Day 2 Tokyo

Sleep came easily last night. In bed by 8pm and asleep by 8.05pm and then we didn't wake until 6.30.  It was needed.

Last night we ate in the Japanese Restaurant, Junisoh, here at the Hilton and it was one of the best meals I have ever eaten.  Typically, Japanese food is light, fresh and small portioned.  You do not leave the table with an overfull belly. Our table was semi-private and the service was impeccable. 

The Sashimi

Today was a half day tour of Tokyo that took us to Asakusa Sensoji Temple and the National Museum of Science.  It was quite a lovely day so the Japanese folks were out and about so both places were packed with people.  You literally have to go with the flow.  It was interesting to see so many of the younger generation in full Japanese National Dress.  I think the Kimono is a beautiful dress and the girls were wearing it proudly.  They seem to balance precariously on the thongs they wear on their feet but I didn't see anyone stumble.

We did not spend a lot of time inside the National Museum of Science, preferring to stay outside and enjoy the beautiful park.  The first thing you notice when you drive through Tokyo is the number of "green areas" in the city and everywhere people are out and about and enjoying the parks.  We also drove by an area where people were fishing.  

After breakfast this morning, and before our tour, we walked for a few kilometres to see if we could find a camera store.  My faithful Olympus Camera is on its way out and I need to look for a replacement before it dies.  There is no better place in the world to purchase a camera than right here in Japan where the majority of cameras are made.  We did eventually find the camera shop but will return tomorrow when we have a little more time.  

Loved this street where T- Rex was looking over the top of one of the buildings.

Day 1 Cairns to Tokyo

On Thursday our travel agent rang to say that Singapore Airlines had oversold tickets for our flight from Cairns to Tokyo so we were re-routed via Brisbane.  It was very annoying but Singapore Airlines apologised by giving us two $300 vouchers to be used in the airlines duty free shop.  The worst part was having to fly to Brisbane at 9am on Friday before connecting to our flight to Tokyo via Singapore.  It added 10 hours to our journey.  

We landed into Japan at 8.00am Saturday morning and after negotiating customs and quarantine we quickly found our driver who transported us to the Tokyo Hilton.  Surprisingly it took us an hour from the airport to the hotel.  After checking into the hotel around 9.30 we were told our room would be available at noon.  We headed to a cafe for coffee and pastries and then decided to stretch our legs while our room was being prepared.  Shinjuku Central Park was close by so we headed to this lovely green area.

Tomorrow, after breakfast, we join our pre-cruise tour group.  We have three days sightseeing in Tokyo before we join our cruise ship - Regent Explorer - on the 25th April.  The three days are slow paced with only half day tours so we will be able to also explore independently. We might even try the underground railway system that is apparently one of the best in the world. 

45th Wedding Anniversary

 On the 25th March 1978 I said "I Do" to the man that I have loved for forty-five years. I was just twenty years old and Philip twenty-two when we were joined in holy matrimony.  It seems so young now but we were absolutely ready for married life.  We grew together and with the addition of our boys, Kurt in 1979 and Marc in 1982 our family was complete.

Living on a cattle station in the Gulf for almost all our married life enabled us to give our boys the best possible upbringing.  The boys had a lot of freedom to make mistakes and learn from them - some very painful mistakes! We were never "hover" parents.

So what advice would I give to the twenty year old me now. I would tell her that her babies will be perfect but not to put too much pressure on herself to be the perfect mother.  I would also tell her to laugh a lot more because there will certainly be plenty in her world to make her smile. I would tell her that she is going to experience the highest highs and lowest lows but will always be loved. And lastly I would tell her to breathe in this moment, reflect on the last moment, and await the next moment.

And what advice would I give to couples.  It's simple really.  Never stop talking to each other and never forget to love each other.

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary at Nautilus Restaurant in Port Douglas.  We have been coming to this restaurant almost all our married life and it is still our all time favourite restaurant.  Now, they specialise in a five course degustation menu.  Our five courses were:

Mojito and Green Ant cured Kingfish with cucumber pearls

Duck Three Ways - Consommé, Spring Rolls, Wontons

Grilled Moreton Bay Bug

Whole Crispy Skinned Coral Trout 

Belgian Chocolate Slice

Cheese Platter

Every single course was absolutely to die for.  

