Back to work with lots to do. The article below is regarding Clive Palmer the interesting character who owns Coolum, apparently he wants to build a Titanic copy.
We did all the usual Sunday things such as shopping and ironing. Had a very nice Skype call with folks in the evening too.
Spent some of the afternoon doing some work too whilst Kate watched the Swans game. Something I forgot to post last weekend, while out walking along the river we saw this by the side of the pavement. It's a bearded dragon.
It's rained all day in Brisbane today. I got up and dis did some work while Kate caught up on some Zzzzzzz's. Later in the morning we went shopping in the city and then headed home for the afternoon.
In the evening we went to the movies to see 'The Way'
Back to work and had opportunity to drive Kate to work as I had to go out and meet the council at Indooroopilly to discuss the event. Back to the office and then lost most of the day to meetings. Headed home just after 6pm.
Was interesting to watch the Anzac day parades on telly this morning. Our day was fairly relaxed hanging out at home reading etc. We went for a walk along the river this afternoon to get out and about.
More catching up at work and organising of various meetings, we have just over 7 weeks to go before the event. Walked home and then drove to supermarket to meet Kate and do some shopping as it is ANZAC day tomorrow and everything will be closed.
Up at 5am and out on the road by 6am doing final signage pick up from event route. Headed back to event control before driving the hour back to Melbourne to unload the three trucks and four vans.
Once everything was done we headed to the airport and caught the 4pm flight back to Brisbane.
Was lovely to see Kate again who picked me up.
We came home and went to Grasshopper for some dinner.
The event got underway without and hitches and meanwhile I headed to Checkpoint 7 to bump that in. Again that took most of the day. I had my first call at 5am whilst still in bed and got up at 7 to head off to CP7.
It rained hard during the morning so it meant all the contractors were late. We ended up leaving the site at about 4pm, well behind schedule.
A quick trip to Checkpoint 8 to get both breakfast and lunch at 4.30 and then off to the Finish to see the first teams come across the line just before 5pm. A new Australian record.
Headed home at 5.30 and got 2 hours sleep before heading back to the Event Control Centre for 9pm to do an overnight shift managing logistics. Headed home at 5am Saturday.
Up early again and met my colleague Tash at the office at 7am. It was then off to bump in Checkpoint 3 which took most of the day. I bumped this site in last year so was familiar with the set up. After that we set up the off site car park and made our way to our accommodation. Went out for dinner in Warburton and then came home to bed.
Got up early and Kate drove me to Fortitude Valley to get a train to the Airport. Sad to be laving Kate behind for 5 days but has to be for work. Jumped on plane to fly at 8.55am to Melbourne.
Flight was fine and then grabbed a taxi to the office. Spent the afternoon running errands for my counterpart in Melbourne and had dinner with a couple of colleagues in the evening.
Tuesday, quick blog today. Meetings at work in the morning, further meetings with Parks and Ambulance Service in the afternoon and then back to work briefly.
Spent night at home packing.
Off to Melbourne early tomorrow and back on Sunday so no blogs until then.
A grey day in Brisbane. We went shopping to Everton Park and Kate bought some boots for her volunteering at Walkabout Creek at the weekend. Got a half price bargain and they look good.
The afternoon was mainly washing and ironing and a Skype call to UK.
Started watching 'The Voice' which is actually not bad apart from too many adverts.
We headed out to Chermside this morning to do some shopping. I spent my birthday vouchers and a bit more and bought myself an IPad. I'm very happy with my purchase, I'm admitting to being a big apple fan, funny after years of loyalty to Nokia (which interestingly is looking like losing it's top spot)
Up early and a brisk walk into work and a more productive day getting stuff done, only have a week before I head off to Melbourne for their event.
Walked home, its getting chillier here now and once the sun goes it cools down, it has been windy here too which has made it cooler.
Seems we have no gas on our gas top today which made cooking dinner harder, need to figure out why its been cut off, its strange as hot water heater for shower is still working.
Got up and went to Bunnings and bought a few bits to fix our crappy shower. Came home and installed a shower curtain thing to make our bathroom a drier place every day.
