A lovely weekend

Friday:

On Friday night 5pm we played beach volleybal. There are four beach volleybal courts at bond university and on Fridays the students gather at 5pm to play some games. It was the first time we went and we had a lot of fun. We played for 2 hours! I played in a team against Philippe and his team. Of course my team won :-)

After the beach volleyball we had some friends over at our place for a BBQ. We had a good night! Philippe made some delicious vegetables and was a hero behind the BBQ!

Saturday:

We slept a bit longer than during the week and then we had a swim in the pool! The sun was shining, it was warm and the water was great! I loved it! I relaxed in the little boat in the pool.

After lunch I installed myself on the little pier in front of the house with 2 book (yes PhD books: "sport management in Australia" and "Australia's sporting success, inside story") and I made some notes.

At 3pm there was no more sun at the pier... Unfortunately, we live at the wrong side of the "river". At 1.30pm the pool is completely in the shadow of the house and at 3pm there is no more sun in the garden. So the people who live on the other side of the "river" have the sun till the sunset! Around 5pm I went for a run and I enjoyed the sunset and the beautiful sky on my way:

Saterday night Master chef Philippe cooked again a delicious meal that we ate with some friends. On the menu we had chicken schnitzel made with parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley and we had boulangere potatoes.
C'etait delicieux!

Sunday:
On Sunday I did the household tasks... laundry, going shopping, cleaning the fridge, cleaning the floor in the kitchen because it was sticky everywhere. About the going grocery shopping... Philippe was studying for his midterm exams, so I went by myself... and for the first time I drove a car in Australia! Philippe had to come with me in the beginning to practice a bit! It feels so weird! The gears on the left side... I had troubles to stay in the middle of the road and not going to close to the left side. But I made it... I went to Aldi (yes, we have Aldi here down under!).
I also went to the neighbors to barrow their fishing net to fish all the leaves out of the pool. And then I swum! I LLOOOVVVEEE Australian summer!

I had a great relaxing weekend!
Cheers,
Jessie

Brisbane!

Finally a "good weather" weekend so that means we did a trip and that we have something to talk about on the blog!

Saturday was a nice, sunny, but a bit windy day! We went to Brisbane on the bikes and Philippe installed my iPhone as a GPS! It worked very well! It takes about an hour to go to Brisbane from Robina. Some pictures on our way:

At home

Brisbane

Bridge

At South Bank, one of the nicest places of Brisbane we met Jenna, another PhD student at my faculty. First we did the South Bank lifestyle market, a nice small market with jewellery, arts, crafts, clothes,...
Then we walked passed Brisbane Beach, a man-made beach in the middle of the city that overlooks the Brisbane River and the Central Business District. We walked over the South bank walkway. Then it was time for a sandwich that we ate next to the Brisbane river:

After lunch we walked pas a little temple, the Brisbane Wheel, the cultural centrum, over a bridge, passed the casino, through the main shopping street,...

The temple:

Brisbane wheel:

Cultural centre

Casino

After our walk we went to the Belgian Beer Cafe! Lots of Belgian beers! Nice place to go and have a drink! We also had some food, but this was a bit expensive for what it was...

After our stop in the Belgian beer cafe, we walked to the Botanic Gardens and we walked along the Brisbane river.

After the botanic gardens we crossed the brisbane river again and we went to South bank again for a walk.

Then we walked to the Suncorp stadion. Jenna's boyfriend was one of the referees so we could go to the game with her. Brisbane was playing against Newcastle. There was a good atmosphere in the stadium and it was a good game. Brisbane made an own goal early in the game but after that they had so many changes but they only could make one goal.

After the game we went back home on the bike! It was cold!!!! During the day it was so warm, but it was only 15 degrees after the game. Freezing!

We had a very good day! We saw a lot, we walked a lot and enjoyed Brissie!

Sunday is a relaxing day and doing some work in the house... grocery shopping, laundry,...

Don't forget to leave a reaction on the blog posts if you like! I always enjoy reading them!

Greetz,
Jessie & Phil

Rain :-(

Hello everyone...

For those who are wondering why we don't update the blog at the moment... We cannot do any trips because of the rain! Since I arrived back in Australia two weeks ago it has been raining, raining, raining. I think we only had 3 or 4 days of good weather... This is not normal for the Gold Coast! For the last 2 weekends it has been raining all day! Here some pictures:

We are getting bored because there is nothing to do in this weather. Yesterday we tried to go on a trip with the bikes... but it was not enjoyable in the rain so after half an hour we were back home. I even started cooking (and for people who know me, they will now that if I start cooking, I must be really bored), I made zucchini (Courgette) soup. Yesterday night Phil and some friends went carting. Philippe has a friend who is travelling around Australia who is staying here at the moment... but he picked the wrong time; nothing to visit in this weather. 

