Danielle is apparently broken??

So much has happened in the last few days, I don’t even know where to begin writing. If excitement keeps up, my blogs are just going to get longer and longer!! To make it easier, I think I will break it down day by day….

Friday 29^th: Fish and chips the night I arrived didn’t happen due to the tail end of a cyclone hitting Noosa and the torrential downpour with high winds prevented us from enjoying a dinner on the beach. Instead, old family friends Jean and her kids came by Marilyn’s house for munchies, wine (juice for the kids) and a quick visit before dinner. I haven’t seen Jean since I was 6 – almost 15 years ago! Now she has kids of her own, and it’s a bit surreal. Of course, these little ones are ABSOLUTELY adorable. They are so cute, with their Australian accents….man. They were shy at first and didn’t want to talk or draw any photos for me (they were playing with markers and paper, both Marilyn and Jean were recipients of these masterpieces but not me!) until the little girl, Lizzie, decided to give me a drawing with “sparkles.” The sparkles were just pencil shavings from the sharpener, but still. After that happened, the dam gates opened and the youngest, Andy, became brave enough to draw me some photos and give me “gifts” – old business cards in envelopes. When I opened them, he told me they were bandages and I needed to be fixed since I was broken. I asked why I was broken, and he said “cus you sound funny. You are brokened.” He was apparently referring to my Canadian accent, and proceeded to tape these old cards to my legs with masking tape. I’ve included a photo since after he was done, I looked like a walking mummy!!

After Jean and the kids left, Marilyn and I went out to pick up a pizza and a movie, but I barely made it 30 minutes into the movie before crashing on the couch. I stumbled to my bed and slept a solid 12 hours – the best, uninterrupted sleep I’ve had in years!

Saturday 30^th: Marilyn got up early this morning to go for a walk with friends in the National Park nearby and I slept in until 8am….which is a feat – trust me! Waking up here was like waking up in the middle of the tropical rainforest section of the Calgary Zoo. It smells AMAZING, there are all these exotic birds chirping and the sun is blaring through the blinds in my room. It’s so warm, humid and I absolutely love it! Anyways, I got up, made some breakfast and got caught up with some emails and skyping. I also made a call to my Dad in Canada (he was surprised to hear from me!) and my Aunt called the house so I had a nice visit with her.

When Marilyn got back home, it was about 40 degrees out and sunny, so she decided to take me to one of the famous beaches here – Hastings. I was excited at the opportunity to sport one of my new bathing suits and swim in the warm Aussie waters! Marilyn told me not to bring valuables since we would be swimming, so I left my camera behind but I’m kicking myself now. The beach was spectacular. It looked like it came straight out of a paradise resort in the Caribbean or something. And the water? Unbelievably warm and clear! Before lounging in the water, we walked up and down the main street and then headed into the National Park to try and find the KOALA that Marilyn had seen earlier on her walk. We walked for about 15 minutes before becoming drenched in sweat and decided to skip the koala and just swim.

That evening, after freshening up from the beach, we headed out to Jean and Warrick’s place for dinner. The kids were so cute again – this time not shy at all and basically clung to me the entire time. They managed to catch a lizard/gecko thing, which I had the fantastic opportunity to hold! Marilyn and I stayed fairly late into the night just talking and catching up. It was another great day!!

Sunday 30^th: This morning, I actually was up at a decent hour according to Aussie standards (6:30am, since the sun rises at 5am) and had breakfast with Marilyn. She was off again this morning to paddle down the river with her boating crew, so I opted to stay home and do some research into flights to Sydney etc. I’ve booked my flight to Sydney for Feb 10^th at 10am – which will allow me to meet up with my cousins around noon. That’s going to be an exciting part of my travels for sure! Now if I can only convince them to book a hostel….

After Marilyn got back from paddling, we went into Maroochydore – another town on the way to Noosa. She was in the market for a new computer desk, so we searched around for a bit. Not finding anything, we headed back to Noosa for an afternoon coffee at the Grind. Did you know that black coffee doesn’t exist over here? If you want just plain, black coffee you have to ask for a “long black” and it comes out as a double espresso!! Needless to say, I was a bit wired. We finished up the afternoon with a walk down the river, where I had the unfortunate encounter with the largest pelican in Australia!!

I’ll write back in the next couple days – but expect to hear about a BBQ, bank accounts and more beach excursions!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo Danielle