Lindy's Place!

As we were in Townsville recently, Dave asked after our mutual friend Lindy.  It just seems easier to place the letter-to-Dave here because I can include photos! 

And you may find it inspirational too.

Yes, Dave, we indeed caught up with Lindy and the good news is she's doing great. And, like the rest of us, Lindy's got her mind on the very near future when she can finally say "Sod the lot of you. This is now about ME!!" and, like so many of our good friends, wants to do it "off the grid", "planet-friendly", and with practically no carbon footprint.

She, however, unlike the rest of us, doesn't need to think about where to go to retire! Hubby bought acreage in the bush outside Townsville many decades ago, back when he was a single guy, and back when this "scrub-land" was so cheap-as-chips we're now all cursing ourselves because we didn't buy then too.

However, while still a single guy, and an early "off-the-gridder", he built himself a very sweet little weekender that he suggested they move into when they both retire ... 

Totally, a hubby-idea-of-home!

Yes, it's very sweet and cute and all ... but as a place to live full-time?  Bahahahahahhahhha! I mean, look at the KITCHEN!

And the bathing facilities consist of a kids wading pool under a tree, however I didn't take a photo of it so can't show it to you.  And you can thank me for not taking a photo of the loo as well!

 Yes, I know Lindy is all Earth-Mother and Back-to-Nature, but even she draws the line somewhere.

Oh, and here's us when we went out to find the place:

STUCK!!!

It hadn't rained for ages and we had four-wheel drive yet we still got bogged and had to dig our way out.

So you can understand Lindy's problem!  Yes, it's a lovely place for the odd weekend of ear-buzzing silence, but for everyday, day-in-day-out?  Only a husband would suggest it! PLUS Lindy wants her post-retirement life to be all about art and painting and "doing her own thing", yet there's no place here where she can store art supplies or anything else needful.  And what about her books?  And her paintings? Hubby, however, has always dreamed of the time he can live there full-time and couldn't even see what her problem was!

Husbands, la! Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em!

But Lindy is Lindy, and like all teachers everyplace - remember Keith with his Tower of Power - when he got a A$250,000.00 project done for NOTHING!!! - she knows that you can always make something out of nothing, so put her mind to work solving this dilemma.

Then, in a stroke of luck, she heard of a developer who had bought up a block in South Townsville with the plan to demolish all the old houses to make way for something "big and elegant" so she immediately raced over to check them out and instantly fell in love with a nearly-130-year-old miners cottage made out of hardwood timber, so she tracked down the developer and asked him if she could have it!

No problem whatsoever! It was hers on the proviso she remove it ASAP!!

So early one morning, way before dawn, the house was lifted and hauled up onto a truck and driven all those dire and endless miles out of the city and into the bush, with her following behind in her car and, yes, she said it was the most terrifying ride of her life with her heart in her mouth, her fingers crossed so hard she had trouble untangling them later, and washes of nausea every time the house shook or rocked or tilted or moved in any way!

I absolutely could NOT have done it.  Definitely, I'd have stayed home in bed, zonked out on valium, with my heart in my mouth and a pillow over my head!  Lindy, like Gunga Din, is definitely a better man than I am!

She'd already chosen the spot so they put it down there ...

... and a nicer spot you could not imagine.  Here's the view from the back door where she plans to build a deck:

And she never saw inside the house until it was hers, but she said the moment she walked through that front door she was instantly "Ahhhh!" ...

 I mean, look! Even those hardwood floors alone!

Can you believe some dick just wanted to demolish the place!

 ... because the workmanship was just so good and the structure so strong, so she was joyous that she'd decided to just "trust her gut" and go with it!


It still needs a LOT of work however and ...

... apart from putting in gardens and a drive-way and building the back deck, she's planning to enclose downstairs as a library for her countless number of beloved can't-ever-get-rid-of-them books.

Except ... you see that hammock down there?  Lindy says that thing is THE WORST IDEA EVER because it's just so nice and, once you've sunk yourself into it, it's so hard to get away from and there's so much still to do which she isn't doing ... so I tried it out and, yes indeed, that hammock is definitely THE DEVIL INCARNATE because the silence is so complete and the breeze is so beautiful and view so sublime ...

 
... I wanted everyone to just go off and leave me there for the rest of my life!

And one day very soon, all this will be Lindy's life!

So that's what Lindy is currently up to, Dave!  And do you too envy her?

And the best part is ...

