Life In Australia

We’re thinking about using our profits from the stock market to get into the property renting market in Brisbane.

We can buy something quite nice, close to the city centre with the money we’ve made.

Here are a couple that we’ve looked at. The first has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a separate toilet and is priced at $339,000 (£135,000) .

The second has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and is priced at $315,000 (£126,000).

There’s nowhere in the UK you can get houses like these, within a couple of miles of the city centre at prices like this.

We’re looking into the tourist market vs the longer term rental market.

The tourist market is more lucrative but there’s more hassle – people coming and going every few days. The longer term rental market looks easier.

I do like to get out for a drive in the bush every now and then. I’m sorry if it’s going to offend anyone but it’s in my Toyota Landcruiser – a magnificent beast of a car – but not exactly eco-friendly. On the other hand, if we were to be involved in a crash with another car, I’d rather be in a Landcruiser than any other car. Anyway, back to driving.

People here are grumbling that the price of petrol’s about to go up again. It’s $1.31 per litre here just now – that’s £0.53 per litre. Speaking with my dad on the phone last week he was telling me the British price was about £0.94 per litre. The fact that you can get petrol cheaper here probably explains why you get a lot more 4×4’s on the road in Queensland than in the UK. I’m not just meaning in out in the bush, I’m meaning in the cities.

Just back from our weekend on the Gold Coast. We had great fun visiting the theme parks.

I can thoroughly recommend our accommodation – we spent a night in the Legend Hotel. It was modern, clean and the rooms were non-smoking.

I still cringe at a night we spend on a stop-over in Hong Kong at the Panda hotel. The skirting boards around the rooms looked like they hadn’t been dusted for years and there was a persistent smell of stale cigarette smoke in the room – eugh.

At the Legend the wife and I stayed in an en-suite studio room for $135 (£54).

The Hotel’s just about on the beach and we had a great view of the ocean from the balcony. It had a king bed, and a kitchenette with microwave/convection oven and a private balcony.

There was an interactive TV and the usual kettle and tea and coffee facilities. The trouble with a weekend away is it comes to an end all too soon and it’s back to work again tomorrow. I’m looking forward to the next break already.