One thing Australians do a lot of, is gambling! Every hotel, tavern, RSL (Returned and Services League) club, and surf lifesaving club has a gaming room. I’ve never been in one – you have to be able to prove you are over 18 to enter! Pokies (slot machines) line the walls. No doubt with other hi-tech systems to extract money from the unwary punters. The clue seems to be in their omni-presence! They make money. The general public lose it! That’s how the clubs finance themselves!
All round the walls of the restaurants and bars there are screens showing the current Keno game. That’s on-line bingo to you and me. The biggest difference between Keno and bingo happens right at the start of the game. Keno players can pick the exact numbers they want in the same way they could if they were playing the lottery. So your cat’s birthday or your kids’ ages are all up for grabs. Bingo players are stuck with the numbers on their ticket.
Not sure it runs 24 hours a day, but I’ve never been in a club where this is not running! There are, apparently, 480 draws held every day. That’s one every three minutes! Over $50 million in prizes are paid out every month. I can’t find figures for the amount “invested”!
if you feel tempted, the most frequently drawn numbers in Keno are 1, 4, 23, 34, and 72. But you still need to choose another 15 to be in with a chance. So far, I’m exactly breaking even!
Another trick they have is to raffle houses! An organisation buys a plot of land. Designs and builds a house. Then sells tickets for the right to own and live in it. It’s big business. I don’t think we have ever visited Australia and not seen this “scam” in operation. We decided to visit Yandina, Eumundi and Doonan one day. The weather was not fabulous. Indeed, it was outright threatening. Leaving Eumundi, we were deviated off our road to Doonan following signs. You got it in one! We had to visit a prize house. We wended our way into the hills to the north of town. Right turn, left turn, right, right, left … for miles and miles. Not one of the signs gave any clue as to the distance. Eventually, at the very end of a cul de sac (albeit a very posh cul-de-sac), we found a cluster of maybe twenty of cars. Parked in front of a $4.5 million mansion with granny flat.
Actually, the design didn’t do the view justice.
Nonetheless, there was a constant queue of people buying lottery tickets. One lady was investing $50 per month, others were making substantial one off payments. Like I said, Aussies love a flutter!
(For the record, we won the People’s Postcode Lottery at home this week. Fifteen pounds!)
We toured the property once and Glenda decided one of the bed cover designs would suit our new caravan. “Take a photo of that, and track it down!” No pressure!
As we started to leave the place, the heavens opened yet again, so we went round the house again just to make sure we had identified all the design issues … and to keep dry! We are unlikely to win the property. We didn’t buy a single ticket!
After unwinding ourselves from the hidden network of country roads, we found ourselves closer to Cooroy than Doonan. It was two o’clock when we arrived in town – all the main coffee shops were already closed. Maybe that’s why the Australians call it “Morning Tea”. Because it’s not really available after lunch! It poured with rain again so we ducked into the Cooroy Butter Factory. Not because of any particular interest in butter and its derivatives, more because it was now an art gallery and suitable for shower avoidance.
The daily routine of the morning school run (my job) was rapidly re-established after the Easter holiday. Water polo training for Jack started again. And boy did it rain! There’s a bit of a theme running here! Poor kids got soaked. They didn’t have a brolley like Eddie- the-coach!
Anzac Day is upon us. Australia’s national day of commemoration. Friday 25 April 2025, marked the 110th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings and commemorated all Australians who have served in times of peace and war. Dawn services are held in a number of places locally. We were to attend the Buderim celebration. But in the event, getting up at 4 am (in the rain) proved a challenge too far. So we settled for the Buderim parade at the more reasonable time of 8.30 am. Jack and Benji were both marching – with the Australian Air Cadets and the Scouts respectively. Very smart turn out!
Sadly, while the parade formed up, it started to piddle down – and it didn’t stop until the end of the memorial service which followed the march. All participants got soaked! But the service was a very emotional event.
I learnt something about medals that day. The etiquette for wearing them allows for medals awarded to deceased servicemen or women to be worn by their direct descendants on their RIGHT chest. This distinguishes them from the wearer’s personal awards – worn on the left side. (See picture two up.)
Robin had all sorts of jobs lined up for me to assist with. His meteriological station and the local GPS transmitter for the robot mower were to be mounted on the roof, the chicken pen roof and rear wall were to be improved, the front garden fence removed and replaced with a hedge etc. etc. The first of these got done, but the rest of the workload was postponed because the ground was too wet on which to move the digger. There would be hours of work needed to fill in the tracks. So, I suppose that the rain gave me a sort of advantage! But work continued for the boys.
