We woke at 6am and watched Sunrise as we didn't want to leave until 9:00am ish to miss the peak hour traffic. We had brekky and finished packing up and spoke to many campers who came and wished us 'a safe trip'. We left at 8:45am and only stopped at the BP Burpengary, where I topped up the van tyres and bought a bag of crush ice, which I crush and put into our black water tank (toilet), the ice loosens any hard 'bits' stuck in the tank. It works well. The rest of the drive to Broadwater Tourist Park in Southport was uneventful, we arrived at 11:08am. Ted and Sue our next door neighbours came out and welcomed us back. It took us most of the day to do a full setup, as we are here for 8 weeks. In the end I was knackered BUT we are all setup.

As we are both buggered, dinner was Maccas.

Tomorrow is relax day.

We slept well last night, finally woke up about 6:45am. We had brekky and got ourselves organised for Bingo and left at 8:20am. Arrived at the Sharks about 10 minutes later, the carpark was empty, we thought that Bingo wasn't on but luckily it was. I brought 2 full set plus 2 lucky numbers for $50, while Marg sat at 'our' table, as it was free. We marked the various games and were ready for the 9:30am eyes down with heaps of time to spare, so Marg went and ordered coffee and cake. And we started, I won a $20 bingo and not to be out done, Marg wins $30, so we were very happy.

Our Bingo summary after our 13th week, paid $50 won $50 currently our holiday to Date losing $27.50 at Dicky and $94 at Southport bringing our total to a loss of $121.50. Our overall loss has stagnanted.

Back at camp for lunch, we then drove to Bunnings then off to Helensvale shops for a haircut and some shopping.
We drove over to Jay's house at 7pm to wish him a very happy birthday. Bec had a cake and we had a great time. We are so proud of him and love him heaps. We do miss our boys living 2,000kms away.

Marg made a bacon and egg pie. It was yumma.

Tomorrow I have a few things to do.

We both slept well, I woke and got up about 7:00am while Marg was stayed asleep a little longer. I had to refill our gas bottle, goto the bank and pick up my thongs from Jay's, I left them there last night.
I left about 9:30am, at the Bank I queried them about receiving my statements in the mail, even though, I have selected 'Online only'. We are still investigating. While standing in the queue, Lukey just happen to walk in after me and came up and said "Hi", I gave him abig cuddle in the middle of the Bank. It may not be the done thing BUT when you haven't seen your little boy for a month, I do that. Jodi and little Mase were outside, so we went to Donut King and had a hot dog and coke, Jodi had a kebab. I minded Mase and we had a great time. He is beautiful. Even though he will be 7 months old in 2 days, I am sure that he said to me "Grandpa has a Navara". After leaving them, I stopped at the Camping Plus shop and refilled the gas bottle and bought a few more tent pegs.

Back at camp, I had lunch and put my bike back together, ready for riding. As Marg didn't come with me this morning,she missed out on seeing Mase, so I organised us to visit him at 4pm. I only had time for a quick ride down to Surfers then out to the Spit and stopping at Cafe Rockpool for a coffee and muffin before heading home.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 27kms gives me a total of 74kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 38th ride at Southport brings my total to 1,921kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 2,867kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

We got to Mase's place a bit after 4pm, Marg was rapt to see him, he smiled at me and we left after an hour.

Dinner was leftover Bacon and Egg pie. It was yumma.

Tomorrow we hope to be back to normal. I go for a ride and tomorrow arvo, we are off to our club.

