Blogs from Bulimba, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Hi everyone Well, were off on our next adventure and this time its Japan. What a way to escape the Christmas heat! For this trip I am being outfitted by the Cassandra Faulkner Boutique at Annerley. Cass has loaned me a jacket, gloves, hat and shoes. I would be a lot poorer and colder without Cass’ generosity. Thank you my dear!! Our itinerary which was organised by our very dear friend Maureen includes Osaka, Kyoto and Gotemba in the foothills of Mt Fuji. We are flying via Jetstar so no fancy meals or glasses of wine. Not such a bad things as we over indulged at Christmas with Tony, Desley and Mam yesterday. First stop is overnight in Osaka but we won’t see much because we go to Kyoto the next morning. Kyoto was formerly the ... read more

So, we haven't had the opportunity to post for a few days, so we've a bit of catching up to do. First off, our final two days in Byron Bay were quite fulfilling. On the first night a fellow approached us and sold us on a surf lesson for the following day. It's Australia, we couldn't really pass up a chance to learn how to surf. Only $35 for a 4-hour lesson, which is about $25 cheaper than anywhere else we could find, so it was well worth the money. The instructor took us and two other couples, from Britain and from Germany (very nice people), to a little-known surf spot. We spent the morning being pushed into the paths of waves, and believe it or not, we were not too bad at it. Kris was ... read more

I have discovered that I suck at driving on the left. I know that not much is really that different, everything is just opposite, but I'm just really bad at it. Everything, from shifting left handed to just backing up has been a scary experience. Besides a near head-on collision because I was driving on the wrong side of the road, I haven't had any other severe mishaps, but the rental car definitely took the brunt of my inability to be an ambidextrous driver.......until this week, I had completely forgotten what a burnt clutch smells like. Anyways, Christmas came and went, and you would have hardly been able to tell here in Brisbane. Of the last 6 prior Christmas's that I've had abroad, 2 have been in Hawaii, and 4 in the Caribbean, but this was, ... read more

Only two weeks.......seriously, in 2 weeks I'll be on the plane about to take off......it seems like the time has come around really quickly, despite a year + of planning. For the first time the other day, I actually realised I may just get a teeny-weanie bit homesick....I was chatting to you Tiff, when it dawned on me. I will actually miss my friends, their smiling faces, and our great catch-ups.....and because I will be communicating mainly via email, facebook and my blog, I will miss your voices also....funny the things you get sentimental about :o} As many of you have already heard me say, I can't see myself back in Brisbane after my trip......my plan at the moment is certainly to return, and I have my frinds, house, cat and job to come back to..... ... read more

"ONCE AGAIN INTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS............." If you thought "cruising susan" and "pilate pete" had ceased to have puff and stuff for blogging you would be partly right. "It depends" as lawyers would say. We did stop telling you all about our adventures after our circumnavigation but that did not stop us going to Fiji, Vietnam, Spain, the British Virgin Islands and New Zealand since our last report. When the camera got mislaid after Fiji we lost the blogplot but now we are headed to Burgundy for another nautical (freshwater rather than marine) venture, so we thought it was time to revitalise the travel story. Barging (CS is rather known for that in some circles) is the plan. PP has cousins (lots of cousins) who turn out to be really splendid folk and we decided ... read more