I'm not going to recount every single detail of what's happened so far - it's too much to go into now really! I do however have a prepared essay to type up - but be warned, it does turn into a bit of a rant!
It's very beautiful here, set up in the hills (what hills?) of the Sunshine Coast, it's surrounded by trees and nature. There are chickens, and ducks and guinea pigs and a cat and 3 dogs and 4 horses. It's good. :)
Wednesday 8th December:
I was up before the sun! I got up at 4.30am to help Silvia (my hostess) to help set up here lemonade stall in the local market, which by the way is enormous. They literally spread over the entire town on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and cover a substantial part on a Thursday evening during the holidays when the Night Market takes place. By 7am we were up and running and ready to sell lemonade. However, even in Australia there isn't all that much call for refreshing cold drinks at that time and any potential customers were genereally lured away by the charismatic worker at the coffee stand next door. I was sent off to find some breakfast and after a plate of Poffertjes (that's dutch for tiny little pancakes) I located the fresh fruit stall and bought myself half a kilo of cherries. Usually my sister and I can demolish a kilo in about 30 seconds flat. So the fact that I couldn't even finish the ones I bought in a quite a lengthy sitting, suggests to me that really Tory must eat the majority of the ones we 'share'. :D
Anyway, the market was brilliant and absolutely everything you could imagine was for sale. I even enjoyed serving the drinks at Silvia's stall. (So if the engineering malarky falls through, I could always set up shop in Otley market, although I'm not sure if there is any call for refreshing cold drinks at any time in Otley...
In addition to the fun of the market, I also got to explore the town itself a bit too. I found myself (it runs in the family) in a bookshop. It was a reasonably sized bookshop and apparently prized itself on being Australia's oldest bookseller. Given that in Oz, a building which has been around for 20 years is considered vintage, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it had been around since 1812. That's practically medieval over here! Berkelouw Books is a lovely shop - possibly the Wigtown Bookshop of Austalia, although it does have a section for new releases in the front. The Wigtown Bookshop, for those who are unfamiliar with it (which I'm assuming is the majority), is the Holy Grail of second hand bookshops. It's the best bookshop in Galloway, no, Scotland, no, the world. It's incredible. I have to admit though, that Berkelouw Books did surpass the Wigtown Bookshop in one criterion; the attached coffee shop was far superior to the coffee machine in the otherwise best bookshop in the world.
This leads me on to something which I have been feeling for some time now - well at least since I arrived in Oz. (P.S. Rant alert) It's not homesickness, although it's true that I'm missing my family and friends and countless animals much more than I expected to. Actually, I'm probably missing the animals about as much as I expected to. But it's not Yorkshire I'm yearning for, as I expected to, not Ilkley Moor, the Cow and Calf, Leeds, Harrogate, or even my house. The place I miss is (as those of you who have been paying attention may have realised) in fact Scotland. Or to be more precise Galloway. I opened a tub of icecream at my uncle's house and was transported - with no sign of jetlag might I add - back around the world, by the smell of Cream o'Galloway Real Raspberry Icecream. And speaking of bests, Cream o'Galloway may well be the best icecream in the world. So nevermind that it was actually a tub of toffee icecream that I was digging into, my brain was convinced that the kangaroo outside was actually lost, and I was happily holidaying in Scotland. This might seem a bit odd. Well, it is. (Shortly before I left my uncle's house to come here to Eumundi I noticed that on the wall opposite my bed were three pictures of a little town in Galloway called the Isle of Whithorn. Subliminal brainwashing? Perhaps, but interesting all the same)
(P.S. I hope each and every one of you appreciate that I cut down the length of the rant so as not to bore, while maintaining padding for my blog)
Thursday 9th December:
I did lots of helpxing in the form of cleaning.
We went to the pool for a swim which I welcomed in the 36 degree heat.
We also went to Noosa Civic and did a LOT of shopping. I bought a pretty dress :)
Finally we went to the night market for dinner and heard three exciting bands play.
These were Juzzi Smith, who is kind of bluesy with a didgeridoo, Jamboru who also had a didgeridoo but weren't bluesy, and a group who I think were called Cas? (Oh look I'm adopting the Aussie habit of intonating each sentence so that it sounds like a question... goodie) Maddy, Silvia's four year old foster daughter wanted to give this band some money but was a bit nervous about doing so. Thinking that she needed encouraging, the lead singer (they were in instrumental at this point) started singing directly to her, which completely embarassed her and she refused to give them any money on this basis, which I felt was a little harsh. Four years old and already having songs sung about her, I expect she'll be very popular in a few years time! Anyway, the band seemed quite talented, and not without wit. I'd quite like to see them again.
So I'm enjoying styaing here, away from the big cities. Anyway I'm going to Noosa Heads tomorrow, (it's a city if the irony was lost on you) to have an explore, so wish me luck with negotiating another bus route, and with finding my way around.
