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Greetings from Sunshine Beach, Noosa! As we were fortunate enough to stay with Brenda’s family in Noosa, we took the liberty of extending our stay from 4-5 days to 9-10 days (obviously after an invite of course), in order to “mind the house" while Brenda's uncle David was away in Sydney and to look after his Rottweiler “Tara”. We arrived on Sunday with mild hangovers due to the Brisbane city nightlife and were kindly greeted by Brenda’s cousin Simon who took us back to B’s uncles' house. We didn’t even have our bags down before a glass of wine and a personal stubbie holder (beer can device that keeps beverages at a nice temperature) were presented to us along with hugs from her cousin Julie and her kids (Ella and Callum). We all sat out on the back deck and chilled for the rest of the evening, taking in the sounds of the gecko’s, koala’s mating, and kuku birds (these are the birds that make sounds like monkeys) in Davids’ backyard…and one can’t forget to mention that this would be the first of many nights that we would be eaten alive by the mosquitoes (honestly what do they have against
us?!)
Then on Monday we hit Sunshine Beach to soak up the rays while Lindsay ventured to the local nudist beach (she claims it was an accident and that she was looking for the national park…but I ain’t buying it...ha). Tuesday night we were invited to a BBQ at Simon and Julie’s house, and were privy to see the ‘almost complete’ bamboo bar they were building in their yard. We all got pretty excited when the shrimp came out and we got to finally “throw a shrimp on the Barbie!.” I have to admit I wasn’t too keen on ripping off the poor wee guys heads, but I soon learned the art of removing head, legs, organs, crust and tail making the shrimp edible. On Wednesday night we were invited to Steven and Kylie’s (more cousins of Brenda’s) house for another BBQ where we were warmly greeted by all of the family including baby Connor and little madam Claudia. We stopped off first at the local surf club for a celebratory champagne in honour of Lindsay’s friend (at home in Scotland) giving birth to a baby girl named Hannah and then made our way over the BBQ to enjoy
I've always wanted to do this!
"Throw a shrimp on da barbie Sheila!" a nite of fine food.
Thursday I hit the beach just off Hastings Street with Brenda and then after her surf lesson we met up with Lindsay to take a stroll and look in the window of all the shops we wished we had cash to spend in …ha. This was also the day that ODB (Old Dirty Brenda) became ODDBB (Old Dirty Deaf & Blind Brenda) due to the random visual spots, and blatant signs the poor ting could no longer see post exiting the water from the beach...ha.
On Friday, we ventured off on the big Australia Zoo bus to the site of the famous Steve Irwins zoo. It was a bit eerie watching all the tapes of his shows, and seeing the memorabilia posted all over the zoo. We were actually fortunate enough to catch his wife Terrie taping an upcoming episode of Animal Planet. To be honest I was a bit surprised how small the zoo was (it was definitely not the Bronx or Dublin zoo!). It mostly housed animals that Steve and his father had captured, i.e Crikey the Crocodiles (two cute/grumpy ones in particular called Acco and Agro), two turtles, three elephants,
Surf club toast to celebrate the birth of Hannah Lily
L-R: Brenda's uncle David, Lindsay, Brenda and myself one camel, koalas, kangaroos, various birds and snakes, two dingo’s, a wombat, a fox, and a cute Tasmanian devil, etc. We were like three kids at the zoo running all over the place getting every picture possible, including one with a big ole python snake (at least I think that’s what kind of snake it was). Later that night we ventured down to the surf club again to meet up with Simon and Julie…Simon is a bad influence and ordered tequila. Need I say more?? I hate the stuff, but nonetheless the peer pressure got to me! Then on Saturday arvo (aka afternoon as the australians like to refer to it as) we hit the Eumundi markets to check out the local goods, i.e. soaps, crafts, lemonade, reggae drummers, etc…ha.
Sunday—the 6th of May! The day that God gave his greatest gift to the world…ME! The three amigos ventured back down to our new local (i.e. the surf club) to meet up with Simon, Julie, Steven and Kylie for some birthday drinks. As Monday was a public holiday and everyone was off the next day the place was jammers, it was absolutely packed. The Malibu umbrellas were out, the
Rip the head off!
"There is seriously something wrong about ripping off a shrimps head, so I just choose not to look...makes it easier!" music was playing, it was perfection. I nearly died of embarrassment though when the lead singer stopped playing and asked for “Susan Roe to please stand up” and continued to mortify me in front of everyone in the club by announcing it was my birthday. He then went on to play “I believe in miracles...Where you from? You sexy thang!” (you know the song I am talking about!!). Before heading back to the house for more drinks we topped off the night at the surf club with a mandatory Sambuca (of which I had to have 2 because Simon was too hung over from the night before to take his like a man!). Then we all came back to the house, cranked the music up on the deck and had some cake. It was really a fun night, and I couldn’t have picked a better spot to be in Australia to celebrate when soo far away from home. P.S.- a big thank you must go out to Eanan for the lovely bunch of orchids that were sent all the way over to Oz for my bday. Also got to speak to Kathleen that day and celebrate our joint birthdays (as
Australia Zoo
"Home of the Crocodile Hunter-Steve Irwin" her’s was on the 5th and due to the time difference between California and Australia we were actually celebrating at the same time), which was pretty cool.
So as you can imagine, Monday was a complete write-off. We were useless, sat around, ate, and watched Oprah. Tuesday we decided to give Tara (Brenda’s uncle’s dog) a bath. I fell in love with Tara, she is the friendliest Rottweiler you will ever meet…such a big baby! We spent most of the day trying to organize ourselves as we got spoilt with the run of the house for the past week. Later that night we popped around to Julie and Simon’s to say goodbye to them and the kids. They really did become like a pseudo family to myself and Lindsay, we thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Noosa and would come back in a heartbeat---though I imagine they are glad to see the back of us…ha…jk
Next stop: Rainbow beach and then on to the magnificant Fraser Island!
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Sam
non-member comment
Oooh!
Oh I loved Noosa! Your so lucky!! I bought my bikini there actually, i loved that bikini........sob :( Sounds like your having a ball, keep up the good work!!