Work & Play in Queensland

We got back last night from a few days in Queensland. I travelled to Surfers Paradise,the Gold Coast, on Thursday for a work conference which was a combined work and play! On the Thursday evening, following a days work, we made a trip up the new Q1 building, the world's highest residential building, which gave stunning views along the huge stretch of beach in both directions. I have never seen a beach stretch for so many miles.

The organisers of the conference decided that we couldn't visit Surfers Paradise without going in the water and arranged a surprise water activity. So on Friday morning we all headed down to the beach and found out that, for many, we were going to have our first surfing lesson! It was great but a bit surreal learning to surf with colleagues! I made a few attempts to stand on the board while riding a wave (not just on the beach!) and came close on a few occasions.

While I was making numerous attempts to stand on the board, Esther travelled up with Joeley and spent the day at Seaworld.
We all met up at the hotel in the evening and had drinks and a meal with some of my colleagues. It was good for Esther to get to know the people I work with. After the meal we went for walk down the 'strip' - a mix between Blackpool, Tenerife & Las Vegas, which is where its nickname of 'BrisVegas' comes from!

The following morning we headed up to Australia Zoo to see the good work Steve Irwin had achieved.

The Crocoseum

Hungry Croc!

A turtle we met

Following a day at the zoo we headed to Brisbane, quickly checked into our hotel and then met up with Anthony and Steffi (I worked with Anthony in the UK for the past few years). They took us to Mount Coo-tha, a well known lookout which provides a beautiful view of Brisbane and the surrounding mountains. We arrived just in time to see the sunset. It was good to chat and share experiences with them...they moved to Australia a few months after us.


We spent Sunday taking in the sights of Brisbane - going on a river boat ride, walking around the city & botanical gardens.


On the plane back, we were saying how that it was only a year ago that we were seriously discussing about living overseas and how blessed we are to be experiencing so many beautiful places in the world.

Sydney Spring Cycle

We were up early yesterday morning to head down to the starting point for the Sydney Spring Cycle. When we left home just before 7am it was raining and a bit windy, I felt like jumping back into bed and waiting until next year! Our friends arrived at our place and we took the train to North Sydney Esther and Joeley getting off a few stops earlier to be in a spot to watch us cycle across the famous bridge.

The route started from North Sydney park which gave us a good run back down towards and across the bridge. It was great to cycle across the bridge and take in the fantastic city / harbour views. A wave to Esther and Joeley as we arrive at the other side of the bridge and we head west following the harbour coast / parramatta river.

Dan, Becky, Chris and Me crossing the bridge

The ride was fairly laid back and leisurely with each of the three rest stops giving us chance to re-charge before the next leg. We completed the 50km by cycling down the 'home stretch' in front of the Telstra Stadium the former Olympic stadium. It was a great to be one of the 10,000 cyclists who took part in the event and I will maybe consider joining in next year. The challenge now is to start regularly cycling in to work!


In other news... we have found another place to live just two roads away from where we are now! From the many places we have seen over the past couple of weeks this is the one to suit us. A few papers to sign and then we will be settled for the next chunk of time in Sydney. :-)

We are heading to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast later this week. I travel up on Thursday for a work conference and then Esther follows me on the Friday morning. We are going to drive on from the Gold Coast to spend the weekend exploring Brisbane and meeting up with a friend I worked with when I was working in Birmingham. So no doubt there will be more photos soon...

On the move

This week we found out that we are going to have to move out in six weeks when our lease is up :-( We were hoping to extend for another 6 months, but nevermind! We settled here quickly and are hoping to find a place in the same area. So the search for a new place has been occupying most of Esther's afternoons last week. Yesterday we were walking through the suburbs viewing potential places in temperatures reaching 40 degrees. It was hard work! Of the six we saw only one had some potential so the search continues this week.

Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, as we found when we first arrived, is a fierce rental market where you have to be prepared to put the deposit down there and then to have any chance of beating the competition. So we will let you know how it goes in the next few weeks...

Aside from the house hunting we went to see Cirque du Soleil's Varekai , a show we have wanted to see for sometime. It was a truly spectacular event with unbelievable human juggling (yep people juggling people) and highflying acrobatics. Highly recommended if it passes through where you are.

My training for next Sunday's Spring Cycle has been going well since the 'flatty' incident during the first attempt. I have been out regularly to Centennial Park to complete numerous 3.8km laps. Just today I hit my target of 12 laps approx 50km including the trip to and from the park. After yesterday's heat, today the weather was more bearable which was a big help, lets hope for a cool day and not many uphills next Sunday. I am looking forward to the day and hope to have some stories to tell next week.

We've enjoyed meeting new people and making new friends at Church recently. Following the Saturday night service we joined a group from 'Frontline' (25 - 35s) for ten pin bowling at the Sydney Entertainment Quarter. It was a good chance to chat and catch up, but it was a shame I didn't win ten pin bowling!

We've just cracked open series four of 24, which we've been wanting to do for a while, so I'm off to watch another episode...

Long Weekend

The past weekend was a bank holiday in New South Wales which gave us more time to explore further afield. We made a few day trips, one to the north and one to the south of Sydney.

Avoca beach (below) - beautiful quiet beach on the central coast.

Shot looking up the central coast towards Terrigal. We did a short bush walk down along the coast to the nearest beach you can see on the picture.

Later in the day we headed to a place called The Entrance which is home to hundreds of pelicans. We arrived in time to see the local "Pelican feeding team" dish out the fish.

On the Sunday we headed south to Stanwell Park which has a historic association with man's quest for flight. Stanwell park is where Lawrence Hargrave carried out some tests flights to assist the Wright brothers. (OK I took that bit out of a book!) According to our book the spot is still a popular destination for paragliders and hangliders, although we didn't see any on the day. In the afternoon we made a quick trip to Symbio Wildlife Park which is home to many native Australian animals.

Yesterday I was all psyched up to do 6 laps around centennial parks (about 10 miles) with a couple of friends. Conveniently I got a "flatty" just as I was coming to the end of the first lap! We are debating whether to do the 50km Spring Cycle event which includes cycling over the Harbour Bridge. There's only a few weeks to go, so hope the training goes better next time!!