Yesterday Nate and Eli and I took advantage of the courtesy shuttle and hung out at the big Stockland shopping centre for a few hours, just as long as we had to until the shuttle was due back. Maya wasn't feeling well (and had her second fever of our travels, maybe because of the close quarters?), so she stayed at the tourist park with Nick while he moved us into OUR VILLA. She is the dearest little sick person - curls up in bed and chats through her stuffy little nose, drifts off to sleep when she needs it, looks at books, listens to her body.
The shoe curse is still with us and has now taken my recently aquired black thongs. The toe strap snapped on the Great Barrier Reef boat. I haven't even had them for two months! Haviana is going to hear from me. In the meantime, however, I needed a new pair of shoes to wear. I borrowed Nick's new mock-crocs for the trip to the shops, and am now the proud owner of some $6 pink thongs. Pink? It was the only plain pair (like, without bedazzling or sequins or bows). Nick said it's like being married to a 12 year old. I've never been a pink person, but now I have a pink bag and matching pink shoes. Who am I???
We did a big shop, anticipating our full villa kitchen! Plenty of room in a full sized fridge for lots of fruit and veg - it all needs refrigeration up here in Cairns. All the fixings for an Indian dinner and a pizza dinner for the two nights we're here. An oven! Yay! We'll be baking cookies today.
It was so nice coming back to our villa. Yesterday was really hot and insanely humid, so we kept the air con set at 24 degrees and the overhead fans on low, and it was so nice in here. The villa has two bedrooms, one with a queen bed, one with two bunks, and the couch folds out into a bed as well. It isn't big, but it is a lot bigger than our motorhome, so we're feeling a bit luxurious and spread out. We brought in all of the toys and books and the kids really got into being less cramped.
We have also had the telly on a lot. The kids haven't watched any TV for weeks, but they have watched movies from our hard drive in the motorhome, and it's been the same things over and over. It's been nice for sick Maya to just chill out watching stuff she hasn't seen before while the boys hung out at the water park with Nick.
I loved taking a shower yesterday afternoon without having to pack and tote everything I would need off to a public shower, and without dripping with sweat on the way back to the motorhome. I washed my hair and noticed that last night it was all dry and silky smooth and relatively straight. Due to the humidity, I have been sporting a frizzy fro framed by some Maya-like ringlets since like Brisbane. But yesterday I was inside all afternoon.
Last night I heard the weatherman announce, "The humidity today was pretty atrocious, and it will be more of the same tomorrow." I'm really appreciating the opportunity to hang out inside.
We have clocked 5000 kilometres, which means it is time for a minor service to maintain the warranty. I'm hoping that won't be too expensive, although we have completely abandoned keeping track of the budget as of last week. We spent an insane amount of money with the reef tour, our trip to Kuranda (which I'll write about soon), and now the villa. Since we have been in Queensland we haven't been free camping - it rains at night and our windows let the rain right in so we have to close everything up, and then it becomes stifling inside with no power to run a fan or air con. All of the accommodation charges have really added up.
We will be heading back south, recharged and ready for the motorhome once again, and we won't be spending any more money on tours or theme parks or fancy accomodation or anything big like that. So we're giving up on the budget thing. We're no good at it anyway.
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
02 March 2010
17 February 2010
Budget woes
15 February, 2010
We're having trouble staying within our budget. We were amazed to find ourselves overbudget last week, after spending three nights at my friend's place and another two nights free camping. There were a few things purchased, like Nick's cheap crocs, some new textas, a replacement camera case and camera cord (which we will hopefully get soon so that I can start posting pictures again!) and a birthday present for a friend, but all of that was less than $60. I just have no idea how we did it. Even examining our expenditures shed no light on the subject - we spent less on food than the two weeks before. I just don't know. I do know that we'll need to be more careful though, or we're going to blow through our savings before we leave Queensland, and that would SUCK.
