Australia 2019 - Blog #1

On Saturday, after 27 hours of travelling, we finally landed safely at Brisbane Airport at 4am Brisbane time. I was my usual Zombie-like self, after an arduous long haul flight, during which I didn't sleep a wink. I tried using a newly purchased neck cushion and took a Dr Bach's night melt, which usually does the trick at home, but no joy, sadly.

We were lucky though, to be picked up from the airport by my sister and her family who have taken great care of us for the past two days and we are now well on our way to getting over the inevitable jet lag. I've just gone with the desire to sleep when it hits, which I know people say isn't a good idea, but sometimes it's just impossible to resist it. It has been lovely to spend a couple of days with my sister and her family catching up with each other's news and just spending time together.

We are now feeling a lot better.  We still get tired in the afternoons and have short sleeps, but I think that another day or so and we'll be back to normal, which is much quicker than our last visit, which took almost a whole week of waking at 3am, before I got back to a normal sleeping pattern.

Yesterday, OH, LB and I packed what we needed and headed down to the Gold Coast for a few days in our hire car.  It's only an hour or so from Brisbane, so it wasn't far to go. We were early for our apartment, so headed off to do a food shop. I ended up buying a new jacket for £15, as it has been quite cold these last couple of days, and I didn't have anything suitable to wear outside on chilly mornings and evenings.  The jacket was inexpensive though, as it was reduced from £40 in the sale and looks pretty good on, so I'm fairly happy with it and more importantly, I feel warm in it.

LB and I also visited a Japanese store called Daiso, which is a kind of Japanese pound shop, although most things cost £1.50, not £1.  I bought a few bits in there that will be useful back home.

When we finally got into our apartment, I have to admit that it was a little disappointing in comparison to the website photos, but it is perfectly adequate.  It does have great views of the ocean and the mountains though, and is in a quiet part of the resort, which suits us and which more than compensated.

My sister may join us later in the week for a night or two and we should be visiting OH's cousin and his family who live here, in a couple of days time.

In the afternoon, we took a short walk on the beach, which is just across the road, but it was a little chilly today, so we didn't swim. We checked out the apartment facilities too, which include a tennis court, (we're booked in to have a game this morning at 8am), a squash court, a small gym with rowing machine (the only thing I ever use), indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a sauna.  Plenty to enjoy and make use of during our stay.

Today, I think we'll hit the pool or beach and then maybe head down to Surfer's Paradise, a busier part of the resort for a good look around.