... hubby still has his sweet little "man-cave" deeper in the scrub-land that he can go off and live in anytime he chooses to LIVE LIKE A MAN!

Protesting the Philippines!

Hong Kong appears to be really ace-ing the Protest March thing. Definitely!

As you know, that strange and corrupt little "government" they have over there in the Philippines began almost immediately to lie to Hong Kong - like it's knee-jerk or they can't help themselves or something - insulting our collective intelligence in a vast number of belittling ways.  PLUS what they were telling us about their investigation into the events even in the preliminary stages wasn't ringing true ... but they refused to let the vastly better trained HK Police get involved in any capacity.

Thus, on Sunday, between 30,000 and 80,000 folk - depending what report you read - took to the streets demanding that the Philippines Government do a "Thorough Investigation for The Truth!" according to the banners in three languages: English, Chinese and Filipino!

This march started out as the Filipino community showing solidarity with HK and expressing their anger at their "government", but then it was joined by the Thai Community since Thais own the tour company our twenty-three hostages were on, and then the Pro-Democracy crew came aboard to help organise things, which was so welcome since they have so much experience in getting together enormous protests, and then the Pro-Beijing crew jumped onto the band wagon so they wouldn't be left out of what was increasingly obvious "A Just Cause"!

It worked!  According to SCMP yesterday, Hong Kong CSI has now got permission to check out the bus, and there will be HK police allowed into the investigation, although, sadly, only observing.

But it was a win, win, win for us, wasn't it! Yayyyy!  Go Hong Kong!

But what I really liked about that protest march was the symbolism.  Take a look:

As you can see, the marchers all wore either black or white or a combination of both; black because the Philippines is a Catholic country and that is the Christian colour for death and mourning, and white because it is the Chinese colour for death and mourning.

Combining the two different Symbolisms!  Nice, right!

And what was also really very very nice was how well organised that whole process of filing out of Victoria Park and into the street was. We went down to watch the start of the march and it's just so different from 2003 when we first protested here!  As you may recall from previous posts, back then we were almost crushed to death by the half million trying to get out of the same small gate, which is the reason why we now refuse to join up with any protest march until it reaches Wan Chai. However, now they have this wonderful arrangement where people file out to the streets from ALL the exits, including the sky bridges.

What a difference seven years of protesting makes, la!

That's how long pragmatic and formerly apolitical HK has been protesting!  Yes, we all know that the first one ever was a knee-jerk swarm of three million who spontaneously streamed into the streets and onto Government House back in 1989 after seeing news footage of the Tienanmen Square Incident, to plead with the British "Please don't give us back to that horrible country.", which lead to the creation of The Basic Law, "the one country, two systems" law, which gives HK a proudly defended separate sovereignty to China!

But as an organised body, the first ever real protest was back in 2003 when Beijing planned to introduce "Article 23" into The Basic Law, a nasty piece of Legislative Skulduggery that didn't fool HK for a minute, and lead to the half million taking to the streets to say "No way on earth are you going to do this to us!!!"

Truly, if you want to be scared out of your wits, check out that harmless sounding "Article 23".  It has severe ramifications for the whole world too, so you definitely should be joining HK to not let it happen.

We stopped that one in its tracks back in 2003 ... however Beijing is now talking about how "now that we're more mature" trying to bring it back!

Like I said, Hong Kong really IS getting very skilled at the entire Protest process!

All Mine!

Look what lovely hubby gave me for my birthday:

It's my very own Kwan Yin. In bronze too, solid, and very much bigger than it looks here. And it's so very heavy that, what with this horrible and painful neck spasm, I can't lift her out of her box.

I've been wanting a Kwan Yin for years, ever since that strange incident in Darlinghurst, and although I've seen plenty that were beautiful, I've never seen one with a face I liked. In most statues I've seen, she looks so unbearably smug and, although I'm sure Goddesses have every reason to feel smug, I just prefer ones that don't show it. This honey however has got a lovely face so kudos to Keith for an amazing choice.

And now I must go out and buy candles, flowers and incense to welcome her into my home.  You will recall that Talei brought me a bronze Thai Buddha last year and that lovely Thai lady said you must never bring a god or goddess into your home without welcoming them properly.  I should find that post for you, shouldn't I!  Here it is.

And you may also recall that very strange incident at the New Yuan Ming Palace in Zhuhai with that replica of the goddess!  Even though I've since talked myself out of believing that ever took place, I'm still not risking it and this goddess WILL be properly welcomed.  Or else!

What Kills ME this week!

