Life in paradise - Airlie Beach, Australia
Airlie Beach, Australia
Over the last two and a bit months, we have had the pleasure of experiencing life in the paradise that is the Whitsunday's. As I may have mentioned in passing, we really like it here...
Ryan’s aunty, Sue, was generous enough to invite us to stay with her whilst we were in Airlie. I’m not exactly sure if she anticipated that we’d be her house guests for almost 10 weeks, but we certainly are very lucky that she was willing to allow us to make her house our home for our time here, and we definitely enjoyed her company and hospitality. Sue sure is the hostess with the mostess! I now have some new family recipes added to my favourites, including her famous short-bread (delicious!) and lemon syrup cake, on which we over indulged on many occasions.
In addition to an aunt, Ryan also has a cousin in Airlie, Sue’s son Nat. Nat and Tanya have lived in Airlie for around 17 years I think and have made a great life here. And most importantly they have recently had a new addition to their family in Sam. Sam must be the luckiest little boy to ever be born in China, because when Nat and Tan adopted him, his life was set on the most amazing path, with parents and grandparents who adore (and spoil!!) him, and a future of living in the most beautiful part of the world.
Sam’s Birthday
We were lucky enough that Sam’s second birthday fell while we were here. Sue was in charge of making cupcakes, so I decided that I’d help with the decorating. Thank you Google! Fishy cupcakes were the order of the day, so after a ridiculous number of man hours for just a few, well quite a few, cupcakes, the little fishies were complete and they were a hit at the party. I think Sue and I were rather proud of our efforts! We were repaid in full when Sam saw them and immediately recognised that they were fish by making his little guppy lips sound that he does whenever he sees or someone mentions fish!
The party was fun and I think not only is Sam the apple of his parents eye, but also the most popular kid on Tropic Drive, with all the kids from the street vying for his attention!!
Work-life balance
The concept of a work/life balance is almost moot here in Airlie. You can’t help but let life take over and work become a distant second priority. Being a builder, Nat was able to scope out some plumbers and get a couple of leads of jobs for Ryan as soon as we got here. After a couple of phone calls Ryan could have started working on our first full day here! Thankfully he asked to be given a couple of days to have a look around and get settled in, but by the Thursday of that first week of arriving, he was working, seeing some nice views and properties all around Airlie and the surrounding areas. It didn’t take me that long to find a job either, and by the following Tuesday I was rocking up for my first shift at Brumby’s Whitsunday. This actually turned out to be a perfect job as I could walk to work in a matter of eight minutes and, best of all, it involved no night work, which most other work options in Airlie certainly would have. I actually really enjoyed working at Brumby’s and the girls I worked with were great. When i first started, I vowed that despite being in such close proximity to Brumby’s famous cheddarmite scrolls and all the other fat-laden goodies (think rum balls, hedgehod slice, vanilla slice etc etc), that I would not weaken my resolve and undo any of my hard work in the weight loss department. This resolve came and went in waves! Most of the time I was very good and never snuck a treat and went to the gym or a run before work and continued to lose weight. Then something happened and I stated doing all the closes at work, which meant i was alone in the store for 5 hours each day. Which meant i could sneak all the goodies that i liked. This was not great! I think I’ve eaten enough rum balls to last me through til xmas 2014!!
Finals season
Being in Airlie from August through to October meant that we spent the whole AFL finals series here and, given the imminent success of the Hawks, this meant serious priority was given to Friday and Saturday night football. Thankfully, unlike most Queenslanders, Nat and Tan are AFL fan’s and, even more importantly, Tannie is a mad Hawks supporter just like Ryan! Technically Sam is a Sydney Swan’s supporter, but i think Ryan may have had some influence of converting him to the Hawks. Only time will tell!
So most Friday and Saturday nights during September, Ryan and I would head over to Nat and Tan’s to partake in our weekend ritual of ordering takeaway of all different cuisines and settling in to watch the footy. Sue, being totally uninterested in the football and with no desire to eat Thai, Indian, Japanese, Moroccan, or Chinese food, did not come along for these footy nights, but Ryan and I had a wonderful time chilling out with Nat and Tan and getting to know Sam and taking great delight in playing with him and seeing the best of his funny little personality.
Thankfully the Hawks made it all the way this season and, although I was secretly barracking for the Dockers on the Big Day, the win to the Hawks meant all was well in our household.
Double dates with Sarah and Aaron
Something else that makes travelling such a great experience is all the people that you meet. Which in actually fact we have really done very little of over the last couple of years, because we are usually moving through places quite quickly and, where we have worked up until now, has been on farms where there has been very little civilisation!
Queue Sarah and Aaron! Ryan met Aaron at work and teed up to meet at a local bar for a drink one evening, where we started another weekend ritual of meeting him and Sarah for beers at Sorrento’s to watch the sunset. I think we had five or six 'dates’ together in the end. Aaron and Sarah are Kiwi’s travelling around Australia, so hopefully if they ever hit Perth, they will look us up and we can rekindle the flame J
Outrigger canoeing for Whitsunday Lions
Sue is an active member of the community and one of her roles is a Lions committee member. So when the Lions needed to field at team in the local Outrigger Canoeing races, they needed ‘some young ones’ to help in the boat- hence Ryan and I were nominated. So down we went to the main beach at Airlie, just near the lagoon one Sunday morning and rowed in these outrigger canoes all morning till our arms nearly fell off! Not quite, but by the last few races our team was quite happy not to make the cut through to the next round because it was quite hard work! And given that we only got proper instruction of how to turn and row correctly before our final race, we didn’t exceed too many expectations!
Out and about in Airlie
We knew that our time here in Airlie was finite, so we went about seeing as much of the local area as we could. Each weekend we would head off to nearby places like Conway Beach, Dingo Beach, Bowen and Proserpine to have a look and experience as much as we could. Of course we also spent time on and around the islands themselves, but these deserve a whole entry unto themselves....