Got an email from an old mate who does what I should be doing now but instead did when I shouldn't which is to move from place to place every six months or so. Those who know me know that timing was never my strong suit.
After a twelve-month stint in Port Douglas, my old mate went to Airlie Beach but couldn't find rental accommodation as everything was leased out to the hundreds of tradesmen who had come into town to repair the damage caused by Cyclone Debbie.
So he moved to Mackay instead which brings back lots of memories for me. I'd been on a caravanning working holiday in 1980 and, after a stint as Capital Investment Accountant with Mount Isa Mines which was then the biggest company in Australia, I had no trouble picking up a job on the Queensland coast. B & C Motors in Mackay couldn't wait to hire me since I already had experience in the automotive industry and knew all about floor plan financing, spare parts accounting, and C.A.R.S., the Computerised Automotive Reporting System used by GM-Holden.
Mackay was a very "livable" city with a beautiful countryside and lovely coastline - think Cape Hillsborough, Seaforth, Bucasia - and I briefly entertained the thought of settling and buying a house there. I looked at one at Slade Point which was going cheap; I don't why as it was next to the drive-in and a free movie could be had every night of the week.
The local real estate salesman, Ray Loadsman, also took me out to 48 Yakapari/Habana Road to meet Klaus & Gaby, a German couple to whom he had sold a nice acreage behind "The Leap". We became good friends and met almost every weekend at their little house on Habana Road where they lived a peaceful life of simple self-sufficiency until 2001 when they sold up, first to tour this big brown land in a big Winnabago (during which time they also called in at "Riverbend"), and then to move into a retirement village in Mackay.
So how long did I live in these wonderful surroundings? Three months! Why did I leave? I wished I knew! I had a good job, enjoyed my life, made friends, and yet I felt the urge to move on again and again ...
With today's wonderful hindsight it is very clear to see that I ought to have stayed longer, perhaps permanently, but try and tell that to a chap in his mid-thirties who wants to leave his mark on the world which, as it turned out, was nothing more than an unintelligible Rorschach smudge!