The beach at Noosa was gorgeous. Walking up from the ocean to where the fam was at in the sand, with the palm trees and blue sky and incredible houses/hotels hidden in the tropical trees on the hill, mountain in the background, it was unreal. I'm going to have to plan some seriously tropical holidays after we move back to Portland, because the Oregon coast is just not going to cut it. It is beautiful, world class, but the water is just plain cold.
After lunch we decided to head to Hervey Bay. We didn't realise how far it was, but we're looking at over 150 kilometres today. That's cool. Maya had a nap, and Eli is still snoozing away. We're hoping to find a Fraser Island tour that won't break the bank. Nick says he would like to go but doesn't think it will be "worth the money". I don't know what money could be better spent on personally. Maybe I'll just take Nate and Maya, and Nick and Eli (who might not appreciate an in-and-out of the vehicle kind of tour) can just hang by a pool somewhere. Or maybe this will be my lone day trip to replace Cape York. We'll see.
I've been reading about Fraser Island and it is getting increasingly interesting. Lonely Planet warns of the dangers of the sea around the island, saying "if the undertow doesn't get you, the sharks will!" Awesome. There is no shortage of beautiful fresh water lakes to swim in if we are so inclined, which I'm sure we will be.
As we drove inland from Noosa, back to the highway, the temperature climbed to 35 (that's 95 for you Yanks). Then we hit a storm and it dropped down to 26 within 2 minutes. Rain cleared (or we drove through it to the other side), temperature back up. Now we're back in the rain, this time with some lovely thunder accompaniment, and we're cool. So funny, this Queensland weather business. The humidity isn't humorous though, not at all. No sirree.
My goal today is to find some citronella oil and tea tree oil and to put together our own mosquito repellant. And that's all I'm going to say about mosquitoes today.
We're having trouble staying within our budget. We were amazed to find ourselves overbudget last week, after spending three nights at my friend's place and another two nights free camping. There were a few things purchased, like Nick's cheap crocs, some new textas, a replacement camera case and camera cord (which we will hopefully get soon so that I can start posting pictures again!) and a birthday present for a friend, but all of that was less than $60. I just have no idea how we did it. Even examining our expenditures shed no light on the subject - we spent less on food than the two weeks before. I just don't know. I do know that we'll need to be more careful though, or we're going to blow through our savings before we leave Queensland, and that would SUCK.
The beach at Noosa was gorgeous. Walking up from the ocean to where the fam was at in the sand, with the palm trees and blue sky and incredible houses/hotels hidden in the tropical trees on the hill, mountain in the background, it was unreal. I'm going to have to plan some seriously tropical holidays after we move back to Portland, because the Oregon coast is just not going to cut it. It is beautiful, world class, but the water is just plain cold.
After lunch we decided to head to Hervey Bay. We didn't realise how far it was, but we're looking at over 150 kilometres today. That's cool. Maya had a nap, and Eli is still snoozing away. We're hoping to find a Fraser Island tour that won't break the bank. Nick says he would like to go but doesn't think it will be "worth the money". I don't know what money could be better spent on personally. Maybe I'll just take Nate and Maya, and Nick and Eli (who might not appreciate an in-and-out of the vehicle kind of tour) can just hang by a pool somewhere. Or maybe this will be my lone day trip to replace Cape York. We'll see.
I've been reading about Fraser Island and it is getting increasingly interesting. Lonely Planet warns of the dangers of the sea around the island, saying "if the undertow doesn't get you, the sharks will!" Awesome. There is no shortage of beautiful fresh water lakes to swim in if we are so inclined, which I'm sure we will be.
As we drove inland from Noosa, back to the highway, the temperature climbed to 35 (that's 95 for you Yanks). Then we hit a storm and it dropped down to 26 within 2 minutes. Rain cleared (or we drove through it to the other side), temperature back up. Now we're back in the rain, this time with some lovely thunder accompaniment, and we're cool. So funny, this Queensland weather business. The humidity isn't humorous though, not at all. No sirree.
My goal today is to find some citronella oil and tea tree oil and to put together our own mosquito repellant. And that's all I'm going to say about mosquitoes today.
