No worries

No worries is the Aussie response for “no problem” So yes it’s been a while since the team blogged, but no worries…there’s a very good reason. First reason: no internet access here at the house. Second reason: were on holiday. Holiday=vacation.

We saw Joe off on Monday from Coolangatta airport in the morning and then we hired a car. Hired is what the Aussies call renting a car. With Mike at the helm, we set off on the wrong side of the road with our trusty Garmin set to the female Aussie voice and headed for Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.

All of the guys have driven the car for some period of time. For those of you back home thinking that there is going to be some massive pileup of Americans in Australia…no worries…the hard part is not driving on the wrong side of the road or all of the roundabouts…it is the fact that the turn signal lever is on the right side of the steering column. So if you see the wipers wiping on a perfectly sunny day…that’s our indicator of an imminent turn.

One of the most frustrating things for me since we’ve been on holiday is the familiar lack of sleep of the past four weeks. After a non-stop schedule for the past month, you would think we would be able to sleep in. Not so. There was a time change on Sunday, and being the start of “autumn” in Australia…we fell back one hour and lost yet another hour of sleep. That means for the first two mornings on holiday the team was up by 6:30am.

Today is day three of holiday and no worries, we were all able to sleep in. I was up by 7:30 but have been able to get in a morning nap. That’s right. I woke up, took a nap, then woke back up for breakfast. We have no scheduled plans for today. We’ve packed lots of stuff in our first two days. The only thing we’re sure of is that Dominos Pizza will be delivering dinner.

So far on holiday activities have included: Shawn cleaning the pool, a long walk on the beach, grocery shopping, committee meetings, multiple games of Pea cup in the pool, a trip to the Eumundi markets, ANZAC cookie baking, boogie boarding, sand castle/barn building, ping pong playing, sing-alongs, night walk on the boardwalk, Spanish speaking and cooking some excellent meals.

If you thought we were on our own and starving…no worries. The meal menus have consisted of: Nick’s burgers with topping (mayo, cheese, bacon, mushroom), milk, Sanitarium cereal, lemon myrtle yogurt with macadamia, milk, watermelon, Philly cheese steak sandwiches, milk, prawn/fish stirfry, pancakes, bacon & eggs, milk and milk. That’s right…flat white milk. I think I’ve mentioned how difficult it has been to find plain white milk here in Australia. We bought a combined total of 11 litres of milk and our supply is running dangerously low.

But no worries, we know our way to and from the IGA. No worries, we know how to work the grill. No worries, we completed our gift buying yesterday at the market. What we do have to worry about is that our holiday is coming to an end. I speak for the team when I say that we will miss the generous nature of our hosts, the incredible cultural and professional activities we have participated in and the easy going “no worries” feel we’ve had wherever we have gone.

It is bittersweet to say this…no worries, we’ll be home soon.

Mike, Beth, Shawn & Nick