"It's quite a nice day, isn't it?" said Sally.

"Quite!" I exclaimed, "Quite!" "Quite?!" This was some understatement to say the least.

Sally and I had just walked into the sea on the Gold Coast in mid October, which may mean more to those of you reading this in England than those overseas (yes, we have an international following)! Close your eyes for a minute (well, don't literally, as you won't be able to read the next bit) and picture an empty white sandy beach, blue sky, turquoise waves just above knee height, sun shining and all you can hear is the sound of water rolling in by your feet. We had walked straight into the water with no "Ooh ahh, mind your bits!" exclamations (the water is so crystal clear it couldn't possibly be cold!), boogey boards under our arms and my wife says "QUITE a nice day" - some people are just so hard to please!

So, standing up to our thighs in water waiting for the next wave to take us back to the sun baked shore, we gasped (loudly!) as a raptor flew down and plucked, with it's claws, a fish that it had seen in a breaking wave (the green bit before it breaks) just in front of us. You can probably imagine that "Oh look at that" wasn't our first expression as this incredible scene unfolded. We watched open mouthed as the raptor flew off along the beach, struggling to keep a wriggling fish in its claws. I am sorry that I can't elaborate on the 'raptor' as I can't confirm if the bird of prey was a Sea Hawk, Osprey or Brahminy Kite (most likely the last one). It was just the most incredible scene. I turned to my wife, who had been standing next to me, still with open mouth, but no, she was off, a wave had come along and she was heading into shore on her new boogey board! I turned to wade in, "Did you see that, did you see that?" I am trying to shout above the noise of those waves. "Yes, wasn't it incredible? If we hadn't both seen it, nobody would have believed us!" I slowly turned round to our "quite a nice day" and tried to catch the next wave to compete with the growing smile on Sally's face……..

So, lunchtime and a picnic as more and more people piled onto the beach. Well, probably two or three more people did come along, plus the few that had decided that the beach was too nice to sit on and chose to walk up and down the beach flicking up water as it lapped around their ankles.

After our 'sandy' picnic, well it does get everywhere, we left the beach as this was only "quite a nice day" and headed back through the Gold Coast traffic. The Gold Coast is a big 'events' location and seems to do the big sporting events really well. We have witnessed a well organised, mass participation 'Gold Coast Marathon' in June. The City is currently building the circuit and spectator stands for the "Indy 600" which is a tight, twisting, 300km city centre race circuit for powerful V8 supercars. The noise is going to be incredible as the race enters into the built up areas of Surfers Paradise which is mostly high rise apartments and offices, probably very similar to the F1 circuit in Monaco. Ticket prices include the evening music events which are held as part of this 3 day extravanganza. Most Aussie ticketed events seem to include something extra beside the actual event itself. The Ashes tickets (starts next month in Brisbane) for example, also includes the cost of your public transport, plus if you are of a certain age, you get a 'seniors discount' to make it even more worthwhile. The Gold Coast will be hosting the Commonwealth Games in April (big reason why we are visiting) and many of the excellent venues are ready for the events. We can't wait! Brother Bill, and other friends, are participating in the Games, albeit in a volunteering role, as the Games cannot happen without the thousands of volunteers who will make the #CG2018 a great event. Bill's daughter Aimee (who recently received a Doctorate!) kindly brought a Jersey flag out with her on her visit, so that's all tucked away and ready to display at the appropriate event next April. More will follow on the Games nearer the time.

So, our motorhome has been fully serviced and we are now ready to head south from the Gold Coast towards Melbourne. Sally will restart the blogs again shortly, perhaps when she is enjoying another "quite a nice day".

As an aside, and just for the record, I am able to write this blog today as the weather has been terrible over the past 24 hours with driving wind and heavy rain, which brings one back down to normality a bit! It is still warm though, T-shirts and shorts weather, which makes the difference between here and a normal English October weekend!