Pulled the muscle in my neck and am in the worst pain.  Even typing causes considerable pain. Wish I could say it is the result of something enviable and strenuous, but it isn't.  Happened when I was brushing my hair this morning.

August and September always seem to be when NETS and co come down with mysterious muscle spasms and other types of damage ... and all caused by the stupidest minor accidents. And there could be a reason for that.

I recently read that quickly changing Hemispheres, from hot to cold to hot again - or indeed vice versa - giving your body no time to adjust to the change, makes your muscles vulnerable to damage. And also that the spasm and subsequent pain lasts a considerable length of time.

Bummer, huh!

So, in a great deal of pain, I'm endorsing that report.  And I really do wish I wasn't!

Can't wait!

Look what I just saw Keith carrying!

I totally fell in LOVE that box and when I asked what's in there, he said I have to wait for my birthday.  Yayyy!  It's MINE!!!

And when I told him that even giving me that gorgeous box was enough, he said it was very funny because the salesgirl asked if he wanted the gift put in a box or in bubble-wrap, he said "Box!" thinking it would be something cardboard, but then she put it in this and he thought "It's so nice it's like another gift, and this one free!"

You recall how often you give kids a big present and they end up ignoring the gift and playing with the box instead?  Well, that's exactly how I feel at the moment.

And do you blame me? That the box is so terrific, it'd have to be a pretty amazing present to trump it!

Mind you, I'd have got hours of pleasure from popping that bubble-wrap too!

What Kills Us This Week!

Hong Kong is ANGRY!  Normally we don't DO angry, but we are very definitely angry now.

Yup, it's over the hi-jacking and murder of HK tourists by a disgruntled policeman in the Philippines!

It's not just the fact that the Filipino police hardly took it seriously and just stood by the hi-jacked bus, laughing, talking and eating, for so many hours! It's not just that they completely botched the rescue operation! Much more important fuel for this anger is the relaxed, laughing, beaming, grinning PM at the press conference to announce the deaths!  It's that big goofy grin! It's that it was like he found our dead an enormous joke! That what's done it to us!

And, yes, it's also the fact that the lying has already started!  It's the fact that they are now denying Aquino refused to take Our Donald's calls!  It's the fact that Aquino's aide told Our Donald, our very own Head of State, on three different occasions during the day, that he wasn't important enough to be put through to the Philippines Head of State, and now they say that we're wrong and such an incident didn't happen even once, let alone three times!

And, yes, it's also that there's the comment that Our Donald's aide said Aquino's aide made "You're part of China so, if it's that important, get the Chinese Head of State to ring us!" which totally denies our own sovereignty and trampolines on our proudly defended SAR status.

And it's also the fact we don't think they're going to do a serious inquiry into what actually happened.  AND the fact that they won't involve the HK police force, who always do that British-trained proper transparency, in the inquiry!

And, definitely, all those Filipinos using the bus as a laughing, joking photo op:

Yup, we are angry!

The Philippines may be treating this as a huge joke but they appear to be forgetting that their nation's single largest source of revenue is the wages sent home from HK by our enormous army of Filipina maids, so the only winner from their surprisingly callous attitude, as far as I can see, is Indonesia!

Hey, Aquino!,  Hong Kong has already noticed that Indonesian maids come much cheaper, don't have a bolshy Union, and are willing to work harder and for a lot more hours! (Do you know, I can't believe I said that! Boy, I must be cross!)

Already people here are expressing their rage by sacking their maids, and factory employers are asking their Filipino employees not to come in to work for fear of reprisals.

Already Filipina maids are taking to the streets in large numbers to protest against their own country's behaviour.  They're saying they feel ashamed and embarrassed by Aquino and by the demonstrated corruption in their own government that is obviously behind this whole thing ...

... and even taking out ads in the newspapers saying much the same thing.

And already Jackie Chan has felt the need to be Hong Kong's very own white knight to protect the HK Filipino community:  "Hong Kong does not HATE!!!" is his catchcry in all this, which may be simplistic in substance, but nonetheless is definitely working because it's bringing us up short and making us rethink our response.

Nonetheless, hate or not!, I think the Philippines needs to get its act together.  Gosh, remember how joyous we all felt only two months ago when that hideous and clearly-corrupt Gloria Arroyo was thrown out of power, and - how wonderful! how just! how right!- was replaced by a member of that lovely and heroic Aquino family!  What a LAUGH that's turned into, la!

So that would have to be my choice for this week:

THREATDOWN

HATE!!!

