Back to the Future

6 October, 2015

We arrived on time in Brisbane and were met by Wayne and Kay. It was so nice to catch up with our former neighbours again and it was so nice of them to collect us and take us to Willawong to collect the new Calais. I drove the Calais for the first time and within 100 meters I realised I was driving on the wrong side of the road! I either need to get some sleep or get back in to driving on the left side very quickly. We checked in to our Burleigh Heads temporary apartment and that night we headed around the corner to the local Surf Club for a wonderful meal.

Real food at last at the Burleigh Heads Surf Club.

You can’t beat an apartment overlooking the beach at Burleigh. We were having breakfast and looking out on a beautiful Pacific Ocean when we noticed the spray from whales off the beach. There were a pod of whales breaching and tail slapping on their way back south after breeding season. There were a mix of calves and larger whales having a good old time and not a Japanese whaling boat in sight!

8 October, 2015

Lynn was only back for a day then she is off to Melbourne to catch up with her family (niece Kirsty, her husband Anthony and 2 kids Owen (5) and Olivia (9 months), her sister, Jan and bro-in-law, Bill), to see the ‘new’ house purchased 3 years ago and to attend Owen’s Pirate and Hulk-themed birthday party. During this time I was doing settling-in chores like transferring car registration, polishing the car and watching 3 days of Bathurst V8 Supercar racing on TV. Bliss really!

I also had to prepare our tax data for the accountant and start looking for a longer-term rental property on the beach at Burleigh Heads.

Lynn with Olivia in Melbourne.

The Traill home in Essendon.

Kirsty with her masterpiece, schizophrenic birthday cake for Owen’s birthday.

16 October, 2016

Things have been crazy the past week. We managed to sign a lease for the next 6 months on a basic but well-located apartment in Gemini Towers at the south end of Burleigh Beach. We are now driving down to Sydney for the Dural Rural Fire Brigade’s 70th Anniversary party. We are also catching up with Eliza, Matt and Eliza’s future in-laws (Greg and Maree); ‘inspecting’ Matt and Eliza’s new apartment in Lane Cove, as well as catching up with Vanessa for a “breakfast meeting” and the Mahers who were my neighbours back in the 1990s.

17 October, 2015

Dinner with the Dural crew at Billy the Greek’s.

For the weekend of the Dural 70th Anniversary we stayed with the Leas at their very lovely house in the Dural bushland. The last time we saw Bill and Karen together was in May 2011 at the end of our 10-day yacht cruise of the Whitsunday Islands with Susie and Paul from London. On the Saturday night we had a dinner with Kevin (current Dural Captain) and Vikki Ho, Peter and Angela Robinson and Bill and Karen Lea.

18 October, 2015

With a slight hangover next morning I headed down to the Dural Fire shed to assist with preparation for the Anniversary celebrations. I also checked out the new Cat 1 Fire Truck. These trucks are getting bigger each new model!

The latest Dural Fire Trucks at the 70th Anniversary celebration picnic.

Some vintage fire appliances at the 70th.

The RFS Commissioner – Shane Fitzsimmons – doing the 70th plaque presentation.

Dural’s oldest and youngest current members cutting the cake. Al MacIntosh and Rebecca Robinson.

A good time was had by all. After a subdued evening we said our goodbyes to the Leas as we were leaving early in the morning and they were off to work before dawn.

19 October, 2015

Monday morning we headed out just after 7:00 am to drive to Willoughby to meet up with Vanessa for breakfast before she started work. What should have been a 20-minute drive out of peak hour turned into an hour and a half drive but we made it and only a couple of minutes late.

That night we had dinner with the Maher family at Castle Hill. It was great catching up with Garry, Carolyn, Daniel, Joel and Chelsea. The last time I saw these guys was in 2009 and the “kids” have grown up to become lovely young adults and full of fun. We made a pact to catch up again while we are in Queensland.

20 October, 2015

On the road again but this time back to a longer stay. We stopped overnight at Coffs Harbour then a short 4-hour drive to Burleigh Heads. It will be nice to be in one place for at least 6 months.

On the balcony of our Burleigh Heads apartment.

21 October, 2015

It is probably time to finalise this blog. This entry is titled ‘Back to the Future’ as we have returned to Queensland, where we expect to finally settle down and ‘really’ retire sometime in the future and today is also the date that Marty and Doc arrived in ‘Back to the Future II’!!