The restaurant itself is open air and it is always hard to believe that it is situated right in the centre of Port Douglas.  The ambience of this restaurant is beyond compare with its beautiful high back chairs that give diners privacy while they eat.  The staff are attentive and cheerful that is always welcome.  We arrive around 30 minutes before our booking so that we can have pre-dinner aperitif's in the dedicated lounge area.  It really was a wonderful night and the perfect way to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

International Women's Day Mission Beach

 My bestie and her daughter, who happens to also be my god-daughter, meet at Mission Beach this weekend for a girlie weekend and an early 40th birthday get-together for my god-daughter. We booked into Castaways Resort at Mission Beach for Friday and Saturday nights and as luck would have it, the International Women's Day Brunch was also being held at the resort on Saturday.

My friends travelled north from Townsville and I drove south from Palm Cove and we all arrived around the same time on Friday.  After all the love and hugs we settled into our two bedroom apartment with sundowners and quickly caught up on each others news. We had made dinner reservations at Buko Restaurant for 6.30pm and it seemed no time at all before we headed downstairs for our delicious meal - Grilled Mackerel & Salad for me. We didn't stay up late as we had all had quite an early start to our day and were all feeling a little weary - probably from excitement also!

Next morning we had planned on walking along the beach before our Brunch but it was so incredibly hot and humid that we decided, by unanimous decision, to stay in the room under air-conditioning.  More talk-fest until it was time to start readying ourselves for the Brunch.  As we only had one shower and one mirror it was a bit of a juggle to shower and dress but we somehow managed to all be out of the door by 11.00am.

All the tables in Buko Restaurant were beautifully decorated for the International Women's Day Brunch and we were quickly shown to our table.  Apart from being International Women's Day, the brunch was held to raise money for Breast Cancer. Two young girls moved around the tables selling raffle tickets that were being drawn randomly for the numerous donated prizes.  I was lucky enough to win a "Kitchen Pack" that consisted of Utensiles, Teatowels, timer, and a cute little saucepan.  I gave the saucepan to Nikki though because it was not an induction saucepan.

The three course meal was delicious.  First course was three small plates of Pumpkin Mouse Cake, Beef wrapped Asparagus, and Cucumber topped with a prawn salsa.  Main was Roast Pork Belly with a fennel and orange salad and purple potatoes.  Dessert was a chocolate meringue concoction.  

The drinks (included) flowed freely with a choice of either Prosecco or Rosé.  The only downside to this lovely meal was that it was so incredibly hot and humid with barely a breath of wind to cool us down and I'm afraid there was nothing the organisers could have done about that!

All through the meal, music was playing in the background. The female performer had a glorious voice and strummed her guitar to the beat of the music.  The lunch finished at around 3.00pm but we left a little before that as we were all keen to get back to air-conditioning!

Last night was spent very quietly, chatting away over a platter of yummy finger food prepared by my friend Lynn, before all turning in around 9.30pm.  

We said our goodbyes this morning and we don't really know when we will all catch up again.  Philip and I will be heading away on holidays at the end of April and will probably not return until March next year, so it will be at least twelve months.

Philips Birthday Week

It was hubby's 67th birthday on the 22nd January and as NuNu Restaurant here in Palm Cove was having a Chinese New Year Banquet I reserved a table for us and our friends Kate and Mike.  The day was a little rainy but that didn't stop us at all, I mean who doesn't love a tropical downpour.  We were a little early for our lunch reservation so we dropped into Chill Portofino for some cool drinks while we waited for NuNu's to open. Chill is one of our favourite places in Palm Cove.  You can drop in for a cool drink or settle in for a meal.  They do some pretty darn good pizza's too.

Once we had finished our drinks we headed directly across the road to NuNu's where we were shown to our table.  The service in this restaurant is exceptional and within moments of seating we were handed the drinks menu and a copy of the banquet menu we were about to enjoy.  Our drinks (cocktails for the ladies and beer for the men) arrived shortly after ordering and we had only had a couple of sips before the first of five courses was laid in the centre of the table.  The food was to die for and the only photo I remembered to take was dessert! The courses were:

1.  Crispy Chilli and fish dumpling, Reef Bug and Pork dumpling, Sweet and Sour Tiger Prawns

2.  Tea smoke Eel and Hot Sauce, Pickled Mushrooms

3.  Cucumber and Garlic Salad, Tofu and Black Bean, Lotus Rice Shiitake and Lup Cheong, Spanner Crab and Egg Fried Rice

4. Coral Trout Ginger and Green Onion Relish, Drunken Duck Davidson Plum and Spiced Sat

5. Lychee, Pandam, coconut Sorbet and Dragon Ice

NuNu can be a bit of hit and miss when it comes to meals but this meal was outstanding and Nick Holloway and his team deserve accolades for this one.

