Joke of the day

I taught at my neighbourhood Catholic Girls' School today. I heard this joke in a year 9 Science class.

A little boy sat down to write a Christmas wish list to Jesus. He began writing: "Dear Jesus, I have been good all year long--", and then he stopped and angrily crumpled up the paper and threw it away.
He began a new one: "Dear Jesus, I have been good for most of the year--".
Once again, he stopped and angrily crumpled up the piece of paper. He got up, went to his mother's bedroom, picked up the statue of the Virgin Mary, and locked it in a cupboard. He went back to his room, sat down and started writing a new letter. It began, "Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again--"

Good Fuel in Melbs

It's been a busy week back in Melbourne. I keep feeling as if there's a wave somewhere I should be catching...
Sadly, that's not going to happen in the Big Smoke. The autumn weather has been beautiful though: crisp and sunny. Quite a nice backdrop to 3 days of Relief Teaching, finishing writing assignments for university and catching up with friends.

Thank goodness for quality coffee!

Sunshine Coffee

Before we found our regular coffee joint in Noosa, we tried some in Sunshine Beach at Fratellini's. It was good, and so was breakfast! It's a cute, quirky little restaurant with an Italian vibe.

More Animals

The roadsigns here are pretty cute.

Can you spot the Koala?

A Wallaby on our bushwalk.

Bushwalk

One day, after our morning surf session, we went for a walk through the National Park. It wasn't a sunny day, but it wasn't cold, either! This is Alexandra Bay, also known as "A" Bay. It's an unpatrolled beach, a 25-30 minute walk into the park. In addition to sunbaking nude, apparently you can also surf here. It looked scary to us, full of rips and gutters. When we chatted with locals later in the week, we learned it could be just that: scary and a bit sharky too! We were happy to appreciate its beauty from the beach.

Multi-colored sand.

Banksia

The Boys

We went out for a surf at the groyne with Muzz on the Sunday we arrived, and met some of his surfing cronies in the car park. After that, we saw the same dudes every morning and sometimes in the afternoons too in the car park at Noosa National Park. It led us to ask Muzz if his friends actually worked or if they were, in fact, all 100% retired.

It's a bit of a walk out to Tea Tree Bay, and even further if you want to surf Granites, and there is a way to get your boards (big or small? a selection of them, no less!) out to the breaks without too much hassle. Here are the dudes with The Quiver Caddy!

There are no pigeons in Noosa...

...only Bush Turkeys! They were everywhere! In the park, in the car parks. Just before the dinner hour, they would do the rounds at the sidewalk cafes, wandering around tables looking for crumbs.
One morning we even saw an Albino Bush Turkey!

Getting Ready

There are no actual surfing-in-action pics to be had on this trip. As soon as we got in the water, we forgot about getting out again to take pics of each other! This is the best we can do: The Preamble to getting in the water:
Checking the surf with coffees.
Jas getting her gear on before hitting the water at Sunshine Beach. We wore our 2-3 steamers a few times when it was overcast and the wind was onshore. However, to our delight, we were in thermal rashies and board shorts for the majority of our time on the waves.
I'm waxing up my board and looking forward to some fun rides and a few steep drops on the beach break that day.

Movie Night

Evenings were pretty chill in Noosa. One evening we had a Classic Beach Movie Night with Muzz. He collects old reel to reel beach and surf films. This particular evening, we had the pleasure of watching an Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon classic! Not a lot beats the surf /beach fashion of the 60's! My sister and I used to watch the Beach Blanket Bingo movies on the TV Movie Matinee on Sunday afternoons. I'd forgotten they were musicals. Song and dance numbers happened with alarming frequency.
Hey, did you know that the surf label, Von Zipper actually comes from the Beach Blanket Bingo films? True! The crazy Rocker gang leader's name is Erik Von Zipper.

Hangin' with Muzz

Jas and I spent some time hanging out with her friend, Murray Walding. Muzz used to run the Lorne Surf Shop, teach in the area and play in a band called the Beachniks. He and his wife Sharon live in Noosa, but still have very strong ties to the Surf Coast. Muzz works a few days a week at one of the surf shops in Noosa, GOLDEN BREED. It's a gorgeous shop with some cool clothes and great boards! We hired boards from these guys for the week, and they were really good!
Quirky vintage beach culture decor!

Yes, maybe we are coffee snobs. Is that a bad thing?

Mini marshmallows served with a latte. Go figure.

It was through trial and error and a burnt tongue that we finally found good coffees in Noosa. After finding that we couldn't even rate the coffees in Noosaville, we ended up buying large lattes from Aromas on Hastings Street every morning. Somedays we would buy coffees, check the surf spots and then go back to get another latte each before we paddled out.

Palms

The palms outside our townhouse were really gorgeous in the morning sun.
They looked cool at night too. This is the view from the spa (hot tub).

More Big Things

And here it (she/he?) is! Noosaville is home to the Big Pelican. Check that off my list of 100 things to see before I die!

A SPECKY DAY

No clouds!"Specky": Australian slang. adj. Special; perfect; beautiful; nice. We had one specky day after another on our Noosa surf vacation.Noosa Sunrise from Beach Access 13. Looking back at Noosa from the National Park as small lines of swell wrap around the points.

Our Accommodation

We found the Best off-peak season deals here!













The view of the pool from the balcony.

Surfin'

Jasmina and I have surfed everyday since we've been here in Noosa! We had two sessions today, bookending our spa treatments. (It's tough to be on holiday!) We have surfed mostly at Tea Tree Bay, a 5 minute walk into Noosa National Park. This is the view from one of the beach accesses. You can't really tell from this pic, but there are 40 people in the water at this break. Everyone surfs in Noosa, even the dogs. This dog is obviously a SUP (Standup Paddleboard) guru!

No Boards!

On the spur of the moment, Jasmina and I decided it was a good time to fly to Noosa for a week! Noosa is on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The water is warm, and so is the weather!
We got super cheap flights and super cheap accomodation. We packed our boards and were off. Too bad they now have length restrictions on JetStar! (Nothing over 6'4") We had to leave both our boards in Melbourne. Tragedy! Disaster!It's all good, though! Jas and Matt's friend Murray lives in Noosaville, and he is a surf guru! He hooked us up with some mini mals from the surf shop he works at, and we are stoked!Our rental wagon, the rental boards and sunshine!

Good Morning!

A sunrise at the beach in Lorne. The waves were too small to surf on Sunday morning, but that was just fine as Jasmina and I surfed the beach breaks the evening before, and stayed in until well past dark, catching some of the most fun rides ever!

Hungry? Troubled? Tense?

Leave this business in Thornbury feeling like a new person! You'll be relaxed, with a full belly, and a glowing face and hair (or face hair?) as your Chi fires through unblocked channels.