Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year !!!

Jessie & Phil

Happy New Year

Jill & Jessie

Friday

Today we had our last surfing lesson at 10am. We had a lot of fun in the water. Phil and I had some troubles standing up on the board but when we swapped to a bigger board we managed to get up more often! 

After the lesson we had lunch at Billies beach house. In the afternoon we rented a board to practice a bit more. Phil could not get enough of it! But he improved a lot!

Here some pictures:

Jill arrived!

Hi everyone!


I had some busy days, so not much time to write, but here is an update and some pics!


Saturday


On Saturday Night Jill (for those who not know her: a Belgian friend from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) arrived in Brisbane. Philippe and I went to pick her up because she had a delay of 15h because of the snow in Brussels! But she is here now and she arrived well! Philippe made some French Crepes when we arrived at home. At 3am, I skyped again with my family, now with the family of my dad. I was happy again to see my family all together!


Sunday


On Sunday morning we did "la grace matinee" which means we stayed in bed till 12pm :-)
In the afternoon we went with Pierre and Gabriella, other housemates to Harbour Town. This is a huge outlet centre half an hour away from here. 2nd Christmas day is called Boxing day in Australia.


"Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and in someCommonwealth nations. 


Although there were a lot of price reductions, we didn't buy much... After dinner we played some card games such as Uno, Yaniv and Take5. We went to bed late again.....


Monday


When we woke up on Monday, of course, it was raining again! So I showed jill another shopping center :-)  We went to Robina Town Center.


"Robina Town Centre is a large shopping centre covering 34 hectares (84 acres) in the suburb of Robina, Queensland with over 350 retail outlets covering over 137,000 square metres (1,470,000 sq ft).


Jill bought a new sim card to have an Australian number. We both bought some T-shirts. After shopping we went to Max Brenner, this is a chocolate cafe where you can eat and drink things made with chocolate! It is delicious! I took a Banana chocolate frappe and jill a Mocha chocolate frappe. I can't wait to go back!


After dinner, jill and I took a jacuzzi in the master bedroom of this house while watching a movie: Chocolat :-) It was a good relaxing evening! 

Tuesday


Today it was dry! No rain, but very clouded and a lot of wind... But it is improving. So in the afternoon we went to Surfers Paradise for a walk and... shopping again :-) 

 Phil and Jessie

Aboriginal playing didgeridoo

Christmas tree at Surfers paradise

We also went to the beach for a little walk. As you can see on the picture it was cloudy and a bit later it started raining!

Surfers Paradise

So we decided to go to Philippe's favourite Sushi place. Mmmm... Sushi!

Phil Jessie Jill @ sushi place

We decided to go to bed early because we wanted to go surfing on Wednesday.

Wednesday

In the morning I went for a walk with Jill to show here around here. I showed here some houses on the island.

Houses on Robina Island

The Island were we live

At 2pm we had a 2h surf course at Surfers Paradise of course! It was very clouded and there was a lot of wind, but no rain. First we had a little warming up and then they taught us how to take a wave. We did all the movements in the sand on our boards. Then we had to stand in the water to hip hight and then push the board forward an go on it. It was hard! Jill and Philippe managed to stand up a few times... but I was struggling... 

 Jessie

Jill

Philippe

Ready to take a wave

Jill on her board!

Phil

Jessie

(Don't understand how the people made a picture of me... I only stood once or twice on my board)

Back home we made sushi for dinner. I went to buy the ingredients in a Japanese shop. It was delicious!

Jill rolling the sushi

Philippe cutting the sushi

The result

After dinner we played rock band on the X-box. Me on the drum and Jill and Gabriella on the bass and guitar. Lots of fun. 

Thursday


We had our surfing lesson at 10am so we had to get up early :-)
Today the weather was great! Sun and a blue sky and some clouds... The surfing was ok... Today we started to learn how to catch a wave when paddling. The waves were about a meter high! The surfing is not easy... but we keep on trying. After surfing we ate the rests of the Sushi.

Lunch

After lunch we went to Springbrook on the motorbikes. After 50min of riding in the mountains we arrived at the first lookout:

 Lookout

Jessie jill & Phil

You can see Surfers Paradise in the background!

The next stops was the Purlingbrook waterfalls. Jill and I did the 4km walk. It was worth it! The first stop is a lookout where you can see the whole waterfall and the walkway on the bottom.

 Purlingbrook fall

Jessie & Jill 

I already did this walk a few times but now there was more water than the other times and thus the waterfall was huge! You can also walk under/behind the waterfall! When we were on the other side we were completely wet.

Wet after the waterfall

We also saw a smaller waterfall on our way down. 

Jill

After the walk we took the bikes 8km further and we went to the Best of All lookout... But.. when we went up the mountain we came in a cloud.... And this was the view at the Best of All lookout:

Clouds!