Loredana's Funky Tour of Brisbane!

"It's like the past 25 years never happened!" Andrew said at the end of a long and surprisingly lovely evening.

That's Loredana for you!  She always had that effect; whooshing away every other consideration and clearing the path for a damn fine time.

 Loredana and Andrew reminiscing!

We were all at uni together, more years ago than I care to remember:  Andrew hulking about campus in his khaki army greatcoat, chips on both his hunched shoulders, hands thrust deep in his pockets, a sneer on his face, a knee-jerk "I'm for the proletariat" response on every occasion; yet another Angry Young Man hiding a dark secret: that he was a well-brought-up middle-class charmer with exceptionally lovely parents and a very nice home out there in the suburbs.

Me?  Yeah! Yeah! Pretty much the same! All scruffy jeans, big black coat, wild hair under my latest hat-de-jour, a sneering hard-arse feminist, knee-jerk for social justice, bristling with opinions, ready to instantly "go the stosh" for my various causes, and similarly hiding a middle-class background of a white house atop a hill.

Yeah, man! We were dark.  We were dangerous.  We were angry.  Yeah, man, we were PUNKS and we were proud of it.

But then there was Loredana: a chic little pocket Venus, dressed like Audrey Hepburn, and always out for a good time.

 The Lovely Loredana!

Today!

We originally came together because of FILM: because we all shared the dream of making films; Loredana to make them, Andrew to act in them, and me to write them! 

We shouldn't logically have been friends with her, we hard-arsed Socialists, what with our constant "That's sooo bourgeois!" refrain, because Lovely Loredana was the epitome of Them, the Bourgeoisie.", a Fluffy-Bunny Trendoid into Hot and Chic and "The Latest on the Scene!"

But we loved her, the little sweetheart, because she was just so different from "The Others of Her Ilk".  She was hilarious and, much more importantly, took it all with a grain of salt; like no one else around she was able to laugh at herself and all she stood for.  Loredana always was who she was: a Little Italian Princess raised within her migrant parents' Great Australian Dream and not even remotely ashamed of it.

She was warm and funny and I regret to say around her "Trendy" made a lot of sense, and yes, when she was around we ignored the latest plight of the whales in the Antarctic and just did fun stuff together.  How many times did we skive off class to drink wine-coolers ("Wine Coolers? How bourgeois!") for hours in The Normandy Hotel, writing scripts for the films we planned to make?  And we made them too, I have to add.  It wasn't just talk, you know!  Out there, somewhere in the wilderness of our past,  lies a little cache of films we made together ... and which no one thought to keep for our records.

And so there we are, twenty five years later, and Loredana suggests we meet up in the very trendy The Valley at the very trendy Rick's Cafe:

Loredana and Andrew!

Andrew is so large and Loredana so winsy,

we once cast them both as rag doll puppets

in our film about how girls are treated by boys

in the education system.

It was meant to be an artsy-fartsy 

symbolic representation of

what regularly happens in a school's playground.

With Andrew so looming and Loredana so cute,

it worked so well on screen,

and was so instantly powerful,

even scary to watch,

we made our point so easily and so well,

it felt like we'd somehow cheated.

We chat for a while, catching up on a great many years, drinking muggachino ("Muggachino?  How Bourgeois!") and watching Them, the passing Trendoids, when Loredana suggests we check out the hot new DJ at the hot New Cloudlands.

Say what?  

I mean ... DJ????  Who was ever into DJs!  It was live or nothing for we Angry Young Men types!

And the NEW Cloudlands?  The old Cloudlands was a WWII-era ballroom that was hi-jacked by we Lefties back in the 80s as a live venue for local and visiting PUNK bands.  Oh yes, many a night we spent there jumping up and down on the spot in the punk facsimile of dancing, getting off on the latest band-de-jour ... and sometimes even to Real Bands. The Split Enz Concert, folks?  Who else was there that amazing night? But shortly afterwards the REAL Cloudlands was torn down, amid our outraged howling protests, by Queensland's FASCIST DICTATOR, the evil Joh Bjelke-Petersen.  (And who else is cheering that, as it turns out, history tells us he was indeed the corrupt evil man we always claimed he was!)

So there was no way on earth we'd sully our memories of the glorious REAL Cloudlands by visiting some shonky name-stealing modern fake-up!

"Come on. It'll be fun." says Loredana.

And, would you credit it?, suddenly it made sense and, yes indeed, we went off to hear the latest new hot DJ at The New Cloudlands.