We both slept well, I woke and got up about 6:00am while Marg asked me to turn on Sunrise, so she laid in bed and maybe went back to sleep. I put on 2 loads of washing. Very strange at 6:30am, none of the machines were being used. I know the sign says 7am to 7pm, but what's 30 minutes amongst friends.
While the washing machines were doing their thing, I changed into 'cycleman' and when they finished I headed off for a ride. Today I wanted to do my 'normal' ride which is about 59kms. I left at 7:15am and it was 9.5° so I wore my long fingered gloves and full length cycling tights, I stripped off at Surfers coming back from Burleigh. I headed north from camp to Land's End, did a U turn and headed back over the Nerang river bridge, past Southport YC and then Surf LSC onto Surfers, then along the 'beach roads' through Broadbeach along Hedges Ave to Miami Beach, past Robbie McEwen's Cafe (which was packed at 8am), along the shared paths to the Burleigh Heads Lookout. Stopped and took some photos, then retraced my route to Southport SLSC and headed out to The Spit (ate my 2 bananas), over to where Pirates 5 was being filmed (all cleaned up and nothing to see), then stopped at Cafe Rockpool for a coffee and a TRIPLE choc muffin. None off that Double choc crap, only triple for me.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 59kms gives me a total of 133kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 39th ride at Southport brings my total to 1,980kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 2,926kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

After showering, it was lunchtime. Marg made cornbeef sangas, they were very yumma. The arvo was spent just chillin' around camp. Marg mostly read her book and snuck in a nanna nap, while I was on my laptop and eventually, sat in the annex with the sun streaming and read the Herald Sun, until I started getting dopey (from the Sun, thank you). To wake myself up, I sat on the benchseat and looked out over the Broadwater, the cool breeze definitely wakes you up.

At 3:30pm, Marg and I got organised, as it is Thursday, it is pokies and dinner at our 'club' - CSi Southport. We arrived there just after 4pm, Marg walked into the pokies area, I sat in the lounge area, found a powerpoint, plugged in my modem and laptop and started updating this. But first, I had to buy a schooner of XXXX Gold.

I would like to say that Marg and I are not creaatures of habit, for example, Tuesday is Bingo, Thursday arvo is pokies and dinner, plus I ride nearly every day.

While writing this (4:48pm) I am expecting David and Di to be joining us for dinner.
Update: David and Di arrived about 5:10pm, we chatted and Marg joined us at 5:30pm, we ordered dinner, David and Di had pizza, Marg had flathead, while I had a mixed grill. They were yumma. It was great catching up with David and Di, we will be having dinner at their other club soon.

Tomorrow, nothing is planned.

We both slept well, I woke and got up about 6:00am while Marg asked me to turn on Sunrise, so she laid in bed and maybe went back to sleep. I had brekky and changed into 'cycleman' and left about 7:30am, when it was 10.7°, so I was wearing long fingered gloves and my cycling tights plus my wet weather jacket to keep me warm. I did my 'normal' ride which is about 55kms. I took off my gloves and tights at Robbies Cafe.
I headed north from camp to Land's End, did a U turn and headed back over the Nerang river bridge, past Southport YC and then Surf LSC onto Surfers, then along the 'beach roads' through Broadbeach along Hedges Ave to Miami Beach, past Robbie McEwen's Cafe, along the shared paths to the Burleigh Heads Lookout. Stopped and took some photos, then retraced my route, stopping at Robbies for a coffee (Robbie wasn't there), then onto The Spit where I sat and ate my 2 bananas. I noticed the whale boats were about 1km offshore and saw the whales and their splashes, then back to camp.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 56kms gives me a total of 189kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 40th ride at Southport brings my total to 2,036kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 2,982kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

After showering, it was lunchtime. Marg made egg sangas, they were very yumma. The arvo was spent just chillin' around camp. Marg used our fossicking drill and polished a smoky quartz crystal, she has a way to go, but she has heaps of time. Because of the noise (like a dentist's drill) she only uses it when our neighbour go out. When I wasn't on my laptop, I sat in our annex with the sun streaming through the door and read today's Herald Sun on my iPad.

Dinner was the last leftovers of our cornbeef, we had sangas, they were yumma.

Tomorrow, nothing is planned.