Here they are peeling two kilos of garlic cloves. Linda liquidises these and freezes the minced garlic in little cubes. Later, when cooking and needing garlic, she just adds one cube to the pot. This supply should last a few months!
This year we have seen kangaroos on the field opposite Robin and Linda’s house. I suspect the wetter than normal weather has had something to do with this.
You might (or might not) be interested to hear that after two false starts, we did actually track down the duvet covers, pillows and sheets with the eucalypt design (as seen in the prize house). In Spotlight. The down side to this success is that our luggage is now four kilos heavier than it might otherwise have been!
The last farewell brunch at La Balsa …
… and one last sunset on the beach at Twin Waters …
And so our time in Australia staggers to a close. And, sadly, I’ve had to miss out so many stories!
On Monday 28 April, Robin drove us one last time down the Bruce Highway – relatively peaceful as this is a holiday weekend in Australia what with Anzac and Labour Days.
And we get one last clear view of the Brisbane city skyline.
Glenda’s brother, John, and his wife, Kirsty, have made a huge effort and travelled to Singapore to meet us for a couple of days. For a number of reasons, mainly medical and travel related, we haven’t seen them since last Autumn. All our plans to spend a few weeks or even a couple of weeks with them in Australia have been foiled.
John and Kirsty homed in on Singapore from London and we from Brisbane. And not only that, but one of our favourite granddaughters, Lauren, was also approaching Singapore on her way to Sydney. We all managed to miss Lauren as she hurtled through Changi. J&K were ahead of her, and we were behind!
It was dark as we came in to land. There were hundreds of boats moored off-shore.
The view from the 20th floor of the Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.
You can always tell a superior grade hotel by the complexity of the toilet seat instructions.
The other technological “advance” in the bedroom is the replacement of the telephone with an alarm clock sized box. I’m sure it will act as a “telephone” as well as the “alarm clock” and the source of room information – and probably any other information one might require from the internet. It’s just I can’t get used to talking to the alarm clock! “Hello AI, get lost!”
Walking along the river bank we came to unlikely signs. “Beware, otter crossing.”
Apparently, the river is home to a family of smooth coated otters. In the middle of the city! Well, with all the joggers and cyclists buzzing about, there’s not much chance of spotting the odd Lutrogale perspicillata wandering about. Although some enthusiastic otter-watcher has got bored and left his camera behind.
In the afternoon, we hit the Botanic Gardens. It was really hot and humid. Walking was hard work, but the gardens were beautiful. Tidy and well kept.
Palm Valley is home to one of the world’s largest collections of palms trees. 220 different species – almost 10% of the world’s total.
There were massive-leaved water lilies, a huge collection of orchids, monitor lizards (large …
… and small), turtles, monkeys and little chipmunk type critters jumping from branch to branch. But no otters! Fortunately, there was a café though!
Back at the hotel we were enjoying a quiet rest on the river bank outside our hotel – when there was a disturbance in the water immediately in front of us. Yay! An otter swimming up-river.
Then across to a set of steps.
Up the bank across the path and into a grassy area. Where it joined three others. Parents and two cubs.
This is where I needed the camera pictured above!
A bit more glamour this evening!
On our last day in Singapore we decided to do some high altitude things. From our 20th floor room (about 150 metres) we headed to the marina area. Two targets. The Marina Sands Hotel (207 metres) and the Singapore Flyer (165 metres). Hotel first or the Flyer? Flyer or hotel? We decided on the Flyer – a big wheel which opened for business in 2008. It’s currently the 3rd tallest Ferris wheel in the world. The “Big Roller” in Las Vegas is 2.7 m taller. But the “Ain Dubai” in, yes, you guessed, Dubai, is a staggering 85 m taller at 250 m. For the record, the London Eye comes in 6th at 135 m tall.
Whatever, there are fabulous views from the top of the rotation.
Later we walked part of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix course, crossed the “spaghetti bridge” to the Sands Hotel and entered the hotel via the massive shopping centre. Loads of top-end stores – virtually every one of them empty of people apart from bored-looking sales assistants!
Last time we went up to the skypark, we could visit the café and pool area. (The pool is still the largest roof-top infinity pool in the world!) Now these parts are off limits to casual visitors – and have been, we were told, for at least 15 years! So we decided we had seen enough of the high level views and saved our hard-earned cash!
Two globe-trotting girls saying their farewells.
On Thursday, we headed for London direct, Kirsty set off for London via Hong Kong and John to Bangkok for the weekend before flying to Melbourne. Some things never change!
Anyway, that’s the end of a super holiday! Thanks for reading about our adventures! I hope Spain has got its electricity supply sorted by the time we get there …