07 February 2010
Hospitality
It's been an easier transition than I thought :o)
When we left our resort, we headed back to our friends' place. The kids were thrilled to get back to play with their new friends, and we were looking forward to hanging out, checking out the eco village, baking some gluten free/ sugar free carrot cake cupcakes to share, sticking around for a Nick-made dinner, and having a sleepover (in our motorhome out the front). It was wonderful. We felt so welcome and thoroughly enjoyed the kids enjoying themselves (so much Lego! and colour coded! like a dream!!), and after they were asleep we actually hung out awake! With other adults! Drinking wine! And talking about non-kid things! Ahhhh. Refreshing. This morning I enjoyed a cartoonishly large cup of delicious coffee - my stomach was a bit annoyed but the rest of me was in heaven. Thanks so much guys. We had a great time.
We are now in Brisbane. First stop was Chinatown so that we could have a planning session over yum cha. Yum. There is a lot of cool stuff to do around here with kids, and if the rain eases up a bit (there has been so much rain in the last couple of days that there has been flash flooding in the area) we'll have lots of nice outdoor stuff to check out. There's a sciencey place that looks really fun, so that's probably where we'll head in the morning.
On our way to a caravan park this afternoon, we passed an amazing looking playground and turned around to check it out. It is huge and covered, so when the rain came again it was no problem at all! Very nice stop. We also found that there are plenty of spots around here to park for the night, so that will save us the almost $50 we were going to spend on accommodation. Nice. And I sold two cookbooks this week! If you don't count the theme park tickets which were 75% of our week's budget on their own (I'm not sure why you wouldn't count them, but just stick with me here for the sake of discussion), we came in well under budget for this week. We just have a bit of frugal living to do to make up for the other few weeks over budget and we'll be golden.
Oh, I also wanted to acknowledge the dude at the playground that turned my afternoon around. He was pushing his little 2 year oldish boy on the swing, and Eli was hanging out next to them, enjoying their enjoyment. He had already been on the swing for awhile and indeed could spend the better part of the day on the swing, and I sat watching him, thinking I couldn't be bothered to go over and put him in the swing and then stand there pushing him. When this other little boy was done, his dad helped him out of the swing and walked my way. He asked if Eli was my little boy and I said yes. He said kindly, "He wants to go on the swing." I said, "Yeah I know, he always wants to go on the swing. He was already on it for ages". He nodded, smiled politely, and walked away. And it hit me like a slap in the face - Oh my God, I'm that parent. I could be doing something really easy and making Eli and I both really happy in the process, and instead I'm just sitting here grumpily, resenting the fact that he wants to go on the swing again and needs my help to do it. Wow. He's two years old! What an amazingly silly thing. Dude, you'll be happy to know that I did get up and push Eli on the swing, and we both completely enjoyed it. And dude, thanks. You made my day.
When we left our resort, we headed back to our friends' place. The kids were thrilled to get back to play with their new friends, and we were looking forward to hanging out, checking out the eco village, baking some gluten free/ sugar free carrot cake cupcakes to share, sticking around for a Nick-made dinner, and having a sleepover (in our motorhome out the front). It was wonderful. We felt so welcome and thoroughly enjoyed the kids enjoying themselves (so much Lego! and colour coded! like a dream!!), and after they were asleep we actually hung out awake! With other adults! Drinking wine! And talking about non-kid things! Ahhhh. Refreshing. This morning I enjoyed a cartoonishly large cup of delicious coffee - my stomach was a bit annoyed but the rest of me was in heaven. Thanks so much guys. We had a great time.
We are now in Brisbane. First stop was Chinatown so that we could have a planning session over yum cha. Yum. There is a lot of cool stuff to do around here with kids, and if the rain eases up a bit (there has been so much rain in the last couple of days that there has been flash flooding in the area) we'll have lots of nice outdoor stuff to check out. There's a sciencey place that looks really fun, so that's probably where we'll head in the morning.
