GOOD MORNING, BREAKFAST IS SERVED...

Woke up one morning to find this for breakfast, courtesy of hubby on one of his creative moods...

EPISODE 32: LEARNING TO CYCLE

We gave Jordie a new bike for his 8th birthday in advance. He was so pleased with his groovy-looking bike and helped dad fix it up yesterday in our garage....

...then off they went complete with protective gear, helmet, long pants and all to learn how to ride the bike. He managed to learn it in less than 2 hours,... and loves it very much. Another mindset hurdle conquered, because he was a little overwhelmed initially with riding on a real bike with no trainer wheels, but I guess, after scootering around for months, the balancing knowhow did make learning to ride the bike a whole lot easier...

TAMBORINE MOUNTAIN

Have been waiting to explore the food and wine trail in the Hinterland of Gold Coast all these months and finally, we get to do so today! This part of Gold Coast is totally a different world from the sunny beach culture of the east. Further into the Hinterland and up Mt. Tambourine, it is hilly, surrounded by bushes & tree forests and wide expanse of land, about 40km away from the city area. We went primarily for some wine-tasting today and a look-see at this different part of GC. Gold Coast is not super famous for its wines, as the weather isn't optimum here for vineyards, but there are some good boutique wineries on the hills that churn out decent bottles of fine wines at good prices. We visited several wineries, one of which was the Cedar Creek Estate...

..of course not taste all you like, you were only allowed to sample 2 types of wine... and pay extras to sample the rest.

The Wild Duck Lake at Cedar Creek Estate

and also to visit the Glow-worm caves attached next to it. This is an artificially-built cave to cultivate and sustain glow-worms, a very strange creature with lights emanating from its butts..It seems they can be very useful things for cancer research as well as being an efficient bio-energy source for lights. It was only a small cave and very dark,

The entrance to the glow-worm caves..

but was interesting to see the 'starry' look on the cave walls. Unfortunately not allowed to take pictures so, this shot, I borrowed from the internet to show those creatures displaying their glowing bums...

A good educational tour, but methinks the New Zealand one might be better as it is natural and larger... Next stop was the Gallery Walk at Eagle's Heights which has this row of interesting shops selling chocolates, handicrafts, art pieces, cuckoo clocks, yummy fudge squares and candies..

I loved the German cuckoo clock shop and Jordan thot all the clocks were mad as in 'gone cuckoo'..had to explain why they were named cuckoo clocks.. On the way, we stopped by a shop to buy avocadoes.. $2 for a big bag of 7... We also tasted wine at Witches Fall Winery, another wine estate. I was joking that if the cops ever did a random breath test here, everyone would flunk miserably after all the wine-tasting!!

This was one of our first stops, we saw the word 'COFFEE' and our tyres screeched to a stop... gotta have our cuppa, OF COURSE! So here it was, the Mount Tamborine coffee plantation...

small but quaint place... lovely smooth latte and coconut cheesecake. ..Saw coffee beans for 1st time in their natural unroasted form. The skin is actually quite sweet like grape skin and the bean is pale yellowish colour and covered with gooey slime... one of the workers (or owner maybe) told me the birds do eat some of them but they get kinda 'high' so they don't worry too much about them eating too much!

Mount Tamborine also has quite a number of beer breweries but we didn't stop by any of those spots.. we were also on the lookout for the cheese factory but couldn't seem to locate it, unfortunately...They had lots of lovely lodges and holiday units in quaint cottages available for those who wish to stay the night. There are also some waterfalls in the nature parks, which we didn't get to explore. Nice place, would definitely come back to re-explore and recommend it as a laidback holiday outing for those who love foods, wine and scenic drives.

DUST STORM MAY DROP 2ND LOAD...

Oh, oh not good.. just saw the sky turning yellow again. The 2nd dust storm may hit again tonite and we shall awaken to Armageddon skies again. so we are sleeping with all windows shut tight for tonite.. and why did I stupidly go wash my car this morning... for what????

The air feels thick and heavy like dust creeping in... yikes... Lord please send the rain.. we pray...

It seems that this was an 8 year build-up of drought which bundled up sand, dust and all into a heap in the atmosphere. The minute there was a huge wind, all these particles were sent all over. Places all over had looked creepy like Mars or Armageddon-style..Planes could not take off or land...

EPISODE 31: FIRE ON MY STREET!

Scarcely after the dust had settled from the dust storm 2 days ago, another event today. A huge fire broke out in one of my neighbours' house. Thick black fumes crept all across the neighbourhood and I yelled to Samuel to please close all the windows. I had done enuff dust busting 2 days earlier and didn't need another round!! We looked out and saw the house going up in smoke.

Soon, fire engines, police patrol and ambulances came screeching to our street including tv station crew and news reporters. Curious, concerned neighbours from the area all started flocking round to see the scene. The lady in the house had burnt her hands...and thick smoke was choking us. I went out to fetch Jordan home because he was playing at a neighbour's house but smoke was so thick, we had to crouch down and hold a towel over our mouths until the smoke blew off. For the kids, it was their very first close encounter with a fire and the rescue squad, so must have been ultra-drama and excitement for them...they forgot they were inhaling smoke!!