Much Love,
Em
It's very beautiful here, set up in the hills (what hills?) of the Sunshine Coast, it's surrounded by trees and nature. There are chickens, and ducks and guinea pigs and a cat and 3 dogs and 4 horses. It's good. :)
Wednesday 8th December:
I was up before the sun! I got up at 4.30am to help Silvia (my hostess) to help set up here lemonade stall in the local market, which by the way is enormous. They literally spread over the entire town on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and cover a substantial part on a Thursday evening during the holidays when the Night Market takes place. By 7am we were up and running and ready to sell lemonade. However, even in Australia there isn't all that much call for refreshing cold drinks at that time and any potential customers were genereally lured away by the charismatic worker at the coffee stand next door. I was sent off to find some breakfast and after a plate of Poffertjes (that's dutch for tiny little pancakes) I located the fresh fruit stall and bought myself half a kilo of cherries. Usually my sister and I can demolish a kilo in about 30 seconds flat. So the fact that I couldn't even finish the ones I bought in a quite a lengthy sitting, suggests to me that really Tory must eat the majority of the ones we 'share'. :D
Anyway, the market was brilliant and absolutely everything you could imagine was for sale. I even enjoyed serving the drinks at Silvia's stall. (So if the engineering malarky falls through, I could always set up shop in Otley market, although I'm not sure if there is any call for refreshing cold drinks at any time in Otley...
In addition to the fun of the market, I also got to explore the town itself a bit too. I found myself (it runs in the family) in a bookshop. It was a reasonably sized bookshop and apparently prized itself on being Australia's oldest bookseller. Given that in Oz, a building which has been around for 20 years is considered vintage, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it had been around since 1812. That's practically medieval over here! Berkelouw Books is a lovely shop - possibly the Wigtown Bookshop of Austalia, although it does have a section for new releases in the front. The Wigtown Bookshop, for those who are unfamiliar with it (which I'm assuming is the majority), is the Holy Grail of second hand bookshops. It's the best bookshop in Galloway, no, Scotland, no, the world. It's incredible. I have to admit though, that Berkelouw Books did surpass the Wigtown Bookshop in one criterion; the attached coffee shop was far superior to the coffee machine in the otherwise best bookshop in the world.
This leads me on to something which I have been feeling for some time now - well at least since I arrived in Oz. (P.S. Rant alert) It's not homesickness, although it's true that I'm missing my family and friends and countless animals much more than I expected to. Actually, I'm probably missing the animals about as much as I expected to. But it's not Yorkshire I'm yearning for, as I expected to, not Ilkley Moor, the Cow and Calf, Leeds, Harrogate, or even my house. The place I miss is (as those of you who have been paying attention may have realised) in fact Scotland. Or to be more precise Galloway. I opened a tub of icecream at my uncle's house and was transported - with no sign of jetlag might I add - back around the world, by the smell of Cream o'Galloway Real Raspberry Icecream. And speaking of bests, Cream o'Galloway may well be the best icecream in the world. So nevermind that it was actually a tub of toffee icecream that I was digging into, my brain was convinced that the kangaroo outside was actually lost, and I was happily holidaying in Scotland. This might seem a bit odd. Well, it is. (Shortly before I left my uncle's house to come here to Eumundi I noticed that on the wall opposite my bed were three pictures of a little town in Galloway called the Isle of Whithorn. Subliminal brainwashing? Perhaps, but interesting all the same)
(P.S. I hope each and every one of you appreciate that I cut down the length of the rant so as not to bore, while maintaining padding for my blog)
Thursday 9th December:
I did lots of helpxing in the form of cleaning.
We went to the pool for a swim which I welcomed in the 36 degree heat.
We also went to Noosa Civic and did a LOT of shopping. I bought a pretty dress :)
Finally we went to the night market for dinner and heard three exciting bands play.
These were Juzzi Smith, who is kind of bluesy with a didgeridoo, Jamboru who also had a didgeridoo but weren't bluesy, and a group who I think were called Cas? (Oh look I'm adopting the Aussie habit of intonating each sentence so that it sounds like a question... goodie) Maddy, Silvia's four year old foster daughter wanted to give this band some money but was a bit nervous about doing so. Thinking that she needed encouraging, the lead singer (they were in instrumental at this point) started singing directly to her, which completely embarassed her and she refused to give them any money on this basis, which I felt was a little harsh. Four years old and already having songs sung about her, I expect she'll be very popular in a few years time! Anyway, the band seemed quite talented, and not without wit. I'd quite like to see them again.
So I'm enjoying styaing here, away from the big cities. Anyway I'm going to Noosa Heads tomorrow, (it's a city if the irony was lost on you) to have an explore, so wish me luck with negotiating another bus route, and with finding my way around.
Much Love,
Em
Again with the fake names - noosa this noosa that : )
ReplyDeletethanks for the nice long blog em, but u omitted ESSENTIAL details! What's the dress like???
x x x
Noosa! I have a sarong from there. It says 'Noosa' on it because they can't sell anything that doesn't say 'Noosa' on it somewhere!
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you see the lagoon in Brisbane? I always liked that they had a little lagoon!