Redcliffe-------The Metrropolis
Without Prejudice
I no longer have to wobble and lurch around, now on a bike, although I should be. I swear I have eaten my own body weight in ice cream since getting here. I have a loaner of a little car and it's so good to be a bit more spontaneous than I have been. I have been able to get around the sleepy hollow of Redcliffe a little more. To the main street and to Woolies, dodging old people on Mobile scooters and zimmer frames. They love it here the oldies, it's so quiet and serene. So old fashioned too.
There is a Hogs Breath on the main drag and a Coffee Club, a Crazy Clark's and even a Sizzler. I haven't been to a Sizzler in years. There is a big RSL and a pokies but I don't gamble or drink and since I gave up smoking and eating I am the most boring person I know. But I am healthy and that's the main thing. The sun shines nearly all the time in Winter. It makes you feel good and more productive. It makes you want to laugh and sing and be as carefree as you can and I can,
I religiously write till Noon at least and then nap, read or go out. I love getting out and about up here. So much better than dreary days in Melbourne. There are cheeky Willy Wagtails that hand upside down from branches and look as though they are daring you to draw nearer and inspect them. Bright eyed they swing and watch me as I walk by. I go down to the forshore and walk to the pier and the lagoon and enjoy the suns rays and then inspect the shops and arcades.
I stop at the Emglish shop and see that they have Dolly Mixtures and pear drops and sherberts and Dad's Favourite Sauce. There are people sitting in the sun at the All Day Breakfast Cafe and there is no road works like Surfers and I am so glad. Surfers seems to have gone off over the last few years. It's too hard to park, too over commercialised, it's too packed in Summer, too many bloody high rises that block the sun in the afternoons. It used to be so beautiful and laid back and now it's a monster eaten up by greedy developers and silly councils.
In the 60's Surfers was stunning, I know as I lived here. It was exciting and unspoiled and friendly and warm. Now it's a garish tourist hot spot with interminable pulling down and putting back up works going on. If I have to dodge one more bloody piece of orange construction tape I'll scream. It's noisy, it's messy and it always involves Cavill Avenue near the beach end. Leave the bloody thing alone and let it be the way it was. It reminds me of a woman that plays with her hair too much and ends up with a mess, I feel like screaming,
"Leave the bloody thing alone!"
It used to be great even in the 80's when we would holiday there. Great fashion could be bought, the Water Slides near the beach were safe and fun ,now it's a site for a McDoanlds, wouldn't you know ? The most prime real estate spot in Australia and it has to belong to a Corporate chain from the Us. It's stupid and wrong. Surfers Paradise should be for the people, the Australian Public that still loyally vote it their Number One family Holiday destination.
Who wants to bring their kids here now? When Schoolies week is splashed every year all over the front page of the Newspapers. Kids losing their inhibitions and dinner over the balconies of the high rises. Glassin each other in clubs, or being drunk and locked up. Terrible publicity for the Gold Coast. Yes Mum and Dad bring your little kids here for a holiday, when the sun can only shine half of the day, where you are paying over the top prices for a drink, or a crappy tee shirt, or buy a Prada handbag, an opal, a koala skin anything. It's a disgrace. It used to be so beautiful.
When we brought our girls here in the old days it was a safe place, the beach, the streets, the rides, the fashion, the sheer beauty of the place was to admire. We'd sit at Charlies and have breakfast, look across at the sea front, watch happy tourists and their families go by. Decked out in thongs, bathers and a towel. The Surf Club was right around the corner where you could change, have a shower, be at the beach all day. Now that corner is reserved for the buying of a burger. What the ??????