We both slept well, I woke and got up about 6:00am while Marg slept on. I changed into 'cycleman' and left about 6:30am, when it was 9.9°, so I was wearing long fingered gloves and my cycling tights plus my wet weather jacket to keep me warm. I did my 'normal' ride which is about 55kms. I took my jacket off at Robbies Cafe and my gloves and tights at the end of The Spit.
Same ride as yesterday, just left camp earlier. I headed north from camp to Land's End, did a U turn and headed back over the Nerang river bridge, past Southport YC and then Surf LSC onto Surfers, then along the 'beach roads' through Broadbeach along Hedges Ave to Miami Beach, past Robbie McEwen's Cafe, along the shared paths to the Burleigh Heads Lookout. Stopped and took some photos, the surfers were out in their '000s' then retraced my route, stopping at Robbies for a coffee (Robbie wasn't there), then onto The Spit where I sat and didn't eat my bananas, I had run out. As I didn't have brekky, I stopped at Cafe Rockpool and had a coffee and triple choc muffin, then back to camp.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 57kms gives me a total of 246kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 41st ride at Southport brings my total to 2,093kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 3,039kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

After showering, Marg and I drove over to Helensvale shops for lunch at Gloria Jeans and some food shopping at Woollies. Back at camp, we sat in the annex with the sun streaming through and read the Herald Sun on our iPads. During the arvo, Marg managed a nanna nap while I walked around the camp to take photos of George and his mates at the park's boat ramp. My prized objective is to photograph George landing on the water. Today I got one BUT I will still try and get a better one. (closer and clearer).

Dinner was a scratch meal, we had vegemite on toast.

Tomorrow, nothing is planned.

We both slept well, I woke and got up about 6:15am while Marg slept on. I changed into 'cycleman' and left about 6:45am, when it was 11.4°, so I was wearing long fingered gloves and my cycling tights plus my wet weather jacket to keep me warm. I did my 'normal' ride which is about 55kms. I took my jacket off at Burleigh Heads.
Same ride as yesterday, just left camp a bit later. I headed north from camp to Land's End, did a U turn and headed back over the Nerang river bridge, past Southport YC and then Surf LSC onto Surfers, then along the 'beach roads' through Broadbeach along Hedges Ave to Miami Beach, past Robbie McEwen's Cafe, along the shared paths to the Burleigh Heads Lookout. Stopped and took some photos, the surfers were out in their '000s' then retraced my route, didn't stop at Robbies - no spare tables, then onto The Spit where I sat and ate my 2 bananas. As I didn't have brekky, I stopped at Cafe Rockpool and had a coffee and triple choc muffin, then back to camp.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 56kms gives me a total of 302kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 42nd ride at Southport brings my total to 2,150kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 3,095kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

After showering, Marg and I drove over to Helensvale shops for a large bag to stow Marg's sleepingbag, as Mont will be using it on Thursday night at her school camp. Then continued to Lukey's shack to see little Mase, he's still beautiful. Back at camp, we sat in the annex with the sun streaming through and read the Herald Sun on our iPads. During the arvo, Marg managed a nanna nap while I caught up on a few TV shows that I had taped.

Dinner was Marg's famous macaroni cheese. It was yumma.

Tomorrow, nothing is planned.

We both slept well, I woke and got up about 6:30am and turned on 'Sunrise' so Marg could lay in bed and watch TV. I changed into 'cycleman' and left about 7:15am, when it was 13.0°, so I still wore my long fingered gloves and my cycling tights plus my wet weather jacket to keep me warm. I did my 'normal' ride which is about 55kms. I took my jacket and tights off just after Miami Beach.
Same ride as yesterday, just left camp a bit later. I headed north from camp to Land's End, did a U turn and headed back over the Nerang river bridge, past Southport YC and then Surf LSC onto Surfers, then along the 'beach roads' through Broadbeach along Hedges Ave to Miami Beach, past Robbie McEwen's Cafe, along the shared paths to the Burleigh Heads Lookout. Stopped and took some photos, the surfers are still there as the surf has been pumping for the past few days, then retraced my route, stop at Robbies for a coffee, spoke tto Sherry and then onto The Spit where I sat and ate my 2 bananas, then headed back to camp.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 56kms gives me a total of 358kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 43rd ride at Southport brings my total to 2,206kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 3,151kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

