What made you happy today? Part II

[pietillidie]

^Nice! I'm guessing it would be a really relaxing time of year up there in contrast to peak season. I always do that with my holidays.

My wife's at a conference in Hawaii as we speak. One of her uni project design teams have made it to the final of an international competition, no less. I could've gone, but they'd drive me mad and vice-versa, so I'm suffering through the English weather instead!

[pietillidie]

This tech classic never gets old, literally given market bubbles come and go. I guess it's doing the rounds given AI investment. You might have heard it before, but it's still funny.

Here Comes Another Bubble...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I

[think positive]

Oh god get to hawaii! I love Hawaii! Heaven!


And the s7 s smashing geefrickenlong is making me happy!

[pietillidie]

^And some good news, too: her project team came second in the student competition, which is a big deal given the prestige of the event. So, I'm pretty chuffed for her. (She's currently making a career shift to Human-computer Interaction, or HCI, and is in the process of doing a master's).

[stui magpie]

^

Careful there, she might run off with an AI Bot.

Beautiful up here, plenty of people around but not manic. I get up before dawn and do a 2 mile barefoot walk along 4 mile beach then chill for the day. Drove up to Mossman yesterday and did the Mossman Gorge walk. First time I've done the whole track in near 30 years, every other time I've been there the 2km circuit has been closed for different reasons. Hard walk, up and down hill, very uneven ground, I was soaking with sweat by the time I got back to the start.

After lunch, borrowed an esky and some ice from reception, went to the beach, had swim, then kicked back and read a book with a couple of beers for an hour.

Managed to do 23,000 steps yesterday.

Done my beach walk for this morning, time for a shower and go hunt breakfast.

[think positive]

Sound like heaven!

Well done to the missus PTID

[stui magpie]

Had my last beach walk and breakfast in Port Douglas this morning, then took the scenic inland route down to Cairns via Mareeba and Kuranda.

You head North from Port towards Mossman then hang a right to Mount Molloy. Geezus that's a windy road once you start going up. Doing 60-80kmh, in places down to 40kmh, your on full lock going round a blind bend , get around it and the bastard goes the other way. Back and forward until just before you get to Mount Molloy.

The start of the trip you're still in rainforest, but as you get higher it becomes more regular Eucalypt forest.

Pulled up at Mount Molloy for a smoke outside a roadside burger joint with a sign advertising the worlds best hamburger. My arteries started to harden just looking at the photo so I headed off to Mareeba where the dress code is apparently Cowboy and it's 6 degrees colder than the coast. Flat straight drive and half way I had a WTF moment as there seemed to be a lake off to the right.

Got to Kuranda and had a walk around. The local dress code there is get dressed in the dark with whatever you find in a brotherhood bin full of 70's gear. Most of the shops were shut as it's Monday and they'd been open all weekend, much to the disappointment of the busloads of tourists who'd come up from Cairns for nothing. Interestingly we were back in tropical rainforest but the temp was still 6 degrees lower than the coast.

The drive back down the moutain to Cairns was a hoot. I chased a Mustang all the way down in the little Hybrid Corolla. You shouldn't buy a car ike that if you haven't got the balls to drive it like it wants to be driven. The road was just as winding as the one up to Mount Malloy but we could have easily gone 20kmh faster instead of sitting on 50khm. The view when you get a glimpse through the trees out over the plan to the coast and ocean is spectacular, you just can't look at it for more than 1 second cos whoops, there's another fkn bend and I'm about to Tbone the Mustang.

Down to Cairns, checked into the Shangri La at the Marina, beautiful view from the balcony out over the Marina with rainforest covered mountains in the backdrop. One of the best Thai Beef Salads for lunch I've ever had, short walk around (I've got all tomorrow morning to walk) Now I'm kicking back with a beer and a glass of red enjoying the view. The Hotel pool is like 20m from my room but it's only 28 degrees so I don't feel like a swim.

Back to Melbourne tomorrow, gonna turn on the front room heater remotely before I get on the plane, I've been doing that every day for an hour in the morning and 2 hours at night so Mum doesn't freeze. She uses heaters and aircons according to the clock not the thermometer.

[roar]

Nice one, stui. I'll have to get up there one of these days.

[pietillidie]

[pietillidie]

Stui, nice! That's a great car for that kind of road, I reckon. What was Mareeba like? Had a mate once who grew up there. Was it noticeably cooler?

[stui magpie]

^

Mareeba reminded of any medium size country town in Inland NSW. Lots of Farm machinery and supplies places. The local Menswear store I pulled up front of had sleeveless flanellette shirts on special on a rack out the front and racks of Akubra's inside. It was noticeably cooler than the coast, It's not just inland it's higher above sea level by a fair bit. I didn't go walking around, it's clearly not much of a tourist spot

So right now I'm in the plane, flying at 35,000 feet at a speed of 870kmh. Outside air temperature is -41c. I hope it's warmer than that in Melbourne, we should be on the ground around 6pm

[think positive]

back inthe 80's sometime i spent an amazing 4 days in Cairns with a girlfriend who went back for a booty call! we didnt find him but gees it was the best 4 days ever! Karanda back then still had that dress code but it was quiet, so gorgeous, Ive been back since and yep, wrecked by tourism! Cairns was a lot quieter too, its just not the same now, but its still good! we went white water rafting on the tully, now that was fricken amazing!

enjoy, its $£$%^%%$ freezing here, and i $£$%^%%$ hate it. its only good for the footy!

[Skids]

Just booked flights and 3 nights at Crown Melbourne for my Birthday, 4th July. Be there for the Pies v Bombers game.
2 of us return, $850 Virgin V-mail sale.

[think positive]

gees not bad at all! im looking to take us all up to qld in october to celebrate my daughters engagement, just a quick weekend, maybe Fraser island or Hamilton island, they have some good deals right now!