Kookaburra

Imagine our surprise when we saw a pretty kookaburra sitting on the railing on our way to Jupiters Conrad from the Convention Centre. We started taking pics because we were afraid that it would be spooked and fly away. Then double surprise! Not only did it not fly away when we went closer. It posed for us, turning its head left and right and looking right at us. What a handsome specimen!

See the bird?

How about a side profile?

A full frontal?

The Q1 - the view

The view from the 33rd storey is simply breath-taking. On the left side of the apartment, one can see the bridge to Chevron Island. If you stare hard enough, you can see the giant television screen between the 2 towers of the Circle on Cavill (just behind the Aegean).


Immeidately below the block is a mix of high and low rise apartments. The small ones will eventually have to make way for the super tall high rises.

The view of the sea is simply beautiful. You wake up to a beautiful sunrise and watch a mesmerising sunset in the evenings (before 5pm since it is winter now).

The Q1

We stayed at the Q1 on the 33rd storey. It is an icon of Surfers Paradise and it can be seen clearly in the skyline all the way from Coolangatta.


Entrance to the Q1Deck. For a fee, one can take the lift to the highest floor which is an observation deck.

This is the view from the Watermark hotel side.

This is how it looks from the beach end.

Walking back to the apartment from the bus-stop.

Flora and Fauna

While at the Gold Coast, I've seen many interesting plants and animals. Here's some of them.

Here is a pretty flower...

Here is the mutant sister, all petals curled up.

Strange looking fruit.

Strange roots or are they stems?

Fuzzy bottle brush tree

Groovy poodle at the Wintersun fest.

Sweet dachsie puppies at Twintown

Gulls are everywhere, on top of the boat,

on the table,

on the beach.

Ibises are everywhere too. This one was wandering around Surfers by the roadside.

My all time favourite is still the pelican.

Bingo at Banora

This is the all important bingo set: coffee and biscuits for energy, a set of bingo tickets and the all important bingo marking pen. Oh yes, and bring your brain along - you need every neuron at work to figure out whether the number is going to be on your winning board.

See the very serious atmosphere. Everyone is prepared and all seats were taken up.


At half time, everyone is encouraged to go play the pokies. Every drop of $21 will get a free breakfast voucher. I didn't win anything that much :-) After the bingo, mum got a $25 Twin Towns voucher from the lucky draw. Mum wanted to give our lucky draw tickets to someone else because we had to catch the bus. After we returned from the washroom, the lady staff asked if we had checked the number and when she said the number was 9000, mum said it was her ticket! How lucky we didn't give the ticket away so soon. The staff was so nice: she helped mum to change the $25 meat voucher to the TT voucher with another lady.


Lunch at Banora is $9.90 and you get to choose from 9 choices. It is a nice quiet cafe. The salad is good and there a wide selection of sauces and salad dressings.

Wintersun Festival

What a hot day it was on Satuday! Even this puppy got to enjoy an ice-cream to quench its thirst.

Such beautiful cars and they all work :-)

This band was awesome! see the line dancers enjoying themselves. they had to disperse as the crowd controllers complained that they were blocking the passageway.

Want an ice-cream? or the ice cream truck?

Absolutely LURVE the gogo darts. Just a tiny 2 seater with a 2-stroke engine. What a cutie!

What's more lurve-able? A gogo dart van of course!

If you love vintage cars, you would love the Wintersun Fest. Old cars, older cars, antique cars, cute cars, ugly cars and pretty cars. Saturday and Sunday were bright and sunny. People turned up by the droves. There was music all around; people dancing where they can; food smells wafted in the air. All in all a fun and memorable event!

Seagulls

Seagulls has one of the most scenic views. It's serene and peaceful and pretty. What a nice place to hang out at after work and for retirees.

Lunch at the Loaded Dish was yummy. Had the roast beef which was juicy and tender.

The salad was fresh and the corn & chicken soup a satisfying tummy warmer for a chilly day.

Today was bingo day at Seagulls. Who says that bingo is only for retirees and seniors? It's tough keeping up with the numbers and checking your tickets to make sure that you have won something, or not :-)