorim, where we are, which is 7km’s from the Bridge and the end of the road when it comes to Bribie Island!!  There’s a lot of older people on the Island and a number of Retirement Villages on offer.  It was interesting to see houses being advertised in ‘villages’ for the ‘Over 50’s (I remember when it for the ‘Over 60’s!!) in the local Bribie Island Weekly Newspaper – it’s a scary thought knowing that’s me now!!!   Bribie Island is the only Island in Australia that has a bridge connecting it to the mainland (or so it says in the Brochures!).  The nearest big town is Caboolture (32km’s from Woorim) but there’s everything we need on the Island with small shops in each area and the ‘Bribie Island Shopping Complex’ just over the bridge from the mainland.  There’s a huge shop in this complex that you can see from the main road called “Chicken Feed”.  I thought it was a takeaway cooked chicken joint (quietly wondering to myself that it was a bloody big shop and they must sell a heck of a lot of cooked chicken(!) and unbeknown to me Gordon was thinking it was a store that sold Chook Food (wondering how they could sell enough to keep afloat!!).  Turns out it’s a super cheap store that sells everything – a bit like the “That’s Incredible” shops in New Zealand!!   Yes, well!!

I’m getting used to the time changes – my time clock gets all confused with daylight saving let alone the 2 hour time change here!!   The sun keeps shining, it’s relaxing to the max and I’m sure my old heart is going to improve while I’m here …