It has been nearly 23 months since we retired and said goodbye to our friends and families. It was an experience that we will never forget and one that not only fulfilled a number of “bucket list” ambitions but exceeded our expectations of what we envisaged when we first dared dream of being slow tourists.

We will take about 12 months to plan our next “slow tour”. Our next adventure could be Asia, The Pacific, South America, Canada or even New Zealand.

We have made new friends, caught up with old friends and met some very interesting people in some very interesting places. We discovered ourselves and each other, found places to return to and a few to bypass. We regretted nothing but will miss people and places that we may never see again.

Watch out for our next blog in mid December 2016.

Life is to be discovered!

Rob & Lynn (Yogi & BooBoo)

…now, time for a stroll along the beach.

Singapore Sling

1st October, 2015

Our week in Singapore was a rest stop to reduce our jetlag and catch up with friends. Singapore is very smokey at the moment due to large fires burning in Indonesia. The smoke is so bad that there are health warnings for the week and it is recommended that people stay indoors. We did the usual shopping at Mustafa Shopping Center for Lynn to buy some bits and pieces for her Melbourne trip for Owen’s Birthday (Lynn’s great-nephew) and her catch up with her family while I watch the Bathurst Races.

2 October, 2015

Lynn had a lunch date with her friend, Angie, who is the head of Asia Pacific Information and Records Management at Credit-Suisse. That evening we headed out to Satay on the Bay for a great casual dinner with the Miles/Peters family.

Ros at Satay on the Bay, Singapore.

Singapore Bay at night.

Marina Bay Reserve walkway light show.

Impressive light show.

Hunter on my shoulders.

3 October, 2015

Nev, Bill, Hunter and I head out to Funan Technology Centre to check out the latest “boy’s toys” while Lynn, Ros and Megan stayed home with Xavier and Lillah.

I am so frustrated with Lynn’s Samsung Tab 3 and her rubbish Apple iPhone that I bought her the latest Asus Zenbook Fonepad. It has a very fast processor and incorporates a phone in an 8-inch tablet. All this for under A$300.

Nev spent most of the time at the Centre checking out the X-Box racing seat and cage. It looks like he will have to buy it for his own birthday.

We managed to organise to catch up with Daniel and Sunitha Razu whom we met in Egypt last January. We had an excellent dinner at a Malaysian Restaurant. It was great to catch up with them again and talk about the interesting places that they have visited since we last saw them.

Dinner with the Razus.

5 October 2016

After a couple of laid back days with the Miles/Peters we headed out to Changi Airport for a midnight flight back to Brisbane.

We dropped into the Changi Airport Duty Free to pick up some Limoncello for the Vidlers. Since we bought some duty free from DFS we were invited to their lounge bar to try some cocktails for free. Why not? We were in the terminal for a couple of hours so we sampled a couple of Singapore Slings….. Very nice indeed and a befitting farewell to Singapore.

I hate overnight flights from Asia as they are usually late at night and it means that you only get about 4 hours sleep. You know that the next couple of days are going to result in a foggy brain so only a bit of R&R will get the body back on track. We loved our time with Nev, Megan, Lillah, Xavier, Hunter, Bill and Ros and plan to catch up with them all again in Byron Bay in December.

It seems a little sad that our 22-month world travel is coming to a close but an 11-month break by the beach at Burleigh Heads, Queensland, awaits us while we plan the next great adventure.

A 7 day stopover in Singapore

30 September, 2015

After the “milk run” flight from Vienna via Dubai and Colombo it was nice to arrive at Changi airport. The process was easy and getting around Changi airport is very good. Baggage was a little slow which was very unusual for Changi but we collected our bags and went straight to our Emirates chauffeur transfer to the Ramada Hotel.

Jet lag wasn’t too bad but it was nearly midnight by the time we crawled into bed. A little help from a moggy and we slept through until 9:00am and just made the breakfast cutoff time. It was so very nice to have a “proper” breakfast in a hotel. We dawdled to a late check out at midday and took a taxi the 1 km to Nev and Megan’s beautiful (and very large) apartment.

It was so nice to see Nev & Megan, Bill and Ros (Meg’s parents from Byron Bay) and the 3 kids – Lillah, Xavier and Hunter. It has been almost 3 years since we saw the Miles family in Zurich when the youngest (Hunter) was only a few months old.