Home from the conference

We are back home again and almost back to normal - the washing is all done, but there is still loads of ironing.  That is the worst about going to a conference - all the clothes you need!

The weather was very kind.  There was some rain, but only when we were inside so it did not hamper us at all.
The first night we were at the Gold Coast, we attended a performance of Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance company, which was incredible.  No photos were allowed, but you can find out about the company here:
https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/chinese-dance

Our son Stuart drove us around the Gold Coast, which we had not visited for about 35 years, so we could not recognise anything much!

 We visited the Purlingbrook Falls at Springbrook in the hills behind the Gold Coast - not much water spilling down at present, but a very long drop.

 This is Point Danger, at the mouth of the Tweed river, named by Captain Cook for the dangerous shoals nearby.  Click to enlarge the photo and you will see the dangerous bar at the opening to the river. The concrete structure you can see in the background when you enlarge the photo is for pumping sand back onto the beach.  many of the Gold coast beaches have been badly eroded over the last couple of years during the storms, and of course that is not good for the tourist industry.  

 Blogger has put some these photos in the wrong order and I can't seem to move them!  The ladies were taken on a tour to Mt. Tambourine, again in the hills behind the Gold Coast.  We had lunch at Cedar Creek winery, which also has a man made glow worm cave.  This was the scene outside the cave.  The tour through the cave was interesting, but I could only listen to the commentary as I could not see the glow worms.  Possibly if I had been in the dark cave for another 30 minutes, my eyes may have adjusted, but never mind, everyone else said they were wonderful.

 This was the scene we looked at while having a very delectable lunch.

 I had to take this photo of one of the desserts - tiramisau, yummy.

 For the conference dinner the theme was Elvis in Vegas - I was not looking forward to it, never having been an Elvis fan.  How wrong I was, the night was fantastic.  Three of the committee had dressed up in Elvis lookalike costumes.  The one on the right of the photo is a complete extravert, and a ton of fun.

 Elvis was assisted by two dancing girls as well as a very good band.

 Elvis had everyone - well most, but not me - up rocking and rolling - and Genevieve was even up on the stage adding to the chorus!

 Out of order photo, but no matter.  We walked along the gallery walk of shops at Mt. Tambourine, these cloth figures were sitting there to entice people into the nearby shop - full of lovely antiques.  Fortunately I knew nothing more would fit into my suitcase to fly home so I was not tempted!
Lots more photos still to come, we visited the Tweed Gallery with the new Margaret Olley display - and we were allowed to take photos of her rooms, quite incredible.
I need to do some watering now.  There was no rain at all here while we were away and it has turned quite cold.  I love this time of the year, but it is still a shock to the system when I haven't got our warm clothes out yet.
Back soon