Anyway I have ranted enough. I hate it and I wish it would go back to the way it was. I know change is progress but in which direction ???? So Redcliffe is so much better. I have seen pictures from the 50's and 60's and here was like a Gold Coast, with crowds on the beaches. And now it's back to Sleepy Hollow and thank God. I appreciate the peace and quiet like I never have before. I'm just getting older or wiser, not sure but when I find out, I'll be sure to tell you,
Love Janette
I no longer have to wobble and lurch around, now on a bike, although I should be. I swear I have eaten my own body weight in ice cream since getting here. I have a loaner of a little car and it's so good to be a bit more spontaneous than I have been. I have been able to get around the sleepy hollow of Redcliffe a little more. To the main street and to Woolies, dodging old people on Mobile scooters and zimmer frames. They love it here the oldies, it's so quiet and serene. So old fashioned too.
There is a Hogs Breath on the main drag and a Coffee Club, a Crazy Clark's and even a Sizzler. I haven't been to a Sizzler in years. There is a big RSL and a pokies but I don't gamble or drink and since I gave up smoking and eating I am the most boring person I know. But I am healthy and that's the main thing. The sun shines nearly all the time in Winter. It makes you feel good and more productive. It makes you want to laugh and sing and be as carefree as you can and I can,
I religiously write till Noon at least and then nap, read or go out. I love getting out and about up here. So much better than dreary days in Melbourne. There are cheeky Willy Wagtails that hand upside down from branches and look as though they are daring you to draw nearer and inspect them. Bright eyed they swing and watch me as I walk by. I go down to the forshore and walk to the pier and the lagoon and enjoy the suns rays and then inspect the shops and arcades.
I stop at the Emglish shop and see that they have Dolly Mixtures and pear drops and sherberts and Dad's Favourite Sauce. There are people sitting in the sun at the All Day Breakfast Cafe and there is no road works like Surfers and I am so glad. Surfers seems to have gone off over the last few years. It's too hard to park, too over commercialised, it's too packed in Summer, too many bloody high rises that block the sun in the afternoons. It used to be so beautiful and laid back and now it's a monster eaten up by greedy developers and silly councils.
In the 60's Surfers was stunning, I know as I lived here. It was exciting and unspoiled and friendly and warm. Now it's a garish tourist hot spot with interminable pulling down and putting back up works going on. If I have to dodge one more bloody piece of orange construction tape I'll scream. It's noisy, it's messy and it always involves Cavill Avenue near the beach end. Leave the bloody thing alone and let it be the way it was. It reminds me of a woman that plays with her hair too much and ends up with a mess, I feel like screaming,
"Leave the bloody thing alone!"
It used to be great even in the 80's when we would holiday there. Great fashion could be bought, the Water Slides near the beach were safe and fun ,now it's a site for a McDoanlds, wouldn't you know ? The most prime real estate spot in Australia and it has to belong to a Corporate chain from the Us. It's stupid and wrong. Surfers Paradise should be for the people, the Australian Public that still loyally vote it their Number One family Holiday destination.
Who wants to bring their kids here now? When Schoolies week is splashed every year all over the front page of the Newspapers. Kids losing their inhibitions and dinner over the balconies of the high rises. Glassin each other in clubs, or being drunk and locked up. Terrible publicity for the Gold Coast. Yes Mum and Dad bring your little kids here for a holiday, when the sun can only shine half of the day, where you are paying over the top prices for a drink, or a crappy tee shirt, or buy a Prada handbag, an opal, a koala skin anything. It's a disgrace. It used to be so beautiful.
When we brought our girls here in the old days it was a safe place, the beach, the streets, the rides, the fashion, the sheer beauty of the place was to admire. We'd sit at Charlies and have breakfast, look across at the sea front, watch happy tourists and their families go by. Decked out in thongs, bathers and a towel. The Surf Club was right around the corner where you could change, have a shower, be at the beach all day. Now that corner is reserved for the buying of a burger. What the ??????
Anyway I have ranted enough. I hate it and I wish it would go back to the way it was. I know change is progress but in which direction ???? So Redcliffe is so much better. I have seen pictures from the 50's and 60's and here was like a Gold Coast, with crowds on the beaches. And now it's back to Sleepy Hollow and thank God. I appreciate the peace and quiet like I never have before. I'm just getting older or wiser, not sure but when I find out, I'll be sure to tell you,
Love Janette
