Am going to Camp Eden in Currumbin Valley.  Its up in the mountains behind the Gold Coast (Queensland).  There is no smoking there and you can't have tea or coffee (except herbal teas which I am not too fond of) .  I sure am going to miss my coffee and cups of tea, cups of tea especially.  If I was still smoking I would probably be a raving lunatic by the time I got back home.  Can go canoing, swimming, meditation, yoga, bush walking, etc so I will have plenty to keep me amused.  Of course there are the spa treatments you can have, massages, facials, etc that I am going to thoroughly enjoy.  Have full use of all the facilities and I'm going to make sure I take full advantage of them.

 

Am living in my daughter's home at the moment until I get my granny flat built.  Will not be doing this for a while as I want to do some travelling around Australia before I start that.  They have several chickens, two roosters, ducks and geese who keep me greatly amused with their antics.  Also have plenty of other wild life that come round to visit.  At the moment we have a family of wild ducks with 11 ducklings living on the property.  There were 12 but unfortunately one disappeared.  I suppose the parents feel that with all the chickens, etc around they are pretty safe from predators and of course there is the food that they manage to steal off the chickens and ducks.

 

My grandchildren tell me every day how much they love having me here and I have never had so many hugs as I get now.  I go for a walk 5 mornings a week, start off with my eldest grandson as he walks to the bus stop and then go up the hill from there so am keeping fairly fit.  Certainly helps keep the weight down.

 

Snake season is upon us and the wet weather we had last summer has increased their numbers.  We had two brown snakes going through the yard the other day, about 2 metres long.  I made sure that I kept well away from them as they are very venomous.  As long as they keep away from me, I will leave them well alone.

 

Am going to start doing pilates once I get back from Camp Eden and also hope to join a few organisations that interest me so that I can meet and get to know people in the local area.  Don't think I will ever go back to the city, only thing I really miss is being able to just pop down the road for a coffee.  Here it is several kilometres in the car to get myself a cup of coffee.  Had to stop going out every day as my petrol consumption was getting a bit excessive.

 

Was going to answer some of the posts but I have to get all my clothes, etc ready to go away.  I always seem to leave everything to the last minute, something that I will have to work on now that I am retired.  I no longer have the excuse that I am too busy.

 

Good to see Ozzy back here and Kay past her 100 days.  I guess from Kate's post that Sherri and I are at 592 days.  Who would have though that Kate, Sherri, Roxanne and myself would still be smoke free when we first took the daunting step of giving up cigarettes.  Didn't have doubts about the other three but wasn't too sure about myself for some time.  Of course I mustn't forget Peter, Betsy, Charry Lou and the rest of the gang.  Quite a bunch of great people on this site.  Oops, nearly forgot to mention our esteemed leader, Earl.

 

Goodness, here I go again, rambling on.  For a person who is generally fairly quiet, I can sure gas bag a lot when I type.  Will let you know how my adventures at Camp Eden go when I get back.

 

Dewey

PS  Internet out here is a pain in the neck.  Was doing a spell check and the internet decided that it would not work.  Fortunately, or possibly unfortunately for those of you reading this, I managed to copy down what I had typed.  Hope it works this time otherwise I'll be in a right royal tizz.