While riding, Jay rang and asked me to drive to their home as Bec saw some 'dodgy dudes' near their home and she was a bit on edge as their new house had their front door stolen on Saturday. As it turns out it is hard rubbish collections and the 'dodgy dudes' were just scavengers. So after showering, Marg and I drove over to Jays then to their new house. Yep, their front door had been unscrewed neatly. I checked out the rest of their house. All good. We then drove back to Helensvale shops for some birthday presents for Mont. Back at camp, we sat in the annex with the sun streaming through and read the Herald Sun on our iPads. During the arvo, we both managed a nanna nap.

Dinner was Marg's famous macaroni cheese leftovers. It was STILL yumma.

Tomorrow, we have Mont's Eisteddfod at the Gold Coast Art Centre in the morning.

As we were going to Mont's Eisteddfod at the Gold Coast Art Centre today, we were in no hurry. We both slept well, we woke about 6:30am and turned on 'Sunrise', eventually, getting up and organised and left about 9:45am and drove over to the Gold Coast Art Centre. The art Centre was jumping and we were directed to park on the grass, which we did. We were one of the first people into the Art Centre and sat in the back row, so I didn't block anyone behind us. Mont's school came on and they were great. After the show, we drove over to South Park for lunch at Michels and some shopping at Woollies.

Back at camp, about 1pm it was 25°, I changed into 'cycleman' and did my 'normal' ride which is about 55kms. Same ride as yesterday, just left camp a bit later. I headed north from camp to Land's End, did a U turn and headed back over the Nerang river bridge, past Southport YC and then Surf LSC onto Surfers, then along the 'beach roads' through Broadbeach along Hedges Ave to Miami Beach, past Robbie McEwen's Cafe, along the shared paths to the Burleigh Heads Lookout. Stopped and took some photos, the surfers had disappeared as the wind had blown out the waves, then retraced my route, stop at The Spit where I sat and ate my 2 bananas, then stopped at Cafe Rockpool for coffee and muffin, then headed back to camp, arriving about 4:30pm.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 56kms gives me a total of 414kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 44th ride at Southport brings my total to 2,262kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 3,207kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

Dinner was Marg's famous lasagna. It was yumma.

Tomorrow, I have to drive Jay from his mechanics to home and we are having lunch with david and Di at Tweed Heads.

We both slept well, I woke about 6:30am, while Marg slept on. I got dressed and left at 7:10am and drove to Jay's mechanic in Southport. Jay arrived just before 7:30am, checked it in and I drove him home then I headed back to our camp. It was now just before 8:30am and I had until 10:30am to go riding, so I only rode to Surfers to the Spit and stopped at Cafe Rockpool for coffee and muffin and got back to camp just before 10;30am.
I showered, we got ourselves organised and left at 11:05am for the 50kms drive down to Coolangatta/Tweed Heads Golf Club for lunch with Daivid and Di. We drove down the freeway, it was very direct and arrived at 11:55am, parked, signed into the Club and met David and Di. Queued up at midday with all the other patrons. Paid $33 for Marg and me for 'all you can eat'. We were shown to our table. David, Di and me had 3 main courses while Marg had one, and we all had one desert each. I can't remember what everyone had, but I started with calamari rings, spring rolls and potato cakes, then I attacked the roasts, I had roast lamb, pork and beef with gravy and roast potatoes and scallop potatoes. This was so yumma that I went back and had another serving of the meat and potatoes. I finished off with jelly and ice cream. It was yumma.
We had a great time, chatting and eating and plan to do it again next Wednesday.

