The Two Kazza's do Hamilton Island & NYE

(Sounds like a Porn Movie aka Debbie does Dallas BUT NOT! - I promise)

Well this time last year I was sitting on my lounge with Embee Louise and I vowed that next year would be soooo very different!

Well Groover's I am very proud to say that I have made this wish come true!

Yesterday, whilst was sad as I had to say goodbye to Baby Jake (because he departs for his Ayers Rock job before I return....) I jetted off to the very sexy island called Hamilton Island, which is in The Whitsunday's!

Here is Jake and Embee driving me to the airport!

And me saying goodbye to Baby Jake! Of course I asked some random strangers as only I do.... to take the pic! Jake loved it hehehe.

Karen my travelling/adventure buddy got quite acquainted with Michael Buble on our flight and I haven't seen them since...

Ok this is not true. This morning I did glimpse them hand in hand taking a stroll along the beach in front of our apartment but Groover's what goes on in Hamilton Island staysssss on Hamilton Island! :)

We had VIP treatment and were picked up from the airport.

And we were served an icy cold welcome drink and baby snack on arrival :)

The view from our balcony is just amazing! We are staying at The Beach Club on Hamilton Island which is a kid free resort and at this time of year being Christmas/New Year we thought it might be the option to have a peaceful holidays and we def made the right decision!

It is beautiful here. Our room is lovely, the food is great (at The Beach Club that is) andddd we are loving the drinks!

Mind you having said that can you believe it only sells Pepsi! :(

But do not fear as Kazza went to the shops today for little Kazzachezza and I have me some coke now to go with this little baby!

Something every good traveller should pack! Yep you got it Rum in a Water Bottle! hehehe. I love you Karen anddddddd MY COKE!!!!

We have found it very busy here for restaurants so have had to prebook a few things just so we have a chance to experience it.

This morning we had a very delicious breakfast and this was the view from our table.

Then later in the morning we made our way to the infinity pool in our complex and this is where I spent most of the day. I do love me a good pool and the views yet again..... are AMAZING!

I also had my first New Years kiss today at the pool! I knowwwww but I couldn't help myself! Look how cute he is!

ANDDDDD he stuck his tongue in! hehehe

I did meet one other guy but I promised not to write about what happened!

You know I was telling Kazza yesterday how my very first visit to The Whitsunday's (when I was 18) we stayed at a resort where the very cute bartender made me a cocktail (in a champagne glass in those days....) and it was all blue with cream poured into it which then made my cocktail resemble The Great Barrier Reef and whenever I come up this way and see the sparkling water of different depths and colours it takes me back to that special drink!! And of course that HOT BOY!

So tonight's plans (at the moment) is to have a little balcony party complete with snacks and drinkies and watch the first round of fireworks at 7.30pm! We then will get one of our chauffeured buggies to drop us down to The Marina where there is a street party and see where the night takes us.

Of course this time of year we all (whether we want to admit it or not...) take time to reflect on the year that has been and wonder what the next 12 months has instore for us.

Karen asked me today if I had a New Years Resolution but you know what? I am not a big lover of them. I mean sureeeee I could say lose weight, be healthy and meet the man of my dreams! Butttt to me that's not really a resolution. My reply to her was this: To continue to be happy and content with my Life!

Because in the end kids being Happy is what it's all about isn't it!

Happy New Years to you all and always remember no matter how hard the last year may have been for you (and I know this to be true for a few of my friends...) you have so much to be thankful for and everything that is thrown at us we live, we learn and we pick ourselves back up again and learn to breath and to smile.

And even if its forced eventually you will again one day breath, smile and OMG even laugh again!

Love you Groover's and Happy New Year to each and every one of you!

Little Kazzachezza :) xxx

Wanderlust....

So today I said goodbye to my Baby Jake before he jets off into his new Ayers Rock Adventure!

Of course this time it was me leaving him as I was flying off to Hamilton Island with my friend Karen to spend five nights there for New Years Eve. But more on that in the next few days....

