I liked my stay in Mount Gravatt, Polly and Kit were great to live with, I think Rene and I were great house guests - but enough was enough! Folk are not meant to stay as guests for nine weeks.
The two apartments have taken a fortnight to straighten out, with Rene's office in the one bedroom apartment (which we own) getting curtains hung today and the neighbouring two bedroom apartment (which we rent) being more than adequate and spacious.
Today we swam in the lovely pool for the second time this week instead of just looking at it from our deck. It is around 25m long (I guess) and two lanes wide and being a lap pool it is consistently deep all the way. I have yet to play a game of tennis on the large full sized court, but we've seen some people using it in daylight and at night.
Peter and Bernadette are friends from Brisbane and have been staying up the coast here redecorating their beautiful apartment, so their presence has enabled us to have many lovely dinners and drinks out and about around Mooloolaba. They've gone back to Brisbane this week so we are alone here again, but we have friends visiting, starting this week, plus we have a trip to Toowoomba later this week for my former principal's retirement party.
School ended yesterday for the year and I have seven weeks vacation ahead of me. That's nice because I found the commuting to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast (a 100km each way) a bit of a drag.
I am going from four schools down to more time at just two schools next
year, so that'll be a good change.The Saturday after we moved there was a federal election for the government of Australia. It was won, predictably, by Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party. Maxine McKew, in the former Prime Minister's seat of Bennelong, defeated John Howard, who had held it for 33 years. The Labor victory was larger than many had predicted, but it was obvious that the conservatives woul
d be thrown out. I'm happy.Moving has not been without its 'issues'. My beautiful big fridge does not fit into the alcove in the 2 bed apartment but does fit the 1 bed apartment kitchen (go figure!). We now own a small bar fridge (all fridge, no freezer) and we move between the two fridges when entertaining large groups. This small fridge will go into the office in the gallery in our new house, so it's a solution, but I think an unnecessary expense.
Do you own a phone (you know, the land line type)? Of course you do, except we don't. The Telstra exchange on the island isn't large enough to cope with demand so nobody (except the building managers) in our 63 apartment building can have a land line just yet. More ports in the exchange are coming, but so is Christmas. Solution? Yes, we have got wifi internet from Buderim Mountain via a local company which has an aerial on the roof and delivers it by cable to each apartment. This week we'll also take delivery of a modem which will allow VOIP to work, so we'll have a wifi internet based telephone for $19.95 a month that will allow free local and interstate calls PLUS free overseas calls to the USA, UK and The Netherlands. If you don't know how this works, it's sort of like Skype but operates using land line telephone numbers - we'll be issued a regular 8 digit plus the state area code (07) telephone number, and we'll use our regular phone set up in the two apartments totally wifi. In addition I have got the totally new, very schmick for me, Motorola Razr2 V8 mobile phone that is SO very cool - I'm still finding out how to set all the features. It has a camera for photos and even video - and above all BIG keys and a superbly brilliant screen for the person with slightly impaired vision.
The previous paragraph about the woes of getting connected in this late 2007 Australia have been downplayed considerably because I have been HUGELY pissed off at most of the crap concerning telecommunications, Telstra, Optus, shareholders and the Federal Government that have been plaguing my life for the past month. You guys reading this in Europe or America must be thinking we are SOOO backward here in Oz, and you'd be right. Between politics, screwing the consumer, placing shareholders returns above service to customers and generally fiddling while Rome burns, I have been trying and trying to get the basic services connected that the average person in a First World country would take for granted. I won't mention the fact that at our new home in Nundah I also cannot be guaranteed a landline connection of my choice come next June when we expect to move in - presently I must choose Telstra, since Optus has opted out of using Telstra exchanges for new connections until their own new exchanges are on line.
Speaking of the new house, it has been approved, the builder is ordering materials this week ready to start late next month. We have selected colours, finishes, the kitchen (stone benchtops and 2 pack cupboards) along with a myriad of last minute decisions. It is almost on budget. Rene allowed me to choose the air conditioning system and brand, so it's a ducted system with seven zones throughout the upstairs and downstairs digitally controlled - it even has a digital scroll on the coolant delivery so that it can reduce to just 10% when not working hard during the hot daytimes - but I hasten to add I wouldn't know a digital scroll if I fell over one.
We walked today to a little BBQ party at a park at one end of the island today to mark the last block of land being sold on Kawana Island. We walked on after lunch around the perimeter of the western end of the island and marvelled at how much work has been done to make it a positive balance between development and conservation. Having protected wetlands on one side along with a national park ensures it isn't totally a sea of roofs.
There's more to say, but I'm due to get to bed seeing as though we have things to do in the morning. Have a wonderful remainder of your weekend and catch you again very soon.
(PS the block we are in is the incomplete building in the very middle of the Google Earth picture of Kawana Island).
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