Things I like, Things I don't

Things I like......

The food!

Eating out............

In the first week we had not done a food shop so mostly we had been eating out. We have not been to any of the fine dining places on Palmer Street, but that is on the list. This mans many of pubs have been sampled to Bill's delight and we have tried a few cafes and fish and chip shops. The standard of seafood is quite high and even the cheapest fish in the shop (mackerel I think) is really nice. I hate the cheap hoki that you get down south.

The produce...........

This place is called 'Essentially Fresh'. I wanted to spend my life-savings here. Bill said no, he needs some money for Gold ( that's what they call xxxx here ) It is not cheap here but it has everything you could possibly want. Next door is a quality butcher. We bought smoke pork cutlet, HEAVEN. You think you love bacon until you try this.

Home cooking..............

With local produce in hand, It is time to create in the kitchen. One problem. BONES!!! I bought salmon  and failed to ask if it was boneless, my bad. So I don't have a de-bonner or anything :) Lucky I'm resourceful. I used my eyebrow tweezers! So after an uncomfortable rub and grope of this fish I get the job done. Lucky it was yummy. Bones = the devil.

The shopping...

This is the brand new shopping centre, Stockland. It has everything and the Myer is multi-story. Easy parking and a good food court.

Relax........

This is the Strand. It's a really nice place to go for a swim or a picnic. They have the nets set up for the stinger season or you can swim in the man made lagoon that has a view of the ocean. There is also nightlife, cafes and eateries all along here.

Things I don't.....

ALDI...

There is no ALDI!!! I really like shopping at ALDI and I buy my diet shakes from there. I tried looking them up on my phone to no avail. I then asked the girl at the bar if Townsville had an ALDI and she said "Whats an ALDI"their in lies my answer.

I had only just gotten over the ALDI catastrophe when Bill and I went to go grocery shopping at 9pm on a Saturday. Pretty simple, find a Coles. Well, all of the supermarkets close at 7pm on the weekends. How can this be? The place has the population to support longer hours. Just lazy? Just not interested in extended hours profit? I just don't know but I don't like it. I was forced in the the IGA which shuts at 10pm.

Queenslanders.......

We are living in one at the moment and it's not bad at all. But we have seen a couple that are up for rent. O boy, Bill said "I wouldn't let my dog sleep here". It was a total disgrace. Neighbours yard trashed, walls smashed and covered over, replaced and not painted doors, not even cleaned! Wow so bad.

The industrial Estate.....

This is actually a photo of the port but you get the idea... and I don't actually dislike the industrial estate but I'm sick of the sight of it. When we first got here we drove around and around in it looking for jobs for Bill. So it is really a good thing it's a big as it is as it means there are a lot of job opportunities.

Our First Day

First impressions....

Driving 135km from Charter Towers to Townsville was quite uneventful especially if you compare it to the rest of the trip. We arrived in Townsville at 11am. The first that you see of Townsville is an industrial estate read: BORING! Our temporary house is on a busy road called Gulliver street. The good thing about it is that it is quite central. 

In this first photo is one of the first intersections that we stopped at coming into town. Just after I took this their was a green light for the cross traffic. A guy on a motor bike was first, who should of went but he didn't see the arrow. This caused this old guy in a little crappy car go nuts! He was tooting and shaking his fist. So funny. 

Housing....

There are so many Queenslanders here. Some are old and shitty and some are done up and look really great. Still in the new estates they have all been building low set home. The house we are staying in is also a Queenslander. We have a pool! Not that we have had that much time to swim in it yet :( 

Industrial fun...

After we dropped off our animals our first task was to find a storage shed for our horse float. Heaps of storage sheds around and they all seem to be on the Internet. Sounds like an easy job? WRONG! A standard rollerdoor opening height is 2.5m our float is 2.6m. So after being lead to sheds that are 3.8m high and above ( yes the roof is, not the opening ) We had to go for outdoor storage. Fine but quite limited. Moving on I have found a place at a great price and we go and pay for the first month. 

Backing a trailer into a small space presents a challenge, one we planned to overcome with our fancy jockey wheel that enables you to crank your trailer to fit into tight spots. Look what happened..........

Bent and broken.....

Bill wanted to solve the problem by taking the jockey wheel that was on this super fancy boats that was in the yard with us. He started to do it, then I yelled at him. I mean we have cameras all around us and he wanted to tamper with some rich persons boat! We had to push the damn thing. Moving on......

Beer ruins the day...

Going back to earlier in the day, We picked up a key from the realestate to have a look at one of the misleading storage units I was telling you about. Its round the corner from this bottle-o. Of course Bill was thirsty at this time and He went into the store and ordered two golds ( what you have to say in QLD if you want xxxx gold as they have like 5 types). We get to the storage unit. "Kelly do you have they key?" No I didn't have they key at any point at all. I was positive about that. Some time later after Bill had thrown a pair of scissors in the air he deducted that he must have left them at the bottle-o. In his rage he went to drive straight back there. Myself not so keen since it wasn't just around the corner was not too happy with that. Using all his remaining patients he waited for me to look them up and call them. "No sorry, no keys here". "We were just there are you sure?"  They went and asked someone else. " Yes I just looked they were on the ground in the car park". Lucky us, beer almost ruined the day.

Welcome to Queensland.....

With our three hour drama behind us it's time to relax. Unlucky for Bill he needs to have his smoke on the footpath. This is one of the bars on The Strand.

We walked a bit further and settled down at Longboard for dinner. As you can see Bill is now happy. You can't see it but you can probably guess there is a beer on the table. I am also happy know because for almost the first time Today I am not looking at the industrial estates!!!