Archives for July 2013

Not all beer and skittles

July 21, 2013 by Jen

So it turns out my bites were bed bugs. Nice huh! Not….. They were unlike any mosquito bites I’d ever had and I kept getting them at night despite spraying the room and myself.

I insisted to the hotel that something was wrong. Housekeeping came along to inspect my room and initially didn’t find anything. I was thinking I was going mad and thinking I would insist on changing rooms anyway. Then after he’d inspected the mattress he began on the ensemble base and when he turned it over he found some bugs. Those little critters ate a lot of me. I have bites on my forehead, one on my face, a couple on my neck and heaps on my arms. I’ve had to buy long sleeved tops to cover them up as they look so hideous.

We did change rooms and I had a much better sleep last night. They checked the bed out before I moved in as well apparently.

So covered up I’ve been in this lovely weather while in Adelaide it’s freezing.

But back to the holiday in hand, we went on the Sky Rail the other day.

It was fun (ahem) leaving the station and being suspended in mid air by a cable while your 12 year old son repeats that we’re going to die. Fun I tell ya.

Once he got over his anxiety about being on the sky rail he really began to enjoy himself and when we got on after the first stop the girls we shared the gondola with noticed his excitement.

The view was spectacular and we noticed the train travelling up the hill.

Kuranda was a lovely – albeit very touristy – town and we could have spent longer there looking around but I’d booked the earlier train to go back down the hill. JJ bought himself a crocodile skin hat and yes, those are real crocodile teeth he’s got on the hat.

We hopped on the train for the one and a half hour trip down the hill and I listened to some of the commentary about how the railway was built. The terrain is very challenging and building a railway back then would have been really hard work. The workers had to supply their own tools. There were a number of pubs built around the area to keep the workers in beer after a hard day’s work. Sounds like they deserved it.

Eating out in Cairns – or how not to run a restaurant

July 19, 2013 by Jen

After a day of sight-seeing the other day we met a friend who happened to be in Cairns and went out for dinner. Not being from the area we thought we’d wing it and walked along the Esplanade for some inspiration.

We came to one place – a middle eastern restaurant – looked at the menu, thought we’d stay and asked for a table for three. The waiter said that they were quite busy at the moment and we could sit outside and wait for 20 minutes until we could be seated.

My friend looked inside and noticed that there were quite a few tables vacant and mentioned this to him. He said that it was a really busy time and we’d still have to wait for 20 minutes.

It was getting on a bit and I wanted to eat and head back to Port Douglas before I got too tired so we moved on.

We ended up at a cafe and ordered our meals. My friend and I ordered the same dish – an oriental chicken salad. JJ ordered the usual fish and chips.

The meals came out and our salads didn’t look that great and when my friend tasted the fried noodles she said they were stale. I tasted mine and they were definitely stale. I had a bit of the chicken and it had been bathed in balsamic vinegar and wasn’t that tasty either. Neither of us are in the habit of sending things back but we had to with these meals.

We ordered something different and had to wait for quite some time. We finally got our replacement meals after JJ had finished eating his and the meals were a lot better this time.

In the meantime we’d been offered nothing while we waited – even a drink would have been good.

As soon as we finished eating I asked for the bill and when we received it our sent back meals were on it in addition to our replacement meals.

Of course we mentioned this and the waitress said that she’d made up a new bill for us without those meals. Why we weren’t given that in the first place I don’t know.

As we walked out we said that we’d never be back and after having a look at their reviews on Trip Advisor others haven’t given them good reviews either. I’ve now added my own review.

If I was the waiter in the first restaurant I would have seated us and mentioned that the meals might take a little bit longer than normal due to them being busy. As it was we probably would have gotten out sooner if we’d stayed there. The fact that he couldn’t seat us for dinner just yet was a bit strange.

In the second place I would have offered us at least a drink for giving us stale food. I think we should have been compensated in some way for the inconvenience. They obviously don’t care about maintaining any sort of standards maybe due to the high number of drop-in tourists? But surely if they took more care with their food they’d have better reviews on Trip Advisor etc and be more popular.

The photo at the top has nothing to do with our food, but it was serene in the rain forest earlier that day.

Out damn itch

July 18, 2013 by Jen

Things I’m loving about this holiday. The warm weather. Not being at work. Spending time with my son when we’re not at home.

Things I’m not loving about this holiday. The mosquitos, the bloody mosquitos. I can’t believe how I’ve been bitten. I’ve got bites like I’ve never had before. Red, blistering bites. It’s awful. I’m now covered in repellant and I had to buy some ointment to help stop the itching, and I’m on anti-histamines. I bought the anti-histamines for my son incase he ate something he’s not supposed to.

We’re about 5-10 minutes walk from Four Mile Beach so down we went for a walk.

I loved looking at all the little holes that little crabs? make.

Fork in the road. That way mum. I should have listened but I don’t mind getting a little bit lost when I’ve got time to do so.

We visited a nearby wildlife park where most animals are pretty free to roam and quite a few birds just hang around in the restaurant.

I also think it was where I got a lot of my mosquito bites.

We liked this fellow and he eventually did pose for me. Hallo cocky!

I love the way Tawny Frog Mouths blend into the branches they sit on and look really chilled. I think I could learn a thing or two from them.

The sign said to hug a tree because it’s awesome so he did.

These fellas were safely behind fences. Phew!

And koalas aren’t really bears you know.

One cheeky fellow to another.

Taking a step back

July 14, 2013 by Jen

I’ve been contracting for work for just over two years now. Contracting is stressful because you never know if your current contract will be extended or not. I’ve been lucky for these two years because I was with the same organisation and the last contract was for nearly a year. It was great not to have to worry about looking for more work for that time. As I knew I was finishing up in the middle of the year I thought, bugger it, I’m booking a holiday and hang the job situation.

So while having a holiday to look forward to, I’ve also been hussling my wares on the job front. It wasn’t going so well and I only had two more weeks left of work. Then I saw an advertised job – another contract – that looked promising. Then my work asked if I could stay on for another 2-4 weeks. I also applied for another two jobs and got interviews for both of them. It was all a bit much. People close to me were confused about what job I was talking about that minute and I don’t blame them. I’ve got some work to go back to, so that’s a load off my mind.

But during all of this I had a holiday to look forward to. Unfortunately when we left I had a migraine so I tried to sleep on the flight here and had an early night last night.

We’re staying in a very green spot inland from Port Douglas in a friend’s brother’s house for a couple of nights before we hit the bright lights of Port Douglas. It didn’t take long for JJ to declare he thought it was fantastic and go off exploring with the resident dog.

The house is what I think is a typical Queenslander. I’m sitting on the balcony typing this and the vista is amazing.

There is another guest staying here, but he’s fairly quiet and thankfully keeps to himself.

A couple of times JJ has gone off into the ‘forest’ and a couple of times I’ve gone into try and find him. We’ve both had a fairly good explore. Not sure if we went onto someone else’s property, but we probably did.

Sometimes you can sneak up on the resident fauna.

And you can see them in their element.

Coming from the south where it’s pretty dry most of the time, you really notice somewhere different having different vegetation.

But it doesn’t take long to relax and I’m thinking I should have loaded my Kindle up with more books. Maybe I’ll even splash out and buy a magazine to read. I’m so glad I booked this holiday.

Not so much luck with the geocaching

July 10, 2013 by Jen

But we had a great afternoon in the hills introducing some friends to geocaching and topped it off with a beer in the pub. What fun. It’s the first time I’ve come across geocaches that give you multiple clues and directions to clues and so on. It wasn’t that easy especially when you’re directionally challenged like me.

Linking up with Trish for Wordless Wednesday.