My week

To follow on from last week's post we drove to Cairns last Sunday for a movie date and a little shopping.  When we arrived into Cairns Philip dropped me off at Cairns Central while he went to Bunnings to buy his hedge trimmer....yessss!!!  I avoided the dreaded Bunnings...
I went straight to JBHIFI to buy a new iPad and accessories.  Gosh they are getting expensive.  No wonder Apple shares are decreasing in value because I'm certain not many folks can afford to pay the prices that they are charging for their merchandise. Anyway....moving on.

When Philip and I met up again it was time for lunch.  We knew that our cruise liner was docked at the wharf so we decided to eat somewhere close by.  We ended up at Dundee's.  It was lovely sitting in air-conditioning, on the waterfront,  on a very hot day.  The meal was delicious.  Entree was seafood chowder for Philip - huge!

And soft-shell crab on a bed of wakame for me.  I chose this dish because I LOVE wakame!  I first had it in a Tuna Poke Bowl and didn't know what I was eating but on enquiry I found out that it is seaweed!  It is just so delicious and you really must try it if you get the opportunity.

We walked off our lunch by strolling down to the Cairns Cruise Ship Terminal to have a close-up look at our accomodation for 40 days.  Regent Seven Seas Navigator looks very accomodating and we are getting excited.  Our room is at the top, same floor as the bridge and the first from the left.  We should get some nice views from there.

After lunch it was movie time.  We enjoyed watching The Mule and yes, Clint Eastwood is showing everyone of his 88 years but he can still act the britches of many younger actors.  The movie recounts the true storey of Leo Sharp, a World War 11 veteran who became a drug courier for the Sinaloa Cartel in his 80's. I would probably give the movie four stars and that is only because it left a few unanswered questions. A google search afterwards answered them for us. 

The rest of this week has been quiet but we did go back to Cairns on Friday evening for "Nashville Live" at the new Cairns Performing Arts Centre.  Philip and I are not really into country music but surprisingly we were singing along, tapping our toes and clapping our hands to the beat of the majority of the songs.  Philip enjoyed the second half more than the first as it was a little more modern with plenty of songs by Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton.  The first half was songs by the likes of Merle Haggard and Patsy Cline that I really enjoyed.

Prior to the show we had dinner at one of our friends home.  Jane had cooked a delicious Lasagne that we had with salad followed by a decadent Tirimisu.  We were indeed spoilt.  After the show we returned to our friends place at Palm Cove to stay the night.  I'm glad we did as it was after 11pm when we arrived there.  If we had driven home we would not have arrived until well after midnight and the lovely coastal drive through the day can we quite dangerous at night with lots of wildlife at the edges of the road.
I have become addicted to My Kitchen Rules (again!) and made the Lamb Shanks that the mother and son team cooked last week.  It was so tasty and I understand why both judges gave it 10/10. It didn't photograph as good as it tasted!

Good intentions....

It's 9am on Sunday morning and I am propped up in bed sipping my coffee and nibbling on toast that my darling husband has brought to me.  I had good intentions.  I was going to leap out of bed at 6.30, go for a walk then a swim before cooking up bacon and eggs for breakfast.  😁 Well, you know what they say about good plans ..........

We are going to Cairns later this morning.  Philip wants to buy an extension for his hedge trimmer so that the gardener and he can trim our very tall geisha girls this week.  He has googled the Bosch website and found that he can buy the extension at Bunnings.  So Bunnings we shall go.  ☹️

Earlier this week I purchased Event Cinema tickets to go and see The Mule today.  It has been given bad reviews so that is a very good reason to watch it.  I have never yet agreed with any bad review of any movie that I have watched.  I wonder who these reviewers are? Anyway I will let you know what WE think.

And how's this for coincidence.  The cruise ship that we are joining in Singapore next month, Regent Seven Seas Navigator, will be in Cairns today!  The ship is on a world cruise and we are joining her in Singapore for the 40 day segment ending in Rome (via Suez Canal).  It will be amazing to see the little ship up close and personal.

While in Cairns we will also visit the nursery to pick up a few more herbs for my kitchen garden that got a real battering during the exceptionally heavy rain in December and January. I have already taken out any plants that are dead or dying and refilled the plot with some 5 in 1 potting mix so it is ready to plant out.

Hubby doesn't know it yet but I am also going to surprise him with a visit to JBHIFI to buy him a new iPad.  He watches Netflix every day on his iPad mini so I am upgrading him to the iPad pro.  He will love it and I might also enjoy photo editing on it....... if I can get it off him!  The big plus of course is purchasing now so that we can claim a refund for GST as we exit the country next month.  

How did you spend your Valentines Day?  We broke out of our alcohol detox and had drinks and nibblies poolside.  We stayed in the pool longer than we should have but it was just so darn pleasant. 

Once again though I had a very disrupted sleep after drinking alcohol.  Gosh. I only had three gin and tonics but my body seems to be rejecting alcohol big time!  Not such a bad thing I guess 🥺

The weather has been glorious, but out of the blue on Wednesday we had a very severe, almost tornado-like, storm hit us.  The wind was incredible and the drops of rain were huge.  If it was a bit cooler we would almost have certainly had hail.  Fortunately it didn't last long but it took us some time to go around the garden picking up palm fronds that had been blown around.

Most days this week however, have looked like this......

Take care lovelies and I will talk to you next week. xx

A beautiful day in Paradise

So, we have gone from this.......

To this......

We are so grateful that we finally have sunshine.  The country is extremely wet and Philip informed me that he almost bogged himself when he moved the cattle yesterday.  That's never happened in the twelve years that we have lived here.  Thank goodness we didn't have the awful damaging rain that other areas of Queensland have had, and I'm not complaining, but this is our first real day of sunshine in more than a month.
My heart goes out to all those in Townsville who have to face the almost impossible task of cleaning out all that mud from their houses.  What an awful job.
But so much worse than that has been the flood around Julia Creek.  Many of our friends have had huge cattle losses some have lost their entire herd.  I just don't know how they will recover from that disaster and any help we can give them will be appreciated, although they would never ask.
On the home front it has been much of the same.  We have been pretty much house cats for the past month and have been experiencing a little cabin fever.  We go outside each afternoon and throw the ball around for the dogs until the mozzies drive us inside.

And I finally got around to making my beeswax wraps from the kit that Suzie gave me for Christmas. I don't think I would go to the effort again because it is a really messy job but I love the beeswax wraps so I will probably buy them from Suzie when these wear out.

We have still tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle with plenty of exercise and good food.  One of our favourites of late has been Rice Paper Rolls.  We assemble our own and I have a selection of shredded lettuce, cucumber, carrot, avocado, mango and either chicken or prawns all set out for easy assembly. I also make a sweet chilli sauce for dipping. We can only manage to eat three as they are very filling.  They are very delicious, fast to prepare and perfect for lunch after Yoga on Wednesdays.

I have been out and about as much as I can with my new camera.  I need to know the camera inside out before we head away on holidays.......35 days and counting!
I love the detail and clarity in this vignette.....

Judi xx