One Tuesday morning we picked up Kate and Mike and drove them to the airport where they boarded their Brisbane bound plane.  At Brisbane they boarded the P & O Pacific Encounter for a 13 day cruise to Singapore stopping at Airlie Beach, Darwin, Bali and Lombok.  I have been tracking their voyage on cruisemapper.com and it is getting me rather excited for our upcoming cruise in April.  I have been chatting to Kate on and off and they seem to be having a great time.

After we dropped the team at the airport, Philip and I decided to walk the Yellow/Red Arrow track that starts opposite the airport at the Mount Whitfield Conservation Park.  The 4.2km circular track climbs around 155m and is considered moderately challenging. It took us around an hour and fifteen minutes to complete the walk.  We very much enjoyed it particularly as it is shaded for the majority of the walk.  In Cairns at this time of the year that is very much appreciated!

My copy of RecipeTin Eats arrived in the mail this week and I have been devouring the book and cooking quite a few recipes from the book.  Nagi is my all time favourite cook and everyone of her recipes are truly great.  You may remember me cooking Festive Salmon for New Years Eve.  That is one of her recipes.  The cookbook is well worth purchasing if you are as passionate about food as I am.  Some of the other recipes I have made from the cookbook this week have been Teriyaki Beef Bowls and Magic Baked Chicken Fried Rice.  Both bloody delicious!

I had some leftover chicken from the fried rice so I pulled out the pie maker and made us some Chicken and Leek Pies with salad for another lunch meal.  Gee I've missed my piemaker and will give it a good work-out before our next holiday.  Shame it is just a bit too heavy to carry in the van, but then again, maybe........

After Christmas I had leftover mini store-bought meringues and a sponge roll and was thinking of what I could make using them.  I also had a whole lot of passionfruit that my friend Kate had kindly given me so I made a Passionfruit Curd, whipped up some cream and added yoghurt, thawed out some frozen blueberries and along with a sliced banana, assembled the lot in a glass bowl.  It was a very decadent sweet dish but Philip and I have been enjoying a small quantity of it each afternoon.  I froze the majority of it so that we can enjoy this dessert over several weeks.

Today we woke to another wet day so to do something different (and inside) we drove into Cairns to the Cairns Aquarium.  It is something we have been talking about doing for quite a long time but never seemed to get around to it.  We had no idea on what we were missing out on.  It was fantastic.  We spent a couple of hours wandering around the two floors that told the story of aquatic life from the rainforest to the reef.  It is beautifully presented and every half hour the staff give talks in various areas of the aquarium.  There is also a Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital Tour that we would like to have visited but it was booked out.  We will return another day for that.  The Aquarium was well worth the drive into town.

Well that is our week in a nutshell.  We have been fairly busy but each afternoon we either go for a walk along the beach or if it is raining (as it has been for the majority of this week) we pull out the boardgames.  Sequence is our favourite board game but yesterday, for a change, we pulled out the Jenga Blocks.  Philip and I had fun building this tower and I, unfortunately, was the one to topple it.......

Perfect Palm Cove

Hello my friends and family.  After my epic amount of blogging while we were travelling, I have kinda "dried up" on the writing. However, I am attempting to get back my blogging mojo, starting today. 

It has been almost three weeks since I last wrote about our New Years Eve, so what have we been up to since then? Philip and I continue to make our own busy and each and every day we seem to have something on our plate.  It's a good thing really.  We plan it so that our mornings are busy so we can relax in the afternoon.  Most afternoons, after 5, we go for a walk along the beach or a swim in the stinger net.  However the last week we have had quite a lot of rain so our walks have come to an abrupt halt.

Mondays we now go to a Gentle Yoga Class beachside here at Palm Cove.  Our yogi is Beth and I adore her.  Her classes are for all levels of yoga and I also attend a class on Thursday mornings that is a somewhat stronger class that really strengthens my body.

Philip cycles whenever he can and has returned to his cycling group in Port Douglas.  He said the first ride, after a long absence, was gruelling but also invigorating.  I try to walk on the five days that I don't have a yoga practice and I have three set routes.  There are 4km, 5km and 7.5km.  The 5km includes a good hill climb but the other two are on level ground so are quite easy.  All the walks begin and end on the Palm Cove Esplanade that looks particularly lovely at this time of the year.

Philip and I decided to challenge ourselves last week and walk the Earl Hill track.  There was a bit of confusion between the two of us as to where to begin the walk and we ended up starting at Half Moon Bay.  Oh....my......god.  This was definitely a bad choice.  It was all up hill with a gazillion steps - well equivalent to 28 flights of steps, and when we reached the summit we found we weren't on Earl Hill at all!  We were on Little Earl Hill!  Turns out that we walked the Bakarra Track. The views were pretty spectacular though.....

