PORT MACQUARIE

 Port Macquarie is a beaut spot. About 400 km N of Sydney - 6 hours drive. The folk there are very friendly and there's enough to do. While we didn't go whale watching (long story), we did go strawberry picking, played tennis, cycled and shopped. We also went beach walking.

 Guess what? They have a Royal Hotel there!!

 Here's where we stayed - WYNDHAM VACATION RESORTS Asia Pacific Flynns Beach.

 Jenny and Frank joined us at Port Macquarie. They were a great couple to holiday with.

Of course the girls did a reasonable amount of shopping.

I thought the shops may have closed down after we left

as their stock would've been depleted somewhat. 

On a different note: 

Terrible flooding in Calgary and Canmore, Alberta Canada. We used to live in Calgary and travelled often through Canmore enroute to Banff and into BC. 

DON'T YOU EVER LET A CHANCE GO BY

Just had a great HIGH TEA at NOVATEL in Newcastle. Thanks Peta and Jon.

 We had chicken mornay pies, vegetable samosa, prawn cutlets and Phoenician pastry rolls. And that was before we hit the sweet stuff!

 Scones and jam and cream.... beautiful.

Macaroons, brownies, cupcakes etc. Yummeeee!
So, as Bob Hudson sang decades ago - Don't you ever let a chance go by... and we didn't.

The Novatel is just a short walk away from Newcastle Beach. Nobody swimming today. I'm sure my brother Bill woulda swum if he was here. About 19 and 20 degrees outside.

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

 Here we are on duty, working hard, and picking up a lovely hot chocolate at Lindts in the city.

 It is VERY VERY TASTY. Really good for my sweet tooth.

 At Restaurant Semon we were treated to a lovely lamb meal. Eat your heart out Tom. Even the wine was exotic!

 Thanks to all for this amazing meal. Great company and fantastic tucker.

Back home we're putting together one of my favourites - Chicken Colonial. (Thanks Jan Smart). There's chicken, bacon, onion and mushrooms.

 Now I'm adding a tin of tomato soup and a tin of peas.

Last thing to add - several shakes of paprika. Excuse me; it's time to eat.

FOUR Ds

During my working life, there always seemed plenty to do and heaps of stuff that caught my attention and needed some action. If one didn't take appropriate action then pretty soon there'd be another thing wanting your attention. In no time at all the list was so long it could give you that “snowed under” feeling. Somebody once said that you can only “feed so many monkeys”. It was easy just to take problems on board rather than deal with them right then and there or make a decision about what would happen to that particular problem/issue/monkey whatever.

I found that the best remedy was to put the FOUR Ds into practice. I could do one of four different things with the issue that had just arisen or the correspondence that I had just read:

• Dump it. Yes, there are times when it just needs to be dumped. Gives you a good feeling too.
• Delegate it. How cool it is to ask somebody else to handle the matter. And there are always bodies around that you can do a flick pass to.
• Date activate it. This simply means you make a decision that you will deal with this on Thursday straight after lunch or first thing Wednesday etc. Make a note in your diary that so that it will be attended to when you have decided will be an appropriate time to deal with it.
• Do it. Yep, that's one of the options. Maybe it can be attended to RIGHT NOW. Just DO IT!

Even in retirement one needs to be vigilant or else you can find yourself double booking or just neglecting to do something that you should have done. It's easy.

Give the FOUR Ds a go. When you open that letter from the agent or whoever, make a decision – are you gonna DUMP it, or DELEGATE it (Hey Honey, can you ring John and ask him if he could send us the quote? Thanks.) Or you can DATE activate it (determine when you will actually attend to it) or even just DO it. Like NOW!  This way you'll be a better manager.