It's a Waiting Game

Waiting ...

Yep, that is what I've been doing ... waiting.

Waiting for a baby to arrive.

Waiting for a cyclone that headed south.

Still waiting for a baby.

Waiting for a house to settle.

And STILL waiting for a baby.

Waiting for my Grandfather's funeral date.

 

and STILL WAITING for a baby.

Waiting for the seemingly never ending things to finish being found and moved.

and STILL waiting on that baby.

Waiting for doctors and monitoring.

and we are STILL WAITING BABY!

Okay, so I should give this baby some leeway, it was only due today after all. It seems that our little April Fool might not end up being born on April Fools day after all, but then there is still time yet.

In follow up from our other exciting house buying news, it settled on Tuesday and we pretty much entirely moved on Wednesday. We even somehow ended up with beds set up and made to sleep in at the new place. It is soooo nice and soooo much more space. Not to mention that at least now the boxes of stuff are spread out and slowly reducing rather than feeling like they were a fortress being built around us. Now to finish up and to clean our little rental for whoever makes it home next, it was a good home too. I am still holding out hope that by some miracle that they cleaning fairies will come and finish the job for us. Now you would think if anything could bring on a baby it would be moving house and plenty of cleaning but not this baby.

 

We watched and waited as Tropical Cyclone Debbie headed for the coast. Firstly they thought she would come somewhere up here and then they thought she would head to Townsville, where my sister lives, but TC Debbie had other ideas and ended up playing dot to dot with locations around the Whitsundays and further inland. I am so glad that in the end, despite the damage done, everyone fared okay. It is also good to hear of places getting rain that needed it. Now the wet weather created by her has been playing havoc as the rain heads south. Stay safe people. stay safe.

In sad news, we've been waiting for my Grandfather to die. It doesn't sound very nice put that way but he had gotten very ill a few weeks ago and we knew it was coming, it was just when. Nobody wanted him to go but reality bites sometimes. Unfortunately the world lost another wonderful, kind, thoughtful gentleman this week. It was sad to loose him but we are glad he isn't suffering and that he seemed to go on his own terms. What a life he has lived and what a lot he has seen in his 92 years.

I had a doctors appointment, obstetrician, at the hospital on Thursday this week. We had been hoping that I wouldn't have to attend. Anyway it was thrill waiting on the horrid chairs and a totally uninformative appointment other than that they are happy for me to wait for bub to arrive when it is ready (hang on, I don't want to wait). The best part was that bub thought it would up the ante and put on a show. When the doctor was listening in for its heart beat, the rhythm was a lot too fast for their liking so I got some quality heart beat listening time while they monitored bub. Turns out it was just being active, sneaky little thing. It was a good thing I had company this week, Mum is up waiting with me. I have another appointment on this coming Tuesday, lets cross our fingers I don't need it.

So now I am going back to waiting ... and unpacking.

What are you up to?

Photos thanks to a beach walk at Yorkeys Knob with Mum, on the 28th, the same day that Cyclone Debbie crossed the coast.

Beach Walk

Last weekend (21st Jan), we headed off for a Sunday drive.

Mr Sparky suggested a drive down to Kurrimine Beach, just for the fun of it.

So off we headed, avoiding housework, for a morning drive.

Despite how often I've driven between Cairns and Townsville and around the ridges at this end, I've never stopped off at any of the beaches. 

It was nice to do a bit of exploring.

Kurrimine beach will be forever etched in my head at the place where everyone has a tractor to go with their boat.

We had a quick wander out on the sand but the sun was burning and that didn't last long.

It was a gorgeous day for it, so we decided to dip in and out along the coast on our way back north and visit a few more of the beaches.

Next we stopped in at Cowley Beach.

What a pretty beach that is.

Kurimine had nets up for swimming but there was nowhere for swimming here.

It is also a turtle nesting ground. I wonder if you can come watch them hatch, that would be cool and probably something you have to fluke seeing.

Mr Sparky did a bit of beach combing, looking for shell while I tagged along behind taking photos.

We did one more beach stop after that, it being about lunch time, Etty Bay.

Now Etty Bay is one that has been on my list to visit, the list I keep forgetting.

The beach was pretty picturesque with the forest meeting the sea.

I'd love to spend more time exploring around the rocks, when it isn't so hot and the middle of summer.

But as pretty as the beach was, that wasn't the reason I had wanted to visit.

This was the reason I wanted to visit, the resident Cassowaries.

I kind of figured, knowing my luck, we wouldn't see them.

I was so wrong with one turning up for lunch time, to see what it could find.

Now Cassowaries are one of those animals you give a wide berth to. Check out those feet! They are known to go on the attack and do some pretty major damage when the mood strikes them, or when they have chicks (yet another Aussie animal where daddy does the child rearing).

This one however was happy to wander among the cars and people, probably a little too happy to.

After trying to convince some people eating near the beach that they should share their food, they didn't, it wandered off down onto the sand to find some more bird friendly snacks.

Now I have no idea whether this is a male of female. It turns out they look pretty much the same except the female is bigger and possibly brighter coloured.

After reading up a bit I am going to make a guess that is is either a female or a younger Cassowary. Breeding season is May to October and the male sits on the eggs for 2 months and then rears the chicks.

I put up a couple of photos on instagram of the Cassowary hanging out on the beach. Most exciting was that I made a repost 'Explore Tropical North Queensland' and their facebook for 'best of the week' as well. Woohoo! Although nothing tops actually getting to see the Cassowary. A few people on the repost wanted to know if it was for real, especially that it was down on the beach. Definitely 'for real' and definitely made my day.

I did a little Cassowary stalking as it wandered along the beach and out of sight.

Then we went off to find some tucker of our own.

We had fish and chips at the shop right there, opposite the beach. They were pretty good too.

Just as we were finishing up, we spotted that Cassowary heading back along the beach, checking out what it could see through the windows of peoples' cars and undoubtedly being hopeful about offerings of human food.

I think I'll be heading back to Etty Bay again, that is for sure.

It made a good 'birthday' drive for my birthday during that week.

It also made for a great pre Australia Day drive. You can't get much more Australian than an iconic Aussie animal wandering around one of our gorgeous beaches.

The 26th of January, Australia Day, looked a lot less beach weather like and a lot more typical wet season. Funnily enough, the public holiday, was the only day in the week where it was cloudy and rainy. The one day when people want to get out, spend some time around the BBQ and just generally celebrate the awesome things about this country.

We spent ours at home, doing nothing much, enjoying the air con and snoozing. Exciting bunch that we are.