onwards to KL

~Sun 3-4-11 Got up at 5.30am, said goodbye to a very tearful Dawn. who in turn made me cry. Drive to airport was effortless with little or no traffic. Took car back to hertz and made way into airport Ken had already checked in on line so just a bag drop and leave Melbourne at 10am. Arrived in KL at 8.30pm and took shuttle bus to Concorde Hotel for an overnight stay.l Got up early again and it was raining stair rods, went to breakfast at 6am and took taxi at 7am to budget airport for a 45 min flight to Penang, an hours taxi drive and we arrived at lone Pine Resort. Room is lovely but we are overlooking the kitchen and car park Ken not too happy but then the lad drops the bombshell that the pool will be out of bounds for at least three days, and it was quite noisy work they were doing. As we are only here for three days I thought Ken was going to explode. You have to be careful with these people they do not like angry people so I had to leave Ken to deal with it. He asked to see the Manager which he duly did, he was full of apologies and said he would move us but could do nothing about the pool except let us use the neighbouring hotels pool, not good enough says Ken, this is a special break for our 40th Wedding anniversary and it has cost a lot of money to stay here, it is expensive for Malaysian hotels. Well we checked out two rooms and they were crap, not revamped like the rest of the place and they smelt fusty, even with a sea view I could not be tempted. So we went back to room and waited and waited until we were taken to suite, three floors up and it was fantastic, tried not to look too enthusiatic but I wanted those rooms, hehe. We have sea view, swimming pool view, garden view, the lot, and we have a kitchen, complete with microwave (not that we will be using that), fancy coffee machine, dining area, and lounge area, large bedroom, two teles, lovely bathroom and shower, two balconies, one with outside spa bath, this will do for me Jimmy,. Anyway a little while later we have a chocolate cake delivered to our room with Happy 40th anniversary iced on it, tastes yummy too. Later on the manager caught up with us in the garden and told us some fruit was being delivered to our room, the staff keep wishing us Happy Anniversary and the Manager tonight asked me if I was happy with everything and guess what from 7am in the morning the pool will be reopened, they have worked their little socks off this afternoon, working long after the 5pm deadline, bless em. So tomorrow should be a lot quieter. Had our food at the food court outside the hotel, lovely grub, then did a stroll along the night market, someone got knocked over and they waited half an hour for an ambulance he did not look good.

melobourne cont

Sat 2-4-11 Lazy day, who said that I did washing,ironing and repacked both suitcases whilst Ken went to watch Paige in her netball tournament with Dawn and Paul, her team won. In the afternoon Ken took Dylan and Dawn to his basket ball game and Paul went to the wreckers yard to get her another car part.I had a leisurely shower, did my hair, and face booked for a while. In the evening we went out for a meal with Dawn and Paul, Shelley and Kenny to thre Red Salmon where we had a good meal. It was a lovely evening. Did no stay up too late tonight as we leave early in the morning.

melbourne cont

Friday 1-4-11 April Fools Day and Dawn decided to ring Paul and tell him that the battery he had bought for her car the day before was a duff one, he was furious, until he found out he had been had We took Dawn to the Caribean market a usual haunt for us, Paige one to school as she hates the market! The Friday market is not as good as the Wednesday one not enough stalls still big and we enjoyed it. We then went onto Knox city, a bigger version of Queensgate and it has a large food court where we had lunch. Took Dawn home and later left to go and visit Monica and Owen in Frankston arriving just before 4pm. She had made a real effort considering she cant cook! She had made both a meat lasagne and a spinach and ricotta lasagne with salad, followed by lemon meringue and chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake shop and they were delicious, Her two daughters and a boyfriend visited and ate with us it was lovely to see them all again and Monica cried when we left at 9.30pm, an hours drive back,

Melbourne cont

Weds 30-3-11 Early risers going to Moaba for an overnight stay in one of Pauls mates sisters unit (bungalow to us). Its a 3 hour drive from Melbourne we called in McDonalds as we had promised Paige we would, then onto the town of Bendigo where we visited the historic pottery, wish I could have brought some home it was all lovely I got roped into having a go on the potters wheel alongside Paige who is somewhat of a expert and I am a complete novice but the potter had a lot of patience and I produced two dishes with lots of help from him. However the latst bowl I made on my own and I am really chuffed with it, it is now being fired and glazed and will beposted to Dawn in acouple of weeks and she will forward it on. Onto Euchar went down to the mighty Murray River to see the grand old paddle steamers in action, now onto Moamba. Its a lovely unit we are staying in, went 9ut and got bread and milk Dawn has bought some food lots of pokie machines etc but we had a delicious inexpensive meal, the place was packed. After a chat over a bottle of wine we retired to bed at 11pm. The bed is comfy and we have a good nights sleep. Thurs 31-3-11 Heading back to Melbourne this morning via Yarrawonga where Dawn andPaul have a holiday timeshare unit, stopping off for a ~subway in Yarrawonga town, Ken fancies a week here so maybe we will come back after all, I sincerely hope so but somehow doubt it. Its a lovely place with plenty to do. Arrive back in Melbourne had a lovely coffee and eclair from bakers around 4pm. Lois aand Mal come over in the evening and we all have fish and chips.

