I was so fortunate to be able to travel to the Gold Coast to see my family for Christmas as I know many other people both in Australia in other states and around the world cannot travel at all. I flew from Canberra to Coolangatta Airport where one of my best friends picked me up. I booked accomodation in Coolangatta overlooking the beach and ocean and it was lovely to walk inside and see the fabulous views especially at dusk.
On the day I arrived, my friend Sandy and I met up with another friend who I have not seen for over three years so he took us to Kirra Beach Surf Club; interior is rather old but a couple of vegan options on the menu so I ordered a pasta arrabbiata which was very good. Best part were the views!
I got up early nearly every morning and took a walk along the beachfront; one one occasion for over two hours. You had to get up early as the sun was very warm, actually starting just before 8am. But this meant skies were usually a vibrant blue well apart from one day when it was very overcast but that afforded me the opportunity to walk a little later.
I had breakfast out a couple of times at various cafes but I think my favourite was the cafe under my apartment block which served a very nice mushrooms on toast and great fruit juices.
I think my lasting impression of Coolangatta will be the beautiful beaches and fabulous ocean.
But an interesting impression will always be of a local home that has both the animals from our coat of arms guarding the entrance; they must be about six foot high (180cms)!
Hope everyone was safe and well over the Christmas period and I wish you all a very happy 2021 (and please let it be better than 2020).
Canberra is pretty cold in the winter so it’s always nice to travel interstate mainly north to Queensland for a few days of warmth. That is what I decided to do last month and took my brother and nephew along too. I booked an Airbnb home at a suburb called Biggera Waters which is about an hour’s drive from Gold Coast (Coolangatta) Airport.
It was too cool to swim in the pool so we spent many an hour on the patio reading and just watching the swans and ducks swim by. The swans would arrive at 8.30am every morning; you really could set your clock by them.
I had made plans to catch up with friends who have a holiday home at Sanctuary Cove and my friend Steve kindly offered to come and pick us up in their boat so we could sail along the river to their home. How lucky were we!! So Steve and his son Ryan arrived on our private mooring and off we went…
Until we reached the open waters the boat is legally only able to travel at six knots (no wake allowed) so this afforded me to time to check out houses and gardens that back onto the river…wow some people have gorgeous homes! Once away from residences we could go a little faster which was really nice with the wake behind us.
Also nice to see the Gold Coast skyline behind us as well as views along the shore.
After a glass of wine at my friend’s home we took their golf carts and drove to Sanctuary Cove restaurant area where we had a wonderful lunch at a local Italian restaurant which had a lovely wine bar and to enter you walk through a huge wine barrel. Definitely my sort of place. 
Along the way we drove through the golf course and were fortunate enough to see a mob of kangaroos and one mum with her baby!
After lunch we returned to my friend’s home to watch the sunset – I never grow tired of watching either a sunrise or sunset…beautiful anywhere around the world.
And I love it when the sky changes colour whilst the sun is setting…
One other day we took my nephew and godson to MovieWorld on the Gold Coast. Rather expensive and really not what I like to do but I hope my nephew and godson enjoyed themselves. It was my godson’s first time to eat a snow cone; he loved it and enjoyed some rides.
And the sweetest thing about the trip was my godson absolutely loved my nephew (they had met some three years ago) so followed him around all weekend and just wouldn’t let him out of his sight…very lovely and my nephew even though he is seven years older, was incredibly patient and loving!
We also had a meal at a local Chinese restaurant on our last night with another friend (my godson’s mum) and as usual I enjoyed an eggplant dish and some dumplings…delicious. A great long weekend away!
I travelled by plane to Brisbane with a short stop-over in Sydney and took the two hour shuttle to Noosa. Initially my friends and I were going to meet at Brisbane Airport and hire two cars to drive to Noosa. But…my friends were unfortunately stuck in Canberra Airport for seven hours due to an issue with their plane. They didn’t arrive in Noosa until just after midnight so luckily there was a shuttle to drop me off right outside my accomodation!!
I decided to go for a walk to familiarise myself with the area and walked to the main shopping street which took about thirty-minutes. It was lovely how lush and green the vegetation was along the way. When I returned to the resort, my friend Mandy and her partner came over for a glass of wine before I retired to my room for an early night.
Early the next morning I did the same walk down to the beach and then met up with Mandy for breakfast at a cafe overlooking the beach called Bistro C. 
Lots of people out and about swimming or surfing or just relaxing like us enjoying breakfast.
It turned out that this was not the only time I was to eat at Bistro C. One of the girls who had arrived late from Canberra messaged me to say that a birthday lunch had been organised that day for Mandy and it was at Bistro C!!
I decided to take the shuttle bus back to the resort as I was a bit weary after my walks…and a couple of hours later, it was time to return to Bistro C for lunch. One of the girls and I chose the roasted beetroot, feta and legume salad with fig, spiced pumpkin, radish, pomegranate and pea hummus. I opted for no cheese and mayonnaise and it really was absolutely delicious. Coupled with a glass of champagne it was a great way to spend a couple of hours!!
Now I know there are many wonderful restaurants in Noosa but I had seen something else delicious on the menu. The next day I walked back into town and stopped off for lunch at Bistro C...the dish I wanted to try was the fried shiitake mushroom, water chestnut and spinach dumplings with Sichuan eggplant, sesame broccoli, snow peas, green onion and ginger broth. Unfortunately I was very disappointed with this dish. The dumplings tasted like they had been sitting around for a while and there was no Sichuan eggplant or ginger broth on the dish.
At the time of our visit the Noosa Food and Wine Festival was on so we had tickets for a four course dinner at Peppers Resort with a few guest Aussie chefs. Matt Moran whose restaurant is Aria overlooking Sydney Harbour and Matt Preston from Australian Masterchef were two I saw and had photos with. Nice to spend time with the girls but the vegan food was incredibly disappointing; so much I didn’t even stay for dessert!
Warwick is significant in the establishment of the Australian Federal Police as its the location of an assault of the then Prime Minister who was in Warwick giving a speech at the local railway station when an egg was thrown in his direction, knocking off his hat. The Prime Minister asked the local police sergeant to arrest the offender but interestingly, the sergeant refused, saying it was not in his jurisdiction to take action.
We walked in through huge wooden doors with stained glass windows and were taken to our rooms – there are thirteen in total; all very lovely and some with beautiful stained windows similar to those above the front entry doors. 
The manor also has a guest lounge room with open fire for the cold winter evenings and a dining room with gorgeous velvet covered chairs.
Our first official event was to view the re-enactment of the famous egg throwing incident at the train station. Really well put together by the Warwick community. 
As we were representing the AFP, we all wore our uniforms and three of us had a quick photo opportunity outside the main doors of the manor and a larger group photo outside the train station after the re-inactment.
A commemorative plaque was unveiled by our Commissioner and the local Member of Parliament followed by our Commissioner doing some quick media interviews.
Our next official function was a dinner so we went back to the manor and changed into our Mess uniforms and again had some photos taken, but this time on the stairs in the manor. My friend Jane and I had a couple more photos taken along with a few of me and the Commissioner as this was the last time I was to wear my Mess uniform as a member of the AFP; I have since retired – 30 November after thirty-four and a half years!
And finally a photograph of all of us at our dinner function; a great weekend representing the AFP.
Then as if we hadn’t had enough to eat the previous evening, we went for brunch at this lovely little cafe within a rather large shopping centre. The meals matched the size of the shopping centre; huge!!
As were the views at night….
