Home at last !
After a couple of days in our new apartment, that’s the way it feels to me. It’s a two-bedroom place in Cotton Tree, a suburb of Maroochydore. Nothing special (unrenovated 1980s building) except for the sight and sound of the ocean and the Maroochy River, which is all we need.
We’ve been coming up to the Sunshine Coast for more than a decade. Mostly for triathlons, but over a couple of years in 2019 and 2020 (after the lockdowns ended) we covered the length of the coastal path from Caloundra to Peregian (south of Noosa). It’s about 180km return, and we did it stages, with Nancy on the bike and me running. Typically, we’d go out around 7.5km, then back to our starting point, for 15km in all in a day.
That let us see the entire coast (except for Noosa, which has a separate council and didn’t finish the path as planned), and we settled on Marcoola (near Sunshine Coast Airport) and Cotton Tree as the best places for us.
In the end, the market made the choice for us. Nothing suitable came up for sale in Marcoola but we found the perfect place here. Settlement was on Friday, and we’ve already moved in. The apartment was formerly used for holiday letting so it came with a reasonably complete set of furniture and kitchenware, making the move easy.
I’m still employed half time by UQ. There’s no teaching so I can mostly work remotely, but I still need to go down to Brisbane regularly. Next trip will include the Brissie to the Bay ride in support of MS Queensland. I’ve nearly reached my target of $5000, so if you feel like helping a good cause, here’s your chance.
If you’re on the list for this email (mainly family and friends), I would be interested in your news. So you want to get in touch, my email is john.quiggin@icloud.com. And you can find me on most social media, though I no longer do much on the former Twitter.
Best wishes
John