So before I left this morning I had to say my goodbyes and I did try to be brave. There were of course a few tears... but Groover's Jake has always been a cry baby so what can I say! LOL

A few weeks ago, after I knew that Jake would be leaving I was at home watching the television show "Men in Trees" and at the end of the show, Anne Heche's words rang very true in my ears and so tonight I would like to share those few words with you....

Humans are born with the desire to roam the earth. We crawl, walk and run to move further away from where we came from... from home!

I know first hand the thrill of what changing ones surroundings can do for ones heart. And now I also know that sometimes staying home and letting others go, can be it's own fantastic journey....

Because when you let go of something, you make room for something else entirely! Something you never expected, something that makes home seem like it's own unexpected adventure!

A trip where new treasures are found around every old corner. Where the world and all it's complexities come right to your doorstep.

Because in the end the power is not just with those that go away.... but also in what they leave behind.

Night Groover's

Me xxx

Summer Holidays

Summer Holidays are nearly here! Can you smell them....

It's a double edged sword for me because on one hand I get 12 1/2 days off work! And in that time I am going to Hamilton Island in The Whitsunday's for New Years Eve. Buttttttttttt by wishing my days away to be able to go away that means my last few days with Baby Jake are flying by very fast!

Mind you sometimes lately I find myself saying: So when do you LEAVE AGAIN JAKE? hehehe Kids!!!

Ahhhh just counting down them days Groover's! But then again I am sure I am not alone and that we all are!

Yesterday Christmas came early for one little boy!

I am pretty certain he was on Santa's good boy list! And Santa knew just what to get him: 96% fat free Schmackos! As you do....

At Morley Manor these are affectionately known as Embee Louise's Cigars!

Seamus Poo Poo loves them! :)

And our little baby doves are growing stronger each and every day too! Look how big they are getting!

I am sure going to miss them when they fly the nest as I like to check on them when I get up in the morning. Their mum has done a really good job in looking after them and it sure has been a delight to watch it all unfold just outside my bedroom window!

Maybe the mother dove and I might hit the clubs once her chicks and my Baby Jake all leave the nest! We might go find us some HOT DUDES! hehehe.

So today I went to lunch with my friend Andrew from work. He is really not feeling the best at the moment, so I hope he gets better soon... and NO it wasn't my company.... Honest! :)

There is def something about this time of year that makes us catch up with friends sometimes family, that we haven't seen in a very long time!

Tonight I had dinner with my lovely SEXY friend Al!

We go back a longggggggg way and whilst I am old enough to be her mother somehow we have this amazing friendship. We used to joke that we both meet each other in the middle. I'm 45, Al is now 22.... you do the math! But I do treasure our friendship and am so glad I leant forward all those years ago at a Michael Buble concert to ask this "stranger" a question :)

Here are some pics that show's you our wacky friendship! :)

Or my personal faves

I love to hear her stories and tonight she shared with me her "Work Xmas Party" story! OMG HILARIOUS! Way too much to share here but as she said one of her friends described it to a T! with one word. That word is: Tragic! hehehe.

It was one of those nights where you go away to the Gold Coast, too many people staying in the one room, half the work party ends up in your room somehow, things get drunken, eaten, stolen (as a joke), someone throws up in your bathroom and then at the end of the night you try to go out to a club but everything goes wrong!

My god it brought back memories. Haven't we all been there, done that. And that's when you learn to either get your own room, or just share with someone else anddddd know when to call a night a night! We've all gone out cause we are having a great time and then find it all fizzles out and we shoulda just gone home AFTER THE FUNCTION!!

Have a great time overseas Al and see you at the end of February.... when the next chapter in your life begins! I am very proud of you :)

Mum is enjoying her stay with us too!

Funny Mum Story: So one of the guys asked me at work "so what happens if you want to bring someone home and your Mum is there?" I said it wouldn't be a problem as she is pretty easy going.. so that night when I got home from work and Jake, Mum and I sat down to dinner I brought up the subject. Her response was this "I think it would be lovely if you brought someone home. Maybe (and she then winked) they might have a friend to bring home for me!". Jake then said "Ewwwwwwwwwwwww" and we all laughed!

