mortiz044

Here we are on New Years Eve and once again I am grateful for reaching this point.  Looking back through all my photos from 2017 I sometimes wonder whether we are ever home!  It has been a busy year. New Year 2017 saw us on the Sunshine Coast celebrating with friends and family.  We always enjoy that and it is a great way to see in the New Year. This year we are in Toowoomba and sadly we are here for John's funeral.  John and Mum were together for 18 years so he has been like a second father to me. I will miss him greatly. Now onto the year in review. January we are usually sitting around waiting for the wet season to commence but we did make our way to Rex Smeal Park in Port Douglas to watch the "new Australians" become part of our community on Australia Day. February was, for us, a relatively quiet month but a trip  to Tinnaroo Dam for a spot of Kayaking is always fun. March was a great time to have my two sisters come for a visit.  It was wonderful to spend the time

I haven't posted a recipe for quite awhile and today, while we were eating our Thai Beef Salad for lunch,  I thought I should share this truly delicious and healthy recipe. THAI BEEF SALAD  (sourced from Paleopriness.com.au) INGREDIENTS: Beef Ingredients : 500g rump steak 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 clove garlic, crushed Sauce Ingredients: 2 tablespoons Fish Sauce 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice 3 tablespoons soy sauce or amino seasoning 2-3 tablespoons coconut sugar 1 long red chilli, sliced thinly - seeds removed for a milder flavour 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, finely sliced Salad Ingredients: 1 long lebanese cucumber, cut lengthways, then sliced into thin half moon shapes 1 red capsicum, sliced into 3cm thin strips Soba noodles, cooked until just tender, then rinsed under cool water.  Drain well. 1 large bunch of fresh coriander 3 spring onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut into halves Handful of fresh mint leaves, torn in half 1 carrot shaved

Our first christmas party for the season was on the weekend at the Combined Club, or more affectionately known as the "Tin Shed".  The club shuts for the night so that members can enjoy canapés and half price drinks all evening.  How good is that! Earlier I had booked us a room at Mantra Heritage right in the centre of Port Douglas because it is so much nicer if we can both enjoy a beverage or two without having to worry about the drive home. We had never stayed at Mantra Heritage before (how did we miss this place!) and after an easy check-in process we quickly settled into our swim-out room.  The one-bedroom apartment was beautifully placed in the resort and just three rooms shared the private pool. There was no one else in the other two swim out rooms so we had the pool to ourselves. There is another larger pool, that was not quite in our view, and as we were sunning by the pool a young mother and her three year old daughter asked if they could swim in this pool as there w

We have been home for a week now and it feels like we have never been away.  It is amazing how we slip back into the same routines so easily.  For me, the first two days home were washing clothes and linen, cleaning the camper, more washing, more cleaning.  In between all that we made a trip to Port to shop some groceries as the cupboard was bare.  We decided to splurge on lunch as there was nothing much to eat in the fridge.  We chose Paddy Malone's as it was a terribly muggy day and it is air-conditioned.   We both chose seafood - Philip the seafood platter and I chose the fish and chips with mushy peas.  Would you check out the size of Philip's meal!  And he ate all of it! It is very unusual for us not to have a feed of fish and chips when we are on holidays but this time, in our effort to make healthier food choices, we did not indulge even once.  After eating our meals at Paddy's we both had queasy bellies and we think that it was eating deep fried food. This week was

The last two days of our holiday slipped quickly by.  From Mackay we were headed to Townsville where we were staying with friends (ex Julia Creek) for our last night.  The road from Mackay to Townsville is always busy but it doesn't worry us with our slower speed.  It does take a lot of stress out of the journey when you slow it down. Our lunch stop today was at a little place called Guthalungra.  Blink and you would miss the place but it had a really lovely picnic area with one of the prettiest and cleanest toilet blocks I have seen in our travels.  We lunched and then lay down in the camper for a little nanny nap before continuing on our journey. We stopped at Bowen at a roadside fruit stall to pick up a box of mangoes for $10 and a bag of tomatoes - about a dozen -for $5.  Bargain. South of Bowen we made a detour into Brisk Bay.  The people who were camped beside us in Mackay said that this is where they lived and that we should go and check it out.  It is another hidden secret,