After we left the Sunshine Coast we drove to Loxton in SA to catch up with some friends. We had met Rod and Lorraine last year when we were working together at Litchfield Tourist Park NT. Initially our plan was to head straight to Melbourne and then call in on our way through but we had plenty of time up our sleeve so we took a detour. They are living on Lorraines sister and brother in laws farmlet while they are building a new home in town, there is loads of ...

The wedding was to be on February 16 but we arrived a few days early, it is an easy trip from Loxton in SA to Melbourne and is much easier when you are not pulling the van behind you. We decided to treat ourselves with our first night in town and stayed at the Punt Hill Apartment Hotel in Essendon it was nice and had a view from the balcony. I had lived about 500 metres from there from 1991 to 1993 where I had renovated an old single fronted Victorian cottage b...

Chuck and Helens wedding was something we had been looking forward to for a long time. I have been friends with Chuck for 35 years and have shared many great moments with him over this period. Some were incredibly sad others full of joy and more often than not a few beers were enjoyed so it was fantastic when he said he had met Helen, he was very much in love and it was obvious very early in their relationship that this was a very serious romance. Regardless of...

While in Melbourne we headed down to a very beautiful part of Victoria to visit my cousin Liz who lives in the seaside township of Queenscliff. She had previously lived in the nearby town of Point Lonsdale and declares this area to be her favourite in Australia. Now I don't entirely disagree with her but in the dead of winter with a howling cold southerly blowing straight off Bass Strait it would be too cold for my liking. However huge waves pounding into the s...

The 3 plus weeks we spent on the Sunshine Coast were fantastic, relaxing but very tiring at the same time if you know what I mean. We were able to catch up with a number of friends but unfortunately did not get to see everyone we would have liked I guess we will just have to share a drink or two with those we missed on our next visit to the Coast. It is especially nice to catch up with family and in fact we arrived back on my sister Madeleines Birthday which...