There have been quite a few appointments on our calendar - Optometrist, Audiologist, Doctor and we have made quite a few trips up to the storage shed and Port Douglas over the past couple of weeks.  Philip bought a timer to keep our caravans Lithium Battery charged.  It has been a bit of trial and error to see how how long we need to set the timer to keep the right amount of charge in the battery but I think we finally have it sorted.  

Last week when we arrived home from Port it was almost lunch so we decided to head to Vivo Restaurant for lunch.  Vivo is right beside us so it is a very convenient restaurant but the meals here can be a bit hit and miss.  Unfortunately our mains were a hit for Philip but a big miss for me.  We both ordered the Salmon Sashimi for starters and neither of us could fault this.  It was 100% delicious and I would gladly order it again......

Philips main was the Duck Leg on Rosti and it was perfectly cooked and a well balanced meal.  I tasted it and the flavours were all there.  5/5

For my main I ordered the Crispy Skin Barramundi.  The only good thing I can say about this meal is that the skin was indeed crispy but the fish itself turned to mush in my mouth.  I can only think that the fish had been thawed and re-frozen or never frozen properly in the first instance.  It was a very disappointing meal.  It came with an Orange Fennel Salad that was okay.

So that's a wrap for the last couple of weeks.  It is taking me longer than expected to settle back into normal life after living in the caravan for all those months, most particularly around my cooking.  I have this huge fridge in the apartment but when I open the French Doors I can count on two hands the number of items in it.  It comes from being frugal with fridge space in the caravan and I probably won't go back to having a full size fridge packed to the brim again. I don't think it is a big deal really and it will certainly make it easier when I have to transfer food from a big fridge to a caravan fridge the next time we travel.

Cheers everyone!

New Years Eve 2022

By the time you read this post it will be 2023 so....... Happy New Year.  No resolutions for me.  I just want to remain healthy and happy and wish the same for everybody.

New Years Eve was spent in our apartment with our good friends Kate and Mike as it was our turn to host a dinner after the spectacular spread that they created for Christmas lunch.  I had a couple of new recipes that I wanted to try out so it was the perfect occasion for this.

Our friends arrived around 5.30 as the fireworks were due to start at 8.30 and I wanted to allow enough time for us to eat dinner before we made our way down to the waters edge to watch the fireworks.  Kate and I settled back with our glasses of low alcohol bubbles while the boys chose beer as their beverage of choice.  

My darling husband made the Hor D'oeuvres to serve with our drinks and they were very light, refreshing and delicious.  The recipe was called Prawn and Mango Hand Salads and were baby gem lettuce cups filled with small prawns and topped with mango and watermelon.  A dressing of coconut cream, sweet chilli sauce and lime was drizzled over the top and was the perfect finger food.

By 7.00 we were ready to sit down to our main meal that was simplicity itself with a baked side of Salmon accompanied by a warm potato and asparagus salad.  The side of salmon is an expensive piece of fish so it should be cooked with respect and this recipe was perfect.  To my liking it could have been cooked a little less but everybody else around the table preferred their salmon to be cooked all the way through so it was a winner for them. The salmon (after being baked in a honey butter marinade) is topped with a beautiful dill cream sauce topped with cranberries, toasted almond, pomegranate and parsley.  It looks so festive!

We decided to leave dessert until after the fireworks, so we quickly packed the dishwasher and cleaned down the benches before making our way across the road to the oceans edge to wait for the fireworks to begin right on 8.30.  There were thousands of people lined up all the way along the beach to watch the fireworks.  There are only two places that Cairns Council displays the fireworks and they are Palm Cove and the Cairns CBD. It had been threatening rain all evening but thankfully the rain held off for the fireworks but the minute we returned to the apartment it started to rain lightly.  

Once we were settled back onto the apartment balcony I served the Crème Caramel that I had baked earlier in the day.  No one was very hungry but we all had a small sliver to satisfy our sweet tooth.  I forgot to get a photo of dessert but it was also a winner.

No, we didn't see in the New Year this year as were well and truly tucked up in our bed by 10.30.  There was quite a bit of partying happening right along the length of the esplanade as evidenced by the empty bottles strewn along the pathway this morning.  We never heard a thing.  A big shout out to the Cairns Council workers though who were hard at it by 7.00 to clean up the mess. It begs the question why can't people put their rubbish into the numerous bins or at least into disposable bags.  I will never understand that.

So that was our New Years Eve.  We are having a quiet New Years Day.  I spent the morning putting away all the Christmas decorations that were not much more than a Christmas tree and exterior balcony lights. The apartment looks almost bare with out them!  

Once again, Happy New Year.  May it be filled with Love and Peace. xx