Thursday, 30 December 2010

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 AustraliaCanadaNew 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 RobinaQueensland 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

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