Happy Australia Day!

G’day! Yes I’m back in OZ again and consider myself very lucky to be missing out on the UK winter though having said that as I write we are in the middle of a tropical storm here in southern QLD, the worst rain I have ever seen but it’s still warm and it doesn’t require quite so much will power to sit at the computer.

Had to get over jet lag quickly in time to celebrate my gorgeous g’daughter’s 6^th birthday. Her present, her first pets, 2 guinea pigs, she’s seen here holding Rosie.  The guinea pigs cost $20 the cage $200! The party was held at a craft centre, 14 children making lots of messy things they could take home. I’m very happy that when my kids were young we had their parties at home, now a days there’s pressure to come up with a new and original venue every year. (Should I go into kids’ party planning when I get home???)

 Yesterday was my handsome g’son’s 4^th birthday, his present a guitar, he’s hoping to start lessons soon. He had a bowling party; so funny to watch toddlers sending great big bowling balls down the special ramps for kids, they loved it.

Tomorrow is Australia Day & if we haven’t all drowned by then my son is becoming an Australian Citizen (happy he’ll still be British as well!). After the ceremony having a big party to celebrate, only Aussie food & drink allowed.

You can see I’ve been having a very happy family time sadly my poor husband is in Greece trying to get his passport renewed. You will remember from an earlier post that he started trying to renew it in late November. We found out that the Greek Embassy did not send any passport renewals that had been submitted since the beginning of December (350 of them) to Greece until the 16^th January!!! They said they could not afford to send the diplomatic bag. The way they have treated their citizens in UK is just disgusting and all the time the only information they would give was that they would phone when the passport was ready. The only solution was for him to fly to Greece, we are praying he gets it very soon but it is so sad he has missed all these lovely celebrations.

  Before I left home 5 of us met up (4 LWL & a spare!) at The Heath, Dibden Purlieu for a farewell lunch. It’s a good venue for relaxed dining, not wonderful food but it’s very reasonable and nice surroundings!

Not long after I left the others went for a wonderful lunch to  The White Horse in Otterbourne, so wonderful they have given the food 5/5 and a total score of 23/25! (Sorry I missed it!) It’s the 2^nd new venue that has been recently renovated and opened by the local company Ideal Collection mentioned in the previous post. They are to be congratulated; like No 5 Bridge Street in Winchester they have once again got a wonderful team running the White Horse and the décor is gorgeous.

We’ve only been out to eat once since I got here; we went to a Hog’s Breath Café, they are famous for their 18 hr slow cooked steaks! The steaks are OK but not amazing, quite a fun atmosphere though so worth a try if you ever come down under.

I’ve been very brave and not only stroked the guinea pigs (they look like rats to me) but also a local friendly kookaburra  so really getting into Aussie wild life! We are very near The Currumbin Wild Life Sanctuary where they feed the birds daily so we think that is why many of the birds that land on our balcony are so tame.  Will still not be sea swimming though, the Aussies laugh at my fear (hearing music from Jaws!) but there have been 2 shark attacks since I arrived! Not in this area but still scary.

Before the rain started I was spending my time in the pool, walking on the beach and admiring the views!

Forgive me if these posts are few and far between until I get back to UK. The other 3 are out there eating on your behalf and new reviews will be appearing on the site so no worries!

Would love to hear your eating out experiences  and Guest Book entries are always very welcome!

CJ X