Yup, that's Our Loredana, forever whooshing away every other consideration and clearing the path for a damn fine time.

THE NEW CLOUDLANDS 

 

The New Cloudlands, The Valley, 

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

 

The new hot DJ!

The scene!

And you've got to LOVE the decor, folks!  Downstairs, it's all dangling ferns and funky-arse lighting!

 

While upstairs, it's all Byzantine and deliciously decadent private booths ...

... with the seriously BEST bathrooms ever ...

...  unisex upstairs - or at least there were a lot of men hanging around in the Ladies - and single sex downstairs:

 

 And special mention must be made of the smoking room:

Cool or wot?

Damn!  Phone call! Got to go out now, but I will come back tomorrow to finish this post!  A LOT more to come!

No, no more to come because my photo program has started to seriously play up and I really can't tell this story without the photos. I'll find out what's happening here first and THEN get back to it.

Andrew's Bathroom!

Andrew visited us many years ago in Townsville and saw my mosaics and said he'd like to do one in his bathroom in Brisbane.

He'd never done any mosaic-ing before so I must confess I didn't have high expectations ... but here's his result:

Extraordinary, isn't it!  And just look at the workmanship!

 And look at some of the ideas he invented:

See how the tiles gradually become whole.  Man, that is so clever!  And the subtle graduation of colour and shading.

And this is his FIRST EVER mosaic.  I have been mosaic-ing for over a decade and I KNOW I couldn't do something even a quarter as accomplished!

And then he decided to make his own burglar-bars for the room and these are they:

Boy, that guy is one great big smarty-pants, isn't he!

While in Brisbane last week, we were talking about "schadenfreude",  the German concept of rejoicing in the downfall of your friends. Loredana, who grew up on the Italian concept of "dancing on the graves on your enemies", found the entire idea unfathomable and decided it had to be "a German thing".  However, looking at Andrew's bathroom, I wondered if there was another German concept for "feeling cross over your friends successes" and decided that Andrew may be a very dear old friend, close to my heart for 25 years, but, where this bathroom is concerned, he really makes me feel GGRRRRR!

Another Random Photo!

Still busy sorting out photos, plus lots of other stuff is happening at the moment, so, instead of posting, today I'll just do another Random Photo.

As you know, this is where I choose a photo with my eyes shut and if it's interesting I tell you about it, and if it isn't, I won't.

I'll try to scoop one from near the end of the files so it'll be relatively recent:

Oh, that is hilarious!  I couldn't understand who these people were nor why I had taken this photo, and especially why I'd put a vignette around it ... and then I realised I wasn't seeing what was actually IN the photo.

It's the Armani shop in Hong Kong Central, and ... I'd just walked straight into the glass door.  How cringe-able is that?  The glass was so clean it looked like an open doorway thus I didn't see it and BANG!!!   Can you make out my face there?  Man, that hurt!  And I could barely walk afterwards, being totally dazed, staggery and whoozy and sincerely within a hairs-breadth of passing out.

The sales-staff came out and got me, yes, and sat me down inside and got me a glass of water, but were so passive-aggressive and nasty about it, like I'd deliberately messed up their shiny-clean glass door, so I decided to be a total bitch and hinted direly about it being their fault and that there was no sign on it to indicate the glass was there, and I think I muttered dark words about lawyers and deliberately took this photo just to scare them into being somewhat nicer.

Then, after I felt able to get about again, I left my name and address just in case they wanted to apologise by way of a very nice gift.  However, never heard from them.

Needless to say, I don't intend to sue however if they still want to send me an apology - complete with, say, a nice pair of my-choice sunglasses - I wouldn't turn them away from my door!  No siree!

The Drought in Ballarat.

David-from-Ballarat, who has lived in HK for nearly a decade, asked us how Ballarat was looking after its ten year drought.  He particularly asked after the lake. So, here are a few shots for him:

David, the land around the city still looks very green ...

 

... and they are still farming sheep ...

No rain in those clouds!

... and so if it weren't for the watering notices everyplace ...

 See there on the right?

... you'd hardly know there was a drought on.

However the lake is definitely a giveaway:

And that's taken after they'd paid millions for water to be pumped in too!  Prior to this, it was totally dry and boys were riding bikes and skateboards on the dry-mud surface.  Walkers too were hiking across it as a shortcut to the other side of town.

Here's a close-up:

You can see here, it's only about two inches deep.

