QSO & Mareeba Coffee

Thursday, 31 July 2014

Last Sunday saw us playing bowls in the rain; we had been invited to join the Edge Hill bowlers at a no charge special “Lotto” day.  We had had heavy rain overnight and when we arrived, one of the men had the super sopper out on the green, thank goodness, otherwise we would have needed waders instead of bowls shoes.  We played in mizzle until the last end, when the mizzle became a tropical downpour.  I have to say the wet t-shirt look isn’t the best on the mature-aged population!  A sausage sizzle followed, along with fellowship, and then we were surprised when each team was called up and we each selected an envelope – and they all contained money!!!  We both came away with $10 each; not bad for a freebie bowl.

Monday was washing day and it just poured and poured all day.  The washing ended up under the awning but with such high humidity, was no drier the next morning.  Fortunately, the same came out on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, the slide up and down bit on the shower rail decided it didn’t want to stay up any more so we had a legitimate excuse for visiting the big boys’ toy shop.  Somehow, we had to wander up and down all the aisles, even though we found a new shower rail almost immediately.

We played bowls again on Tuesday night, taking a couple of visiting Tasmanians with us.  Eddie had his bowls with him and certainly surprised the locals with his skill.  He and Christine did very well, with both taking home winnings.  We have are looking forward to next week’s game.

Wednesday was a fairly quiet day – Himself no longer is thinking about washing the caravan and vehicle; both are looking much cleaner now.  Although it meant missing the free sausage sizzle, we did have a very enjoyable evening listening to the Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s performance in Cairns.  The programme included Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Summer; Mozart’s Concerto for Bassoon; a suite from Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and concluded with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.  The audience was very appreciative and the female conductor did apologise because there was only one prepared encore.  Hopefully they will return next year.

Today we travelled to Mareeba to replenish out stocks of NQ Gold coffee.  After a long chat with Maria and Bruno, we continued on to Skybury for lunch, only to find that only coffee and cake are now served.  We settled for scones and coffee, which were a bit expensive we thought, and although they tasted okay, the scones were so crumbly they had to be eaten with a spoon!  We also called into the Mareeba Heritage Centre on our return trip.  It has been quite hot and very humid the last couple of days.

We have been anxiously watching the news and weather reports of the conditions back home, hopefully family and friends will stay safe and not suffer any damage.