Life is good....

Philip asked me recently if I was happy with my life.  It was a rhetorical question because we are both so very happy with the life we are now living. It.....just...feels.....right.
We are making the apartment our own as we slowly replace some of the furniture in the apartment (or cubby house as we affectionately call it) with our taste in furnishings. It is a slow process but we have all the time in the world.

Our social life is lots of fun with impromptu meals with friends as well as outings.  A couple of weeks ago I had a large rib roast to cook so I invited our friends for a good old roast meal.  After lunch we walked down to Beach Almond Restaurant where a local band was playing in the beer garden.  It was a really great afternoon with the band playing all the songs from the 60s and 70s that we could sing along too.

Last weekend we had another impromptu meal at our friends place.  This time it was Laksa that was just so delicious.  I told our friends to stop setting the bar so high! I am a food tragic.  I just love good food and the thought that is front and foremost in my mind is always "what I am going to eat next and where"!

This time last week we were sitting on the beach at Mission Beach sipping our bubbles and watching the sun go down over a perfect day.  We finally found time to take the caravan out of the shed for its inaugural outing.  As I mentioned in the previous post we wanted to see how long we could run the caravan "off grid" and I am happy to say that we could go pretty much forever if we have sun to charge the solar panels.  Water is the biggest problem.  Although we are very conservative with water, our onboard supply only lasts two days and we carry another two days in the tank under the vehicle. Showers take the most water so I suppose we could shower every second day to conserve water.......not!

Mission Beach is our new favourite place.  We walked each day as there are so many beautiful places to walk both at Mission Beach and South Mission Beach.   The beach is perfect to walk along, in fact it is one of the best we have ever walked on and leaves Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas for dead.  It is so wide and flat and the sand is perfect to walk on.

We spent one afternoon lazing on the beach and trying out our parachute bed.  Honestly, it is just so comfortable as Philip can attest to! We are tempted to buy a second one as they fold up to the size of a shopping bag and are easy to carry.

Each night we had sundowners at the Tavern right next door to the caravan park, except for one night when we took our chairs to the beach for sunset.  The Hideaway Caravan Park was one of the best we have stayed in with its well kept grassed areas and gardens.  The sites were a little on the small size but that can be forgiven because of the cleanliness of the park.  We highly recommend it and we will certainly return.

So, we are home again for the time being and as I lay in bed this morning I made a promise to myself that I would never ever tire of this view from our bed.

Port Douglas as a tourist

We bought an investment apartment in Port Douglas when we sold Kuramar and settlement for the apartment was on the 30th June.  We decided that we would spend a week living in the apartment to work out where we would start on the upgrade, and believe me it needs it!
The apartments were built in 2002 and in those 18 years I don't think a single thing has been changed including the inevitable spa bath that seemed to be so popular then.  The apartment definitely needs to be painted inside because at the moment it is a nondescript yellow/cream.  White throughout is called for so that is the first thing we will change.  Next will be the kitchen and lastly we will get rid of the spa!

Our trip to Port Douglas had a dual purpose though because Philip had put his name forward for a bike ride from Mareeba to Almaden.....around 140km.  He drove to Mareeba with three other cyclists as passengers and from there they cycled to Almaden.  They arrived in time for lunch at Almaden and then they boarded the train that took them back to Mareeba.  He loved it and he pulled up remarkably well after quite an epic ride.  He said that the majority of the ride he had a tail wind which certainly helped on the long uphills.

While Philip was doing that I did............absolutely nothing!  I had a very relaxing day poolside listening to numerous podcasts.  It was bliss and something I really needed.  Our days in Port were mostly leisurely.  We did have doctor and dentist appointments and I managed to fit in two yoga classes with my old teacher.  Other than that we ate lots of really good food at different restaurants each day.  Our favourite meal was at Mamman where I had one of the best Atlantic Salmon dishes ever.  I almost cried when my meal was finished!  We also ate Tapas and Paella at Seabean Restaurant and delicious Aussie Burgers at N17 Burger Joint.  Paddys Irish Bar was also a favourite because who doesn't like the people watching it affords.

I walked most mornings around the Marina/FourMile Beach circuit.  Philip did a couple of hill walks but too many steps for me! Most afternoons we strolled along Four Mile Beach as it is almost the perfect beach to walk on with its very flat surface.  Sometimes we even grabbed an ice-cream to enjoy along the way.

View from our Balcony looking towards the mountains and our old home at Julatten

It really was great to have a break from moving into Paringa and we have returned to Palm Cove very invigorated.  I have to tell you that as we walked into our new home we both commented on how absolutely it feels like home.  We love it.