I said to Jake imagine that: Mum gets action, Funny Nana (as we call her) wins on, even Embee Louise wins on and you get NOTHING! hahaha.

But have to say it's nice to be able to sit down and have a laugh as a family. That is one thing we always did as a family (along with my Grandparents) is laugh A LOT!!!

Laughter really does make the world go round doesn't it! :)

Night

Me xxx

Holiday Friends....

From as far back as I can remember Holidays have always been a part of my life, even when at times I have had no money! And Groover’s that has been a lot of times over the last so many years!

And the friendships I have made from these holidays I treasure close to my heart ☺

I guess as a small child being on holidays with your family you meet kids at the beach and play in the sand & surf, back at the pool where you are staying etc. A lot of the times My Grandad would be my best friend on our holidays and I would follow him everywhere. We would go shopping for groceries, go for walks and my fave: go for drives.

Here is a pic of me back in 1982, I was 16 and you will notice my Grandad's beach towel next to me! He took the pic :)

Now my very first grown up holiday was to Great Keppel Island back in the 1980’s! Yesssssssssssss they did have electricity back then....

This kids was prob my most fave holiday of them all. Back then they had a slogan “Get Wrecked on Great Keppel” and I sure did! I was only 17 ½ years old and I remember Cyndi Lauper’s song “Girls just want to have fun” had just been released and this was our theme song! ☺

We went on a bus from Brisbane to Rockhampton and then the ferry across to the island. Now in the brochure it showed boys & girls on the bus, partying, streamers and balloons! We couldn’t wait to go, buttttttttt we get on the bus and its all-girls AND ONE BOY! We were very sad.... :(

But as soon as we arrived at Great Keppel, well they didn’t know what had hit them! I made some wonderful friends, had the best time and even flirted with the Resort Photographer, called “Flash” I mean come on, what else would he be called!

And when I returned back to “Real Life” I was so depressed and wanted to go back again…… And I guess this would be when my “Holiday Addiction” began! Thanks Flash ☺ wink wink

About six months after Great Keppel I started to go out with my ex-husband and if you think this was going to stop my holidays, well you would be wrong! ;)

I had a holiday up to The Whitsundays with a girlfriend and had a blast! Lots of wine & orange, cause I’m classy like that! Come on it was the 80’s!

Then the next holiday was prob my second fave. It was the FM104 Rock Cruise on the good old P&O Fairstar cruise ship, may she rest in peace... It was November 1986 and it departed on my 20th birthday and do you know that next month it will have been 25 years since that holiday but to me it feels like maybe a few years ago. How time flies.

Now the Fairstar or as it was also known back then “The Floating Mattress” (andddddddddd remember this was before Aids) was out of control party wise! And OMG did I see a lot of sex!

Nowwwwwwwwww before you go getting all excited, it wasn’t me! Honest! Cause stupid me had a boyfriend back at home (the soon to be husband then ex-husband…). Silly me!

It was always so funny at the end of the night because the disco would end at all different times, depending on the crowd. And so when the DJ would say “it’ssssss that time of the night, time for the last song” you could see the panic on everyone’s face – looking around trying to work out who they could hook up with so they didn’t miss out!

It was everywhere. The very first night a girl in my cabin, who I didn’t know and can I just say quietly – wasn’t much to look at WON ON! And we didn’t know. How could that be, I mean our 4 berth cabin was sooooo small. But we must have all come home after they had “done the deed” and all went to bed. So when we all woke up the next morning to find a boy in our cabin, about 2 metres from our face (because the cabin was that small) well we all then made a pact that if you won on, then you went back to their cabin.

So one night I was creeping home quietly around 6am and quietly………. Opened the cabin door and guess what? I was the only one THAT CAME HOME!!

I still have two friends in my life from back then, both boys! ☺

One of them I was soooo tempted to play up with but on the second night, whilst I was sitting on his lap and he was stroking my thigh (I was wearing shorts) I thought OMG I have to tell him I have a boyfriend. And I did ☹ Silly me....