Oooh, and here's something really strange:

See there, near the middle of the shot?  That's a New Zealand pukeko, isn't it!  A native species that isn't found anywhere on earth?  Or is this just some swamp bitten that LOOKS like a pukeko?

You know, I SWEAR I saw those very rare Western Australian red-beaked black swans swimming around a pond in a Camelite Nunnery in Belfast when I was a very young child!  And this pukeko is another one of those moments:  a creature in entirely the wrong place ... like that current hunt for the kangaroo in Austria!  Some things are just WRONG!

Oh, and another moment that seemed just WRONG, particularly to Keith, was this statue in the place of honour at the centre of the park ...

... of his very own ancestor, William Wallace.  Of course, he was thrilled to see Ballarat honouring his forefather this way, only couldn't understand why!  And, hey, isn't it great that here Wallace looks more like Keith than Mel Gibson!

And, to conclude, just to make you a tad home-sick, here's a shot of something you'd know well:

 Know where this is?

The Great Tropical Land Grab of 2010!

I'm currently sorting through my photographs and discovered these ones I took for a land-shopping friend. This means if I do this promised-post now I can delete at least two hundred of my thousands of shots and, trust me, any reason to delete at this stage is WELCOME.

If you need an explanation: when you reach our age, everyone around is planning their eventual retirement and thus looking for "an acre in the middle of nowhere" so they can spend the rest of their life in abject leisure, preferably "off the grid".

Thus, because I was jaunting up in Far North Queensland, I was asked by a friend to look at various acres for sale in tropical climes priced at around A$500,000. She had two she'd read about and she particularly asked me to look at those.  These are they!

PLOT ONE

Riverside house on one acre

in bushland.

The term "riverside" may be true but it's hardly apt because you can't see the river through the dense bushland.  And don't think you can cut down most of this bush in order to see the river because, well, most of this land is swampy, crocodile-ridden and unusable, and, once you've done it, you'll discover the river isn't really worth looking at.  Plus the house is rotting and feels kinda creepy - like something out of the film "Deliverance" - thus is a definite immediate tear-down, but there's hardly enough land on solid ground to build a bigger one!

PLOT TWO

Riverside house on three acres 

in bushland.

This one is far better value, but again you can't actually see the river, which isn't a problem because again it isn't worth looking at either.  The house is exactly the type you're planning to build and you can see they've put a pool into the courtyard, which is a nice idea.

However, because Del lives nearby and is a canny investor who always knows her stuff, I dropped by for a cuppa and a chat.  Neither is worth the price, according to Del, because both are forever going underwater during the Monsoons and remain swampy and mosquito-ridden for several months after.

And then, sneaky money-maker that she is, she told me about another plot of land that isn't yet on the market.  It's the same price as these other two places, but is sensational value.  A friend of hers is in the throes of a nasty divorce and thus deal is a definite one-off bargain however she strongly feels she can't take advantage of her friend's misery ... but since I don't know Gizelle there is no reason why I can't.

So this is a special off-the-books deal that you should immediately get into.  Same price as the other two, but VALUE PLUS.

PLOT THREE

Ten acres in the hinterlands,

with four bedroom house, two sheds 

and a pool.

It's very isolated, but here's looking at the land from the road:

It's the hill there, 

right down to the river.

The land starts at the bridge:

Town water and electricity so you're not "off the grid", but it has a nice rustic feel since that's what you're after:

 The road up the hill to the house.  

We did it without a four-wheel drive, 

but apparently that's not possible in The Wet.

The views are pretty but not spectacular and here's what you see from North, East, South and West, in order, when standing on the not-nearly-big-enough back verandah:

And here's the shot of the house:

Only photo I took of the place 

from the outside, sorry.

However, you can see the 

not-nearly-big-enough back veranda.

It's a very nice house, with a lovely almost-rustic feel.

And here's the pool:

  Slightly down the hill from the house.

And absolutely the best part would have to be the kitchen:

Currently being painted, 

but you can make it out 

under the drop-clothes.

This is only half the size 

and it has a huge pantry too.

I'd buy it for the kitchen alone.  You can have an entire cooking party in there and you'd never bump into each other.  Really, really nice.

So there you go.  House-hunting in Far North Queensland.  I included the real estate agents posters in the first two so hopefully you can make out the names and phone numbers, however for the third place, which isn't yet on the market, if you want to make an early bid, you'll have to ask me to put you in touch with the parties concerned.

And here are the shots I took of all the relevant real-estate signs:

And now they're here I can delete your entire folder of photos.  Yayyyy!