Up, Up and Away

We are flying on a new airline today - Tiger Airways (they are the low cost version of Singapore airlines) they are taking us to ???? (Guess where and no, its not Singapore, its somewhere in Australia)

This is Coolangatta airport, above

And this is our destination - below - who knows, or wants to guess where it is.

The unusual things you see

Driving around today we saw this establishment and had to take a photo. I have never seen these 2 businesses combined before...

This is the dog wash part. While I was taking the photos, an employee came over and asked what I was doing - I said taking pictures, and they wanted to know why. I said I thought it was an unusual combined business. He was not pleased?!

Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next

This is the slogan for Queensland and it is so true - the weather has been wonderful about 88 F (28 C) each day, with hardly a cloud in the sky and a soft ocean breeze. We have been having a lazy time - a little bit of shopping (but with the Ozzie dollar at .92c US) - there are NO bargains! But basically we are just relaxing.

Surfer's Paradise - ariel view
Board riders

The Beach

The other night there was LOTS of activity as one of the Schoolies had got lost in the surf, and they had all the helicopters up searching for him - and it was just outside my parents apartment - he has not been found, as yet.

One of the parking meter attendants in Surfers Paradise.

Today we decided to go to a country dog show about a 2 hour drive NW of here - held inland, it was very hot there - the show was due to start at 4pm, we arrived at 3pm and took a look around the grounds, which were set up - see picture below
The grounds were very dry with prickly grass and ants abounded. There were only a handful of beagles entered, saw a couple and decided that as the coolest place was our car, that there was not much point hanging around, so we drove back home!
Still we saw some lovely rural views along the way

Schoolies??

After a hot weekend in Sydney (110 degrees F) and a brief visit to the dog show and visits with friends, we flew to Queensland, to stay with my parents for a week or so. During our visit we have some exciting things planned - Swine Flu shots! - its not flu season here, being summer, so the vaccine is available.

The big news here is that it's Schoolies week - what is this you ask.... it is the Australian tradition of high school graduates (Schoolies) having week long holidays following their final examinations. Queensland's Gold Coast, particularly Surfers Paradise is the largest single venue for this revelry attracting tens of thousands of Schoolies. This brings with it, binge drinking, drugs, sex and arrests in what has become a rite of passage experience. And it actually lasts more than a week as the different states have "their" week, at different times.

We have avoided all this nonsense and are just enjoying the sun, and great weather - 80 degrees, with a cool sea breeze and the wonderful fresh fruit.

Where our travels are taking us.

For all those guessing, we were in Singapore.


What does the above photo have to do with our trip, well its a Fish Pedicure - Singapore style! Followers of the blog will remember we did this last year also. We enjoyed it so much we returned for another session. Only this time we progressed from the small Turkish Spa Fish to the larger African Spa fish - there are more aggressive and you can definitely feel them nibbling on you (or as David found - really make you feet tickle!) Still they do a great job and our feet are really smooth, now.

Then we flew to Sydney, there was such a strong tailwind that our 7 hour flight took 6 hours. But as a result it was very bumpy.

Saturday saw us at the dog show, but due to the heat there were many absentees and only 6 beagles showed, after watching the breed we left the show and went up to Leura in the Blue Mountains, hoping it would be cooler there, but it wasn't - it was still 100+

Then back to Sydney to catch up with friends (Leanne, Christophe & baby Harry), for a Bar-b-q dinner then back to the hotel to update my blog!

Random sight today - a fast food chicken burger and chicken sausage shop called "Plucked"

Guess where I am #2

We are heading here in the morning - weather permitting - yes its a Botanic garden - but where? However the rain fell and so we had to go shopping!!

This second picture almost gives it away..... as to guess where I am?

Audiobooks and other things

I had a long drive up and back to Seattle today and so had a lots of time to listen to the latest audio book I had downloaded and it was really good! The miles and the time (all 6 hours of driving) just flew by - the book was the Chopin Manuscript - it's a thriller, but the unusual part is that it is a unique collaboration among 15 distinguished international thriller writers who came together to create a single audio book with each author contributing a chapter to the ongoing story. If you like this sort of thing - try it - I got it for my iPod. And there is a sequel... Now tomorrow we have a long flight and so I am actually looking forward to listen to the "rest of the story"
The 2 shows this weekend were a success, with Thomas, our Danish boy winning Group 3 one day and Group 4 the other day. So that's it for us, as far as shows go for this year. Now in Australia we were planning to go to a big show in Sydney this weekend, but with very high temperatures expected, it may be called off or just have a very low entry. Will report back soon.

Packing, packing....

We are off tomorrow to shows in Monroe, WA which has this beautiful Cascade Mountain range as a backdrop. Hopefully it wont be too chilly and will be dry - well we can but hope! Just one dog to show so an easy weekend. Then just one day at home, before we head to Australia.

Back Home

I arrived home after a weekend in Houston, Texas with a stop in the Denver airport in each direction - and these were the answers to the "where am I" questions...many people guessed correctly.
Saw some very nice dogs and enjoyed the company of friends - so I had a lovely time in Texas.

Which airport am I in?

Which airport features two cast bronze gargoyles, one each, located in the east and west sides of the baggage-claim areas. The gargoyles, roughly the size of a fifth-grade boy, are seated inside suitcases. Historically, gargoyles were placed on buildings to protect the site. These are placed slightly above the travelers’ heads to oversee and ensure that baggage will arrive safely at xxx airport..