On our way to a caravan park this afternoon, we passed an amazing looking playground and turned around to check it out. It is huge and covered, so when the rain came again it was no problem at all! Very nice stop. We also found that there are plenty of spots around here to park for the night, so that will save us the almost $50 we were going to spend on accommodation. Nice. And I sold two cookbooks this week! If you don't count the theme park tickets which were 75% of our week's budget on their own (I'm not sure why you wouldn't count them, but just stick with me here for the sake of discussion), we came in well under budget for this week. We just have a bit of frugal living to do to make up for the other few weeks over budget and we'll be golden.
Oh, I also wanted to acknowledge the dude at the playground that turned my afternoon around. He was pushing his little 2 year oldish boy on the swing, and Eli was hanging out next to them, enjoying their enjoyment. He had already been on the swing for awhile and indeed could spend the better part of the day on the swing, and I sat watching him, thinking I couldn't be bothered to go over and put him in the swing and then stand there pushing him. When this other little boy was done, his dad helped him out of the swing and walked my way. He asked if Eli was my little boy and I said yes. He said kindly, "He wants to go on the swing." I said, "Yeah I know, he always wants to go on the swing. He was already on it for ages". He nodded, smiled politely, and walked away. And it hit me like a slap in the face - Oh my God, I'm that parent. I could be doing something really easy and making Eli and I both really happy in the process, and instead I'm just sitting here grumpily, resenting the fact that he wants to go on the swing again and needs my help to do it. Wow. He's two years old! What an amazingly silly thing. Dude, you'll be happy to know that I did get up and push Eli on the swing, and we both completely enjoyed it. And dude, thanks. You made my day.
20 January 2010
Byron Bay
We started out the day with a trip to our favourite beach - The Pass. It is amazing. Shade to sit in on the beach, or sun if that's your preference, and crystal clear turquoise water galore. It is very shallow for a good way out and the waves roll close to shore rather than breaking, making it an immensely kid-friendly beach. There are good waves as well if you paddle out, and abundant surfers. Loads of kid surfers and beginners closer in which gave us the idea of hiring a surfboard for the kids to have a go one of these days. They'll love it.
I love Byron Bay. I love that even the Woolworths supermarket is loaded with organic and local stuff, not just the specialty shops which are amazing. Yesterday we stopped by Byron Gourmet Pies and have had them for lunch for two days now. We stopped into Santos to buy a little snack of organic dark chocolate covered blueberries and organic dark chocolate spelt licorice. I want to pop into the Byron Bay Cookie Company shop while we're here. You can get anything worth eating in Byron Bay if you know where to look. Raw milk and cream, cane juice lightly flavoured with ginger and lime, raw cacao butter, local bananas. If you know me at all, you know that I love good food. There is LOADS of good food here.
We are lucky to have some friends in Byron, albeit temporarily. My friend Suzy is visiting and we are parked in her holiday house driveway. We're so grateful, because we are waaay overbudget (due largely to our internet dramas) and sleeping here means that we aren't paying to stay at a caravan park; there isn't a lot of free camping in the popular Byron Bay. It's just really easy to spend money here! I know though that as soon as we aren't on the east coast anymore, our expenditures will do right down. Except for fuel.
I love Byron Bay. I love that even the Woolworths supermarket is loaded with organic and local stuff, not just the specialty shops which are amazing. Yesterday we stopped by Byron Gourmet Pies and have had them for lunch for two days now. We stopped into Santos to buy a little snack of organic dark chocolate covered blueberries and organic dark chocolate spelt licorice. I want to pop into the Byron Bay Cookie Company shop while we're here. You can get anything worth eating in Byron Bay if you know where to look. Raw milk and cream, cane juice lightly flavoured with ginger and lime, raw cacao butter, local bananas. If you know me at all, you know that I love good food. There is LOADS of good food here.
We are lucky to have some friends in Byron, albeit temporarily. My friend Suzy is visiting and we are parked in her holiday house driveway. We're so grateful, because we are waaay overbudget (due largely to our internet dramas) and sleeping here means that we aren't paying to stay at a caravan park; there isn't a lot of free camping in the popular Byron Bay. It's just really easy to spend money here! I know though that as soon as we aren't on the east coast anymore, our expenditures will do right down. Except for fuel.
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