We got back to camp about 3:30pm, the traffic was bloody awful. As we were knackered from lunch, we managed to both have a nanna nap.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 26kms gives me a total of 440kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 45th ride at Southport brings my total to 2,288kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 3,233kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

After such a big lunch, dinner was just a scratch meal.

Tomorrow, we have our Thursday arvo at our club.

We both slept well, I woke and got up about 6:45am and turned on 'Sunrise' so Marg could lay in bed and watch TV. I changed into 'cycleman' and left about 7:35am, when it was 14.0°, so I 'manned up' and didn't wear my long fingered gloves or tights or wet weather jacket, BUT it was cool ish, but soon warmed up.
Back to my normal 55km ride. I headed north from camp to Land's End, did a U turn and headed back over the Nerang river bridge, past Southport YC and then Surf LSC onto Surfers, then along the 'beach roads' through Broadbeach along Hedges Ave to Miami Beach, past Robbie McEwen's Cafe, along the shared paths to the Burleigh Heads Lookout. Stopped and took some photos, there were 3 surfers out but the surf was crap. I retraced my route, stop at Robbies for a coffee, spoke to Sherry and then onto The Spit where I sat and ate my 3 bananas, then headed back to camp.

My riding stats: Today's ride of 56kms gives me a total of 496kms for August, 1,042kms for July and 946kms for June. My 46th ride at Southport brings my total to 2,344kms and 945kms at Dicky OR if you are really into figures, I have ridden 3,289kms since leaving home back on 3rd May.

After I showered and we had lunch at camp, we then drove down to Mermaid Beach looking for accomodation for Mum and Dad, who want to come up here for a month or longer. Their usual accomodation is no longer taking holiday makers, so we checked an apartment block but they only had a 2 week period available. No good. We are still looking.
On our way back to camp, we stopped at Cafe Rockpool for cake and coffee. The remainder of the arvo was spent just chillin' around camp.

Dinner was leftover lasagna with garlic bread. It was yumma.

Tomorrow is Bingo as we missed Tuesday due to Mont's Eisteddfod.

No riding today.

We slept well last night, finally woke up about 6:45am. We had brekky and got ourselves organised for Bingo and left at 8:20am. Arrived at the Sharks about 10 minutes later, the carpark was empty, we thought that Bingo wasn't on but luckily it was. I brought 2 full set plus 2 lucky numbers for $50, while Marg sat at 'our' table, as it was free. We marked the various games and were ready for the 9:30am eyes down with heaps of time to spare, so Marg went and ordered coffee and cake. And we started, Marg was very fast out of the blocks, she won $20 then 3 games later wins $30. I played with my usual brillance and didn't win a cent.

Our Bingo summary after our 14th week, paid $50 won $50 currently our holiday to Date losing $27.50 at Dicky and $94 at Southport bringing our total to a loss of $121.50. Our overall loss has stagnanted.

After Bingo we went to South Park and did some food shopping, then I picked up my bike after dropping it at the Bike shop yesterday to get my brake pads replaced. I have ridden over 2,200kms on my new treadley and the brake pads are nearly worn out. The rest of the arvo was spent buggering about camp.

Marg made omelettes and they were yumma.

Tomorrow, we are going to Mont's dance recital.

No riding today.

We slept well last night, and slept in until after 7:30am. Watched 'Weekend Sunrise" in bed, as we didn't have anything planned until 12:00pm when we drove to Mont's Dance performance.
During the morning, Marg and I walked over to the beach and watched the activities on the Broadwater. Then I walked around to the Caravan park's boat ramp and sat on the bench seat and took photos of George and his mates.

We arrived at Mont's dance performance which was held at the Jubilee Primary School in Pacific Pines. It was the annual fete at the school and Mont and her dancers were part of the entertainment. After her performance, we drove back to Lukeys and chatted and played with my little man "Mase" - he is so beautiful. The rest of the arvo was spent just buggering about our camp, which included a nanna nap.

Dinner was spagetti on toast, it was yumma.

Tomorrow, we have our family lunch.