Melbourne Tues 29-3-11 Arrived at Tullamarine Airport and proceeded to check in with Hertz car hire, quick service and we go to car park to pick up a lovely white Camry which is a big automatic, a pleasure to drive. I have done much more driving this year and I am pleased to have done my share. Set sat nav for Dawns and off we go, no hitches along the way and we arrive in just under an hour, as it is earlier than expected Dawn is down at the school collecting Paige, so we went to Coles, Liquorland and cake shop!! Dawn and Paige gave us an overwhelming welcome. On going down to our bedroom we found Paige had made up a sweetie jar for us and tied it with ribbon and Dawn had placed an enormous bouquet of lillies for me as a late gift for my 60th. After Paul and Dylan came home Dawn cooked us cottage pie with chips and salad and it was very welcome. Had a good chat with them and a catch up on everyone news and then to bed for an early start as Paul had booked a unit for us in Moamba and I have no idea where that is!! draft

Braeside

Sun Had a delicious freshly cooked full english breakfast with fruit toast etc, set us up for day, had a nice chat with the owner sitting on their verandah overlooking all the mountains how lucky they are, lovely parrots, galahs and it made my day when a wallaby came onto the lawn to have a look at us eating our brekky. Janice went off to brisbane to a craft fair, Brisbane is 2 hours away but to them its like us popping into town. We went off to Bangalow Sunday market about 45 mins away, it was a huge market, crafts, produce, loads of different foods to try, we had an organic blackberry jam filled massive doughnut the best we have ever eaten. Spent the morning here no problem could have spent a fortune but unfortunately cant get the stuff home, there were buskers there and it was lovely but very very busy. We then took ourselves off to Tweed Heads, I drove, have done a lot of driving, Ken still gets tired so dont want him over doing things. Tweed Heads is absolutely stunning, two beaches, one in Queensland and the other in NSW. Great hot day again and the surfers are out in force have never seen so many in one place not even at Bondi Beach. Had freshly cooked Barrimundi and Snapper for lunch, found an internet cafe as Paula had sent message to Dawn to get us to check our e mails, Air Asia have changed our flight to Penang, thankfully it is half an hour earlier!! Got back to our cabin around tea time, showered etc and off to the pub for some food, certainly see life here, all hillbillys, hats and beards to boot, but friendly aliens. Monday 28-3-11 Delicious breakfast again this morning at 8am, sat on verandha talking to Keith and Janice until 9,30am then we had to say goodbye, to head off to Brisbane which thankfully is an hour behind here so it is really only 8.30am. Drove past brisbane to a place called Redcliffe, bit disappointing, many places still closed from the floods went to Tourist Info who were as much use as a chocolate tea pot so we headed back to the centre and booked into a motel just 25 mins from airport for our flight tomorrow to Melbourne, Dawn phoned she is so excited cooking us a meal tomorrow night which I am looking forward to and shes got the wine coooling!! Went out tonight and had chinese at a noodle bar lovely. Catch ya later xx

Thurs

Second day at Caribean Hotel, took drive to to Sawtell Beach where we had breakfast in town after wandering around we decided to head for the rainforest centre, it was lovely and we went onto Danger Falls after all the rain in the area there was plenty of water around another hot day, headed back for a late afternoon return. We had done a lot of walking today an decided to pop across and get fish and chips which we ate in our room and they were lovely, especially being washed down with a beer and glass of wine. Friday 25-3-11 Left fairly early after a freshly cooked breakfast at the motelmthis was run by a lovely couple. We headed off to Byron Bay which was packed, with scantily dressed people, camper vans and it seemed if you were over 20 you were too old to be there! It is a lovely place tho, old colonial buildings all down the main streets and the beach was lovely, we decided not to stay here and instead we headed off into the rain forest to a tiny village called Uki, on the edge of Mt Warning an defunct volcano, we phoned a place called Braeside B & B and our faithfull sst nav got us there around 2pm it is so beautiful here surrounded by peace and quiet and mountains, we are staying in a wooden cabin with all facilities, needs a bit of tlc but its okay, real nice couple who are looking to move as Keith husband is 74 and suffering from shingles!!! and its all too much for him how , whoever buys it will get a bargain and it could be made into a spectacular home, its a real oldy day homestead. Janice is a very clever lady who makes patchwork quilts etc paints does everything really showed me some gorgeous items she has made. After settling in showering etc we went into the village we are very high up, up a winding drive, so Im not driving down that thank you very much! 'We ate a pub meal in the only pub along with all the locals all pissed out of there heads and very talkative.l