So now I am writing on the blog. It is raining like hell and the wind whistles. I have looked up some news about this weather: 

Southern Queensland has been warned to brace for gale force winds and flash flooding early on Sunday with Emergency Management Queensland urging people from Bundaberg to the Gold Coast and inland towns to prepare for heavy rain and strong wind gusts. Weather forecasters say up to 200mm of rain is expected to fall across the south-east coast region before tomorrow with wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres. Already there's been minor flash flooding and also land slips on the Sunshine Coast

They predict the same weather for Monday. On Tuesday it should be better.... but I have learned that the weather forecast in Australia is not very reliable... But fingers crossed for better weather!

BUT we also had some days with good weather! And I am happy that I enjoyed one of them! For the first time we swam in the pool! It was 26degrees, blue sky and Sun! It was lovely! Here some pics:

I saw that the weather is currently better in Belgium and France... So enjoy it there!

Hopefully the next post is about a trip with nice weather!

Jessie & Phil

Prague - Home - Back to Oz

Finally some time to post about the conference of the European Association of Sports Management in Prague from the 15th to the 19th of September.

On Wednesday morning I took the plane in Eindhoven and one hour and 15 minutes later I arrived in Prague. I took an airport transfer with the airline company so I could do some sightseeing. One hour after arriving in the conference hotel I had a meeting. After the meeting we took the metro to go to the city centre for the opening ceremony. After some keynote speeches there was a reception. We drunk something and had some finger-food and then we went to a restaurant to finally have our dinner (at 9pm).

On Thursday there were presentation all day so I went from one room to the other to listen to the presentations that I was interested in. I heard some good things and have new ideas for my PhD :-)
In the evening we went to the city centre again for the conference diner. It was very good food in a nice setting and excellent service. After the dinner we went with a little group to the old town centre for a little evening walk and we had a beer at the old town square.

We we came back in the hotel it was time for bed!

On Friday morning I still had to prepare some things for my presentation.  During the day there were a lot of interesting presentations again. In the afternoon session I did my presentation about the relationship between international performances at young ages and later success in tennis. The presentation went very well and I could answer the questions well! So this was done!

In the evening I practiced a bit for another presentation I had to do on Saturday about a sport policy framework and its application on an Australian context. Friday night I had diner in the hotel restaurant with some VUB colleagues. Then it was time for bed... Busy days!

On Saturday morning I woke up early to practice the presentation a bit more. I first went to some other presentations and then it was my turn again. The presentation went well. I had two questions, one I could answer well... for the other one I had to ask some help from Australian Colleagues... After an exhausting last conference day, I went for a walk in the old city centre with a friend I met on the same conference the year before in Amsterdam. We some some beautiful things:

At 7pm we were at the special clock on the old square and on every hour there is a "show". There were a lot of people and we enjoyed the 5min of music from the clock!

Then we walked to the "Karelsbrug" were we took some nice pics!

After the walk we went to the Ice skating arena for the closing banquet of the conference. Halve of the skating field was covered with a wood floor for the reception/standing dinner and on the other half we could do some ice skating. When we arrived some kids were showing their tricks on their ice skates. Then we had some food and then I tried to skate myself. It was so long ago! I had to practice...

After the reception I went back to the hotel to pack!

On Sunday morning at 7am the pick up bus arrived and I went to the airport. I slept the whole flight! I was exhausted from the conference!

But it was worth it!

After the conference I had 5 more days back home... but they went so fast! Visiting family and friends, the eye specialist, shopping,... It went to fast...

On Friday night I was back at the airport to go to Australia. Saying goodbye to the family :-(... but knowing that I could go back to Australia, sun, nice university and Philippe :-)

The first flight (Brussels - Abu Dhabi) was ok. 7 hours which is not too long. The second flight was horrible! 14h is toooo long! But I survived it. Then I had to take a domestic flight (Sydney - Brisbane) and then Philippe picked me up. Back home. The Australian home.

It took me a while to get used to work again... especially with the jetlag! 

Now it is Sunday night! It has been raining the whole weekend! But really, raining like crazy, non stop! So no trips this weekend. On Friday night I went to a soccer game in Robina with Jenna, another PhD student. The Gold Coast was playing against Wellington. Jenna got free tickets as her boyfriend was the referee of the game! I enjoyed it! But it was freezing and the atmosphere was not special with only 3000 people. 

So for the rest we have spent the weekend in the house: cooking (time to try new recipes!), filling out my tax forms ( I have spent at least 3hours on filling it out! At least, I am getting some money back :-)), laundry, watching a movie,...

That was it!

xxx