Some people were guessing her notebook got overcharged and exploded. Poor thing! My neighbour Ann first saw signs of smoke and quickly alerted the fire engine to come. So, she was the heroine of the day! This is her taking snapshots of her own home as part of her lawn was being taped off by police as no entry area...don't get dramas like this everyday so she figures this will be nice for her scrapbooking, haha!

Enough excitement for this week, hopefully no more events....

YELLOW YELLOW DIRTY FELLOW

Yesterday had the strangest experience since our move here to Gold Coast. A major dust-storm coming from New South Wales hit Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney as well many other places. I woke up in the morning to see the sky was an unusual yellow colour.. hmm what was this, I thot? Haze? From Indonesia/.... that potent?? Cannot be...How strange... I tried to smell the air for smoke, but could not detect much burning smell, just felt thick, dense and yucky kinda feeling. I did see people lopping off trees along the road, and I thot maybe a major storm was on its way but why the colour? While we were on our way to visit Mum Beryl who was ill at the Gold Coast Hospital, the wind suddenly whipped up and we found ourselves fighting our way into the hospital!! It felt like a sandstorm, but not so strong... the sun was blue or whitish blue in colour, visibility was really poor, our eyes smarted, and noses were acting up..

When we went back later that day, I found to my horror, dust was everywhere in the house as well!! I did a major cleaning session dust-busting the whole house! Vaccuum, mop, wash, change bed linens just to get the dust off... Next time, I've learnt my lesson well- if yellow-looking sky ever appears, do not leave the house with windows open,,, even for 1 cm apart!! AARGH! Jordan and daddy had to lift their feet up while I frantically mopped the floor, nobody move, nobody step anywhere till I am done...while I declared war on dust in the house... Today, was so glad to see the skies blue again. Thank God for fresh and clean air again...

EPISODE 30: MANNA

I get things like that happening to me every now and then. Yesterday morning, the closest thing to 'manna' happened to me. For those who are not familiar with what 'manna' is, read the bible, Exodus 16:31- heaven-sent bread.... I found we were out of bread and I'd wanted to give bread to Jordan for breakfast. Suddenly, my opposite neighbour came over and probably not wanting to disturb me, started to tie a large bag of stuff on my fence. She didn't see us because our blinds were half-down. Hmm... what now? Went out to check and what do you know? Whole bag of bread goodies! Pecan cinnamon, garlic butter, chocolate buns... all the premium stuff.. which I usually don't buy because too expensive. Now, if you don't call that manna of the day, I don't know what you call it..... Thank God for blessings... and very timely at that!

EPISODE 29: GOLD COAST HOSPITAL & SOUTHPORT

My 1st visit to the Gold Coast Hospital, and so far, have never ventured out to Southport yet and today, finally conquer another zone..

Mum Beryl had fallen ill and was hospitalised several days, so I went to visit her. Brought with me some vege soup which I hoped she would be well enough to try.

Parking was really hard to find and after circling around, finally found one metered bay. Beryl was in isolation ward, as they couldn't figure out yet if she had TB. So, before going in to see her, I had to don a mask, vest and rubber gloves, yikes! Felt like I was going into an operation theatre or something. She was happily watching tennis on TV, so she was probably not in too bad a shape.

She didn't recognise me initially because I was so covered up!! but was happy to see me, unfortunately no appetite to eat the soup I brought. We chatted for a bit and it was a relief to see she was not too sickly. Just that they had to keep her in for observation in case what she had was infectious and they were draining fluid from her lungs. Interestingly, her doctor came in to check on her and turns out he was also a Malaysian from KL with a heavy 'ah' accent. So I thot it pretty funny, here was Beryl in the same room with her Malaysian friend and Malaysian doctor...

When I left and discarded the gloves, they left that sickly rubber smell on my hands, yikes, hate it!! I was sweating all over from the coat and mask I had to put on; my fingers were clammy wet from sweat... hope they take her out of isolation soon, poor lady... and poor visitors if they need to put those on everytime.

Later went off to explore Australia Fair shopping centre to unwind after that sweaty hospital visit. Needed some fresh air, had a coconut drink and sandwich for lunch. Southport is one of the busier parts of Gold Coast. It is also one of the older areas and they are going to be building an airtrain station here soon to faciliate workers and students in this area. It is also home to Griffith Uni and Tafe college as well, next to Australia Fair.

Lots of Asians and internationals swarming this side of town- probably students for those colleges. I went to this Asian store and saw some mooncakes but then decided they weren't worth buying. Not exactly craving for them either. At $31.00 x 3= now that works out to about RM$93 per box of 4!! um...kinda like eating gold nuggets. ..nah it's alright! shelve it...