We had a relaxing day really and had a Skype call to Hazel and Peter in the evening which was nice.
A quiet day caused by fact it is Easter Sunday and a lot of things are shut. In the afternoon we went to see Titanic the movie in 3D. Seen the film lots of times but seeing it in 3D to mark the 100th Anniversary to mark the sinking was good, it really brought the action to life. It still sank in the end though.
In the evening we skyped both the UK and Adelaide.
We caught up with Mike E, John D and the Andrews today who were spending the weekend in Brisbane. We met them at the Story Bridge Hotel for lunch followed by watching the Swans at The Pineapple Hotel over near the Gabba.
In the evening they came to Teneriffe and we had dinner at the Grasshopper Restaurant which is in the ground floor of our building. Food was fantastic. We had takeaway from there once a long time ago when the folks were over and in Brisbane, but it has since been taken over. Food was really good and a nice time was had by all.
Good Friday 2012. Mainly we spent the day attacking the final boxes left that needed unpacking. With a slaightly smaller flat we have had to be creative where we ave stored things but it seems everything finally has its place.
We cooked a leg of lamb for dinner, so much for fish on Friday for Easter. Hot cross buns were bought but didnt look as good as Alvins efforts from the UK.
Awoke to find our Internet had been connected, good to have connection back to the real world. Spent the day at work sorting stuff out and also visiting Kennards.
In the evening we skyped the UK which was good after a long break.
More catching up at work and introducing my new logistics assistant to all things TW. An evening at home sorting out a few more boxes and watching television.
Back to work with a bump. Spent most of the day trying to catch up with emails etc. Also did some planning for the arrival of my new assistant tomorrow.
Final breakfast in Coolum and then we checked out. We drove to Coolum and attempted to catch sight of the turtles like we did last Easter. It was rough and surf was churning up the silt so we only saw one turtle. Went for a short walk and took a picture of the beach before heading back to Brisbane in an effort to avoid the traffic. Only took just over an hour to get home.
We hit the supermarket and then headed home to attack the many boxes which needed unpacking.
Day 2 in Coolum. We had a nice breakfast in the Bruscheta restaurant and then headed to the pool to relax. This was very pleasant and we spent all morning swimming, reading and listening to music. A welcome break after all the moving hassles.
We grabbed some lunch and in the afternoon hired some bikes and cycled to the beach. We flew the kite for a while before taking along walk up and down the the beach.
Awoken by Kate wishing me a Happy Birthday. Received some fantastic presents from everyone especially Kate, thank you all, its very much appreciated. Kate also made me some lovely cakes.
After present opening fun and a IPhone Skype call to folks we packed up and headed to Coolum. First we had to go to Paddington to drop off the keys to 212. We had a pleasant drive to Coolum and checked in after lunch.
We checked in and our first room was not up to scratch due to having lots of Ants so we got a room change.
In the evening we had dinner in the best restaurant at the resort to celebrate my birthday. At the next table was the aforementioned Clive Palmer. Interesting to dine next to billionaires!
Sorted a few final bits in old flat during the day so we can drop the keys back tomorrow. Spent rest of the day sorting out stuff in new place, unpacking etc. Picked Kate up from work and we spent an evening at home sorting more stuff out.
I dropped Kate to work and then drove to Bunnings to get some bits and pieces needed to fix up a few things around the new flat. The guy from Foxtel turned up early and installed our new Foxtel box during the morning.
Spent more time unpacking and then went back to old flat to clean up. Spent 3 hours sprucing the place up before going to pick up Kate. We grabbed a takeaway and spent more time unpacking.
Move day from Teneriffe to well erm Teneriffe....Removals guys arrived at 10am and took about 2 hours to get the gear loaded before the 45 second drive to next place. They seemed to take a long time to get things unloaded and I ended up shifting gear too to speed it up as we were paying an hourly rate.
Finally everything was in during the early afternoon and went about unpacking before picking up Kate from work.
We decided where to put the furniture during the evening and crashed out late evening.