And cold

We waited for a while hoping that the wind would blow away the clouds... Suddenly we could see part of the landscape for 3 seconds:

But then the clouds came back...


Philippe and Charlie are now showing Bond Uni to Jill while I am writing this blog. 


It is 10.30pm now. I feel exhausted! It was a busy but so good day!


Tomorrow we go surfing again at 10am. 


Jessie Phil & Jill

Christmas

In Belgium it is snowing and cold... In Australia it is warm, but raining all the time. Unfortunately also with Christmas. I was looking forward all year to celebrate christmas on the beach with a christmas hat... it didn't happen :-( Rain rain rain. I am jealous of the white christmas in Belgium!

Although all the students @ Bond were in holidays since the last week, PhD students have to work. So I worked all last week, which is hard when everyone you know has holidays!

Friday afternoon we went Christmas shopping. Friday night, I prepared the Christmas table with Gabby, our new house mate from Mexico.

The table

The Philadelphia snowman

Gabby & Jessie

Then it was time to start cooking! I skyped with my mother the day before to ask the recipe for prawns with garlic butter sauce and parsley. It was very exciting because it was the first time I cooked it and most of you will know that I am not a kitchen princess... But: it was delicious! 

Me cooking!

Mmmm

The main course was a big peace of ham cooked in the oven with pommes croquettes. 

At 3am it was time for the desert. Crepes with fruit and vanilla ice. 

It was a great Christmas party! However, I have to say I missed my family :-) because Christmas = family night...

So at 3.30am Australian time, 6.30pm Belgian time, I skyped with my family back home who just arrived at their destination! I was very happy to skype with my aunt, uncle, parrain, cousin and parents!!! It was weird to skype at the end of my evening, while they still had to start their christmas diner.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

-xxx-

(I always hoped to make christmas pictures on the beach... but it was not possible because of the rain!)

Something else:

Last weekend Laureen, our French roommate went back to France after 3 years in Australia. On Saturday we had a big "end of the semester" party in the house which was good fun! On Sunday night, we went to Brisbane with Laureen and Gabby and we had dinner in a fish restaurant where the cousin of Laureen works. The food was amazing! Delicious.

Charly, Lilly, Gabby, Laureen, Phil and Vlad (Laureen's cousin who works in the restaurant)

Laureen with her fish :-)

Phil and Vlad

After the diner we went to the airport to say Laureen goodbye. It was a good evening!

All the best in Paris and New York Laureen! We had a great time with you in the house and we miss you already!

Bisous

Jessie & Phil

Various

After a long period of salience, here some news:

Last Sunday I went to Seaworld to validate the 3 park pass that I bought online. This pass gives access to Seaworld, Movieworld and Wet 'n Wild, 3 theme parks at the Gold Coast, only a 30min drive from here. I just went to validate the pass... didn't visit the park yet. But I saw a pirate show at the entrance of the park and this was pretty good! A lot of gymnastics and salto's and diving! Amazing! Looking forward to visiting the park!

 After Seaworld I went to Main Beach on my Bike. There the World Championships Kite were taking place. I met Nico and Steph there, the French couple. Nico, a kite surfer himself, knew a lot of the participants. Unfortunately there was not much wind... So the competition was delayed and we only saw a race... It was not very spectacular because there was almost no wind. Here some pictures.

A famous kite surfer but don't know his name :-)

The race

The participants had to start on the beach and than run into the water and jump on their board and then surf a little circuit and do three jumps. 

A month or so ago, I went to a few tennis clubs to hand in a CV and cover letter, hoping to do some coaching at the clubs. One of the clubs called me and asked if I could coach at the summer camp. So last week I coached at a club in Burleigh Heads (15min from here) every day from 9am till 12pm. It is a small club with 4 courts, but there were a lot of children (50!). I coached the little ones, age 6-8. I had 14 children which is a lot! It felt good to be on the tennis court again! The children behave very well (even better than in Belgium I think). It was very hot, around 30 degrees, so the children needed a lot of breaks for a drink. They were very lucky with the weather because in the mornings it was always sunny, but in the afternoon it was often raining. It was a good week! Maybe I can do some coaching during the year as well starting from February, but this depends on the participants... It feels good to have some extra pocket money! 

BUT, I had to do PhD work as well... so every morning I woke up at 6am... worked from 6.30am till 8.30am and then I went to the camp. After the camp I went back home for a quick lunch and then back to Bond to work... This week was exhausting!

Friday afternoon there was a huge thunderstorm! It was amazing! Lightnings and  

It was so hot Friday night that we did a swim in the pool at 8pm! It was cool! I love this house so much! And we have good news about the house... normally we had to leave the house the 24th of January, but we will extend the lease! 

After the swim I skyped with Jill!!! A Belgian friend with who I studied at the VUB. She is coming to Australia in a week! Can’t wait till she is here! Then I skyped with Melissa, another VUB friend. Miss my Belgian Friends! 

Cheers,

Jessie