From Surfers With Love

Hello!

We are writing this directly from our new home in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, following a morning where we enjoyed our first surfing lesson...but more on that later! It maybe around 6-7 weeks since our last post as life certainly has got a lot busier for us. At the time of our encounter with a feral rooster, Alex had an interview at a restaurant here in Surfers. The next day he was invited back for a second a week later, so with a week to kill we decided to head off on a little road tour of the hinterland west of Brisbane, circling back to the Gold Coast (henceforth to be called the Goldie as it is known in these parts!). After dropping in for a visit to see our friends Tim and Olivia, which is now mandatory whenever we are near Brisbane, we set off North by Northwest.

The following week was a beautiful, but occasionally chilly (it was the tail end of winter and Westerly winds can be seriously brutal) week in and around an area known as the Darling Downs. We picked our way through miles of grain-coloured, rolling Aussie pastoral land, so different to the sub tropical rainforest that blankets most of the east coast from Sydney to Bundaberg, dropping in to small farming towns and some astounding National Parks. Chief among these was a lake we camped by in Crows Nest National Park, an idyllic spot well off the usual backpacker trail, where we shared the site with 4 other vans and around 50-60 wild, grey kangaroos. Our reaction at first was to slam on the brakes and jump out to snap some photos of them, as these were the first wild kangaroos we had seen that weren't road kill, but as the sunset all we needed to do was sit outside Bruce and watch them play, feed and even box in the case of two males! For us this place was one of our favourites so far but we're sure a new challenger won't be too far down the track!

The final leg of the week involved an afternoon at Mount Tamborine, back near the Goldie. However after a beautiful day driving around and walking at some waterfalls we encountered a slight mechanical issue with Bruce, as after a very steep, prolonged descent off the mountain he decided to set on fire! Alex hadn't noticed but had pulled off the road to allow the traditional queue of traffic that Bruce always collects, to pass us by when Rhiannon noticed smoke pouring out from underneath! We both leapt free of Bruce and noticed a small fire in one of his front wheels causing some panic between us. A quick check of the engine compartment revealed the fire was completely in the wheel and after a few saucepans of water (and Rhiannon ripping the tap off the sink!) the flames were quenched. Both sets of brakes were so hot that what followed was a 45 minute period cooling off period for (both us and the brakes) and then a very thorough brake test to ensure we could drive on. Thankfully there was no issue there so gingerly we made camp and took him to a mechanic the next day, who revealed the bearings in the wheel that caught fire had failed, cooking the grease to such a temperature it ignited, before making us feel much better about the whole thing by letting us know us, and our brakes,were not the first victims of Tambourine Mountain they'd had to repair!

The next day Alex reported for his second interview, which turned out to be more of a formality, as he was advised that he had got the job (as a bartender in a brand new restaurant in Surfers Paradise) and to report for training 4 days later on the following Monday. Result!

What then followed was a mad scramble for us to find a place to live! After lots of email replies to enquiries stating "NO COUPLES!" and 2 viewings, one in a not very nice shared house which was littered with garish (and in some cases quite large) china statures of tigers and clowns for some reason,and another where we never got called back (how rude), we found our current apartment and flat mates right near the beach in Surfers Paradise. They are a lovely English couple called Ashley and Danielle, who have been here for a couple of years now and have made us feel really at home and welcome! We live in a 2 bed flat, on the 6th floor of an apartment block (with a pool!) and ocean views from our balcony, plus it's only a 5 minute walk to work for Alex and on the bus route to Bond University for Rhiannon's work, it really ticks all the boxes! And Bruce is safe and sound and has a made a home for himself in the secure car park in the basement of the building.

The View from our balcony

Work for Rhiannon has been going well, she is constantly getting great feedback for the facilitators and participants on how good her level of acting and understanding of the roles is. Unfortunately the academic year finishes here in December so that work will dry up until the end of January but luckily she has got a Christmas job at Cotton On, a really cool high street fashion store! And after studying several medical journals for six modules and writing many mini essays she is now a graduate of Australia's National course in Healthcare Simulation... woo hoo!

Work for Alex has been a bit crazy, lots of 40-50 hour weeks, so long days and not so early nights as the restaurant opened and then settled down into a routine. It's a great Rib and Steak grill restaurant chain called Hurricane's, branching out for the first time from the  Sydney area. The restaurant itself is set on the beachfront, which means Alex's "office" has panoramic views of the ocean and all that entails! He was a bit rusty on the old cocktails and coffee front, but has settled in well and is making pretty damn good cocktails now, as well allowing both of us to a bunch of new friends from a variety of countries to go along with our great flat mates!

Here's a link to the restaurant if any of you want to have a nose at the restaurant and menu:

https://surfers.hurricanesgrill.com.au/

Despite the long hours we have still been finding time to do more than just sit by the pool if we have a day off together, although we do that quite a lot! Danielle and Ashley have taken us back to Tambourine Mountain (not in Bruce though!) for a classic Sunday roast in a traditional English pub. Then we went whale watching out on the ocean to see humpback whales up close and personal, a truely beautiful experience where we got to see these graceful creatures play around our boat, leaping from the water and slapping the surface with their tails, something we didn't want to end. Even though we had seen this out at sea from our balcony and even for Alex standing behind the bar at work, to get so close just left us speechless!

Then last Saturday our plans to have Tim and Liv visit us here and for us to be the hosts for a change sadly fell through, but on the spur of the moment and in the spirit of our travels we went to...the ballet! Yes that's right, we saw the Imperial Russian Ballet at the Gold Coast Arts Centre. Alex had never been to the ballet before but was just as keen as Rhiannon, and we weren't disappointed. Act 1 was the Nutcracker, followed by Bolero for Act 2 and finishing with a final act comprising of ballets greatest hits, with dances from Carmen, Gisele, Don Quixoti and culminating in a rousing performance of the Can Can for the finale. All in all it was one of the best performances of anything either of us had ever seen!

Which leads us right up to today, where we took part in our first ever attempt at surfing down at Currumbin. Getting up earlier than we've become accustomed to we drove down, slapped on our board shorts, rasher shirts and sunblock, then jumped in the ocean with a mixed degree of results for both of us. It was great fun and we both managed to stand up on the board several times, those fleeting moments keenly injecting the surfing bug into us. Feeling exhilarated, salty, windswept and tired (a feeling known as being "surfed out") we are now writing this very blog to you all!

So you can see we have a number of very good reasons for not blogging in a while but know that we are thinking of you all and sending love

Alex and Rhiannon x