But who knows if something had of happened then we might not have stayed in touch all these years!

The other guy, well he was special ☺ There was a great connection, but he had someone back home and so did I and we were great mates! When I think of him it puts a smile on my face... Fond memories of a great holiday and great friendship’s made, even to this day!

Of course I got married, had Jake and then got divorced. But even being very poor, somehow I managed to still go away with friends but do it on the cheap! To me holiday’s is an escape from reality. And back then I was on the sole parents pension, living in housing commission, so it was lots of fun to escape that life, even for a couple of nights.

Now I am really bad at saving for BIG HOLIDAYS, hence why I haven’t travelled overseas much and also due the Australian Dollar back then being so bad. And now that I am working full time I can never save up enough leave… I know I am naughty girl, with a bad habit.... a bad habit for HOLIDAYS!

I went to Club Med – Lindeman Island in the Whitsundays. Had a great time and on the 2nd last night became the target for the Pool Barman called Ishmael! Now the night before he had had dinner with us and we had the best time. The next night this guy would not leave me alone….. He was on heat and I was his prey! BIG TIME!!! I found out the next day that a lot of resort staff will “make their move” on the 2nd last night, as after that you are leaving and so it’s SAFE!!

Let’s just say it was good entertainment to watch. For the others! ☺

And then when Jake was younger I went on another cruise and he spent the time with his dad.

We had the most amazing time and yet again made some great friends that we sat with at dinner. A group of boys that sooo made me laugh! We were so loud during dinner, poor people sitting next to us. But geez it was fun!

There was a little flirtation (ok maybe lots…) with one of the guys and myself and on the very last night, I was getting sick (as I usually do on a long cruise, from too much partying…) and I had no idea AT ALL, but on the last night he followed me everywhere and my good friend Elaine was very protective… like a mother bear and made sure I was safe, because I was def off my face with being sick and I didn’t want to miss coming into Sydney Heads so I had stayed up all night and prob wasn’t always thinking straight.

Mind you I had no idea what he was doing and it wasn’t until we were on the plane flying home that the girls told me how it had been the night before! hehehe I am such a goose!

These were the same guys that flew me down to Melbourne for Melbourne Cup a few months later…. I had fun and remember that cruise fondly too!

I also visited Long Island in The Whitsunday's and had a blast!!

At the end of our stay when I went to catch the Train back to Brisbane, due to flooding it couldn't get through (it was the Wet Season) and we all had to find accommodation for the night in Airlie Beach.

The next day when the Train did turn up (it had to come up from Brisbane as the other one couldn't get to Proserpine due to flooding between Cairns and Proserpine etc.) all the food was FREE! I spent most of the trip in the bar area, made some great pals and I had to laugh because when the voice came over the PA System that the next food was blah blah blah, I kid you not: you could hear the crowd making their way to the Bar Area!!!

I think we all ate Queensland Rail out of food on that trip! You know to get our monies worth for being so stuffed around! Either that or we were PIGS! Or maybe both LOL

When I returned to work into the Travel Industry I dragged Baby Jake from pillar to post to all the freebies and discounted theme parks and accommodation places in Queensland.

I’ve fallen in love with Kingscliff in northern New South Wales and have managed to go back there every year for the last couple of years and am off there again in November for my birthday ☺

I’ve been to Sydney a few times to see Michael Buble in concert and have some amazing fun adventures there.

Am off again to Sydney soon too! ☺

I also went on a three day Food & Wine cruise this year back in June and made some new CRAZY friends!

I have a love for The Whitsunday’s and I’m going back in December for New Year’s Eve to Hamilton Island, which should be lots of fun!

Now I am sure there are many more little places and treasures I have found over the years that escape me for now andddddddddddd if you have made it to the end of this blog, maybe you need a holiday too! LOL

Groover's it's always great to have a little light at the end of the tunnel. Something to look forward too. Something to keep you going.

Get out there and have a holiday! I want to hear all about it ok.... Pics too!

And speaking of that: I would love to hear your holiday stories, I am sure you have just as many great ones as me!

Love ya

Me xxx