A few words about Sandgate. We could not have chosen a better place! Our little house is 10 minutes from the town centre and on our way there we pass our chip shop, a fancy costume store and Salvation Army shop – great for books and videos. The centre is well provided for with railway station and buses, shops, banks and other services although the locals complain that they have lost their traditional traders and acquired too many estate agents, pharmacies and cafes. We love our Coffee Club and already have a place there! On the first day I asked for an iced coffee and got a sundae glass filled with coffee, two dollops of ice cream and a mountain of whipped cream and chopped nuts. I explained the meaning of the word ‘diet’ to our nice girl and described what I wanted and she came up with the perfect result – a cold, flat white with ice cubes and a straw! ‘Ice-cold Katy’ is now on the menu!
In the centre of the town is a beautiful lagoon with birds with many places to walk and a pristine garden with shrubs and flowers and the war memorial – First WW, Second WW, Vietnam, Korea! Around it are the Town Hall, Town Office, Library and Community Centre. We have made a point of calling in at all of them and we get a huge, warm welcome – they are such great people. A further five minute walk brings us to the sea with miles of cycle tracks and green spaces, the huge swimming pool and lots of playground space. The ocean is not at its best! Normally a shallow, calm bay it is now muddy and brown and heaped with the sad detritis of the floods which the council clears away daily.
Being an early settled area all the houses are beautiful old Queenslanders and I think it should be declared a Heritage Site for the beauty of them. I will try to photo a few.
We are also surrounded by wetlands for resident and migratory birds and these areas are serviced by cycle tracks too so we are ready to be off! Our skies are filled with birds – ibises, egrets, crested pigeons, magpies, kookaburras, crows, mynahs but it is only the magpie which sings a melodious song to us! The rest twitter and squawk so it is hard to identify them!
On Tuesday after our trip downtown we paid our first visit to the pool - twenty minutes in the sun with Ambre Solaire and I burned! On Wednesday we had Jeff and Keryn, Jeremy, Elliott, Amelia and Sophie to look forward to. Wonderful to see them again and so very grateful to them for making the journey across Brisbane with all its road problems to deliver 2 bikes. Thank you Sian too. Happily both families, despite living in flooded west Brisbane, escaped without their homes being inundated with water. When you see the heartache of those flooded it is an amazing escape. Lots of storms still around – the weather will be turbulent throughout our visit but it is fresh and warm so we are not complaining!
A final plus! You can read the train numbers from our front gate! Could life be more perfect!