The C Side: Caloundra and Currimundi to Coolum

We cobbled together enough food for breakfast, despite the lack of plates, then lugged our bags back up those fourteen steps. This made us later than we planned, as the first op shop in Maleny opened at 8.30 and we didn't leave Tranquil Park till 9am.  We fluked a park right in front of the Red Cross. If you know how busy Maleny is, you would realise just how special this was.  It was actually becoming the theme of the trip, as Jan seemed to be able to summon up parking spaces close to our destinations whenever we needed one.

The Red Cross turned out to be the most expensive store of the whole trip, although I did buy a few things there.  We decided to cut our losses and head down the range to Landsborough, only to discover that the lovely little Vinnies there had vanished.  No problem: Caloundra was close by.

Caloundra has lots of oppies and we couldn't do them all, so we started at the two that are virtually side by side, the Salvation Army and Neighbours Aid. Somewhere along the way, we had learned that Salvation Army shops and Salvos stores are different. Salvos are the retail arm, and actually act as a business, with the profits supporting Army works. The other shops sort of cut out the middleman. 

In the SA shop, which is a cracker, I must say, I saw a woman wearing the same shirt as me, one I had purchased the previous day. I started chatting to her and she said hers was oppy-bought as well.

Our next stop was the interestingly named Bardo's Bazaar, which it turned out I had visited some years before with my friend Shelley.  It is on the edge of the hospital grounds and is divided into two sections.  The shed part contains all the bric-a-brac and mens' clothing, and what a fine collection it was. Also dirt cheap.  

You then walk up a ramp to a separate building which contains the women's clothing and accessories, and is very nicely set up.  I found a bra larger than size 20 there, so it was "Bingo!" for me. We then
asked a staff member to photograph us as this was Mad Hatters Day.  

There is a sign on the wall there explaining that "bardo" is a Buddhist term meaning the transition between life and death, something they know a lot about at the Health Service. 

We really liked the place, and, how convenient, it is directly over the road from the RSL. Guess where we had lunch?  The food was nice, but the spelling on the menu wasn't. The view out the window included a helicopter on a pole, which was a little different.

That was all we had time for at Caloundra; next stop Currimundi, where the Beautiful You Cancer Charity runs the Funky Op Shop.  Their car park was full, but guess who found a park right out the front?  It is quite a funky shop, but there was nothing there for me, except a dozen free-range eggs which came in handy later for breakfasts.

Next was the small but interesting Kidney Support shop in the middle of suburbia, where I had been before but Jo actually hadn't. A miracle! The prices were very cheap to start with, but when I went to pay for a pair of PJs for Michael, they turned out to be half the marked price. $2 in fact.

Then we visited good old Lifeline at Bokarina, such a huge shop, followed by the new CAYAC store at Kawana.  Nothing terribly inspiring here, and they need to sort their novels into alphabetical order.  Jan was flagging, but made it through our last shop for the day, Neighbours Aid at Mooloolaba, where I found my earrings for next day's outfit.

Coolum was home for the next two nights, on the second floor, but we knew about these steps in advance.  We had difficulty getting the keys out of the key safe - again - this happened at Bilinga last year, but eventually found ourselves in a spacious unit with a sea view from the balcony; and promptly collapsed. After we revived ourselves with a glass of wine, we entertained ourselves by watching the traffic lights change.

 

 

Morayfield to the Mountains

From Bribie, we headed south-west to Morayfield, which has rather a lot of op shops.  I had been coming out there regularly during the past two years while participating in two vaccine trials, so had done some excellent recce work for Jan.

We started out at Lifeline, where I found a pair of reading glasses and the first ball of wool for my friend Suzette. She knits pullovers for children in Syrian refugee camps, and needs a steady supply of pure, or almost-pure, wool.  Acrylic is not acceptable and that is mostly what you find in op shops.  Or unlabelled yarn, or miscellaneous bundles, all of which are no good to either me or Suzette.

Next stop was the big Vinnies that you access via a labyrinth of back access roads, where I found clothing and a jigsaw.  I had been trying to resist jigsaws on this trip, as I have so many at home, but this was a good one.  It was in this shop that Jo cried "Bingo!" and the first trophy for the trip had been won.

I also spotted a purple lace dress and jacket that I thought would be a perfect mother-of-the-groom outfit for Jan in 2023, but she seem less enthusiastic than me.

The third big Morayfield oppy we visited was the Salvos and there I found two mosquito nets. My friend Ruth wanted me to seek them out so she could use them as pest covers for her soon-to-be-planted orchard at Goombungee.  I had looked in fourteen shops by then without success, and then the fifteenth had two!

Although the Neighbours Aid around the corner beckoned to us, we decided we had run out of Morayfield time, and headed for Woodford.  

On an earlier road trip, we visited the original Woodford Lifeline, which was crammed into a tiny double-garage, with barely room to squeeze down the aisles, and bloody hot in summer.  Then it moved to a little old shop in the main street which was cute but not entirely practical.  The third incarnation is an old church and its hall on the eastern side of town, and here they have finally got it right. I found another mozzie net there.

While the girls were still trying on stuff, I trekked down to the other end of the shops to get a head start at the Anglican, only to find that it had closed at 3pm.  I was back in Woodford a few weeks later and thought I would have another try.  I arrived at 1.25pm, only to discover that, because of illness, there were closing at 1.30. Sigh.

That was it for the day. We had conquered eight op shops and were ready to relax.  Jan drove us up many steep slopes and through many green fields until we arrived at Tranquil Park, Maleny, just as it started to rain (lightly). Jan and her husband John had stayed there some years before and were entranced by the view, so this was to be a special treat.  

The first disappointment was discovering that their Irish restaurant, where we had planned to have dinner, was not open that night.  No problems: we'll improvise.  We headed for the door of room 17, which looked like an ordinary motel room door, but inside it was a hidden staircase, and we had to lug all our baggage down to the next floor.  One of the reasons we stopped staying at country pubs was we decided we were too old for long staircases.

The next surprise was discovering that no maintenance had been done at Tranquil Park since Jan and John had stayed there.  As a result, we had a swallows nest in the alcove next to our room, and there was rather a lot of rotting timber about the place.  As far as dinner went, there was a fridge and a jug and that was it; not even a toaster.  But we op shop road trippers are ever adaptable, so we dined on wine and cheese and biscuits, while gazing out at the view, which, despite the weather, was still breathtaking.

I was lucky enough to have the room next to the view, so I saw the night version as well.

Bribie

Jan, our fearless trip leader, was not 100% well on this adventure, so Jo and I went for an early morning walk to let her sleep in. We walked from in front of the hotel at Bellara, along Sylvan Beach north to Sunset Park.

Partway along the route was a collection of dead trees brimming with rainbow lorikeets, and at the park itself, we were welcomed noisily by four black cockatoos.

We hadn't yet had rain on the trip, despite the depressing forecast for the week, but nor had we seen the sun.  However, while we were walking, some early morning sunshine struck Mount Tibrogargan in the distance, making for some excellent photo possibilities.  

Jo spotted a far-off wreck which turns out to be an old coal cutter, the Avon,  deliberately sunk there to protect oyster beds.  On our way back, the lorikeets were joined by a single duck, not something you see up a tree every day.

We bought coffee and found Jan awake and ready to rock and roll.  We dived into our boxed brekkies and were at nearby Lifeline Bellara, just after its doors opened. A car in the carpark had an OPY number plate, so we decided it must belong to the manager; turned out it was owned by a fellow shopper.  It's a great little shop with good prices.

While trying to get her Lifeline staff discount, Jan became best friends with the manager. I had noticed on the way in that Jan's frock had a tear down the side, so said manager insisted on finding another dress, rather than simply resorting to the safety pin solution (she had also noticed a stain on the shoulder...Jan was definitely not on form).

The dress was found, the day's Get Frocked photo taken, and we headed for Woorim.  It was in the Vinnies there that Jan realised she hadn't paid for the replacement dress!

Vinnies Woorim occupies two shops and an arcade, and is a great op shop.  I think we all found at least one thing to buy there.

The famous, very large, Busy Fingers was next, with the biggest collection of bric-a-brac you will ever see.  It was bustling, but the staff still found time to be helpful.

The next one that had been recommended was the Church of Christ shop at Bongaree, which is a well-hidden secret; up a back road, into the church grounds then round the back with signage that sends you the wrong way.  It is small, air conditioned and somewhat upmarket, but both the girls bought clothes there. I didn't.  Luckily, the propeller hat that Jo desperately desired, did not fit her generously proportioned head. I don't have a photo of it, but I do have one of the goggles she found at Lifeline.

We decided that four shops on Bribie was enough, since time was of the essence, so stopped for coffee and sustenance at Serenity on the Passage.  It is very small, but in the middle of the outside tables was an elderly gent playing a keyboard. This was not only a first for us, but for the regular customers that we consulted. He liked it when we all sang along to "Delilah". We didn't stay for an encore.

Jan negotiated the complicated one-way road system near the bridge so she
could revisit Lifeline and pay for her stolen dress, then it was back to the mainland.

Number Nine...Number Nine...

Jan and Jo arrived from the Sunshine Coast on Sunday evening, and we were all up at the crack of dawn, keen to start Op Shop Road Trip Number Nine. Jan was the organiser this time, and we were heading north, but not too far. 

For the second year in a row, Jo helped me finish a Where's Wally jigsaw before we headed off, because the first oppy was only five minutes away, and it didn't open till 9am.

It was Lifeline at Virginia, and although I didn't find any clothes there, I found a blast from my past in their glass case.  When I was a child, my Lismore cousins had a set of Builda-brix that gave us many hours of pleasure. We weren't too popular when Mum slipped over on one of said bricks, when we hadn't picked them all up.  I could not see a price, and was not game to ask.

There was also a Christmas pudding teapot for over $60. Tell him he's dreaming!

One of our challenges on the trip was to find a quirky kitchen item, and I found mine right here in shop number one.  It took us some time to work out for what it is used.  It has three little filters inside.

Our second dress theme was to be Mad Hatters, and I found my hat in the dress-ups box there for $2.

Just around the corner in Zillmere Road is my favourite local oppy, Be Uplifted, and the girls were suitably impressed.  I found two blouses and a book.  On this trip, I decided to collect Donna Leon's Inspector Brunelli books and this was the first.

The traffic on Gympie Road was horrific, because a mobile crane had rolled on the Gateway Motorway, and all northbound lanes were closed.  We inched our way to the other Be Uplifted shop at Strathpine. One of the items on our bingo cards was a postcard. I found a packet of twent-two for $2. Sold!    

Next was coffee and lunch at All Folk, just over the road.  What a lovely little shop, dedicated to helping the disadvantaged.  I did my duty and bought a pair of Halloween earrings. Jan paid forward a cup of coffee.

Suitably refreshed, we hit the oppy hub at Lawnton. The Vinnies cheapo outlet shop has closed, but that still leaves four, and a new One World shop has opened over the road.  Four was enough for us, and we didn't want to cross busy Gympie Road.  We found lots of good stuff, but I was still having difficulty finding just the right dress for the following day's Get Frocked theme. 

Jan was beginning to flag so we decided that Kallangur would be our last port of call, but first we had to find a loo. Google Maps led us to a strange but wonderful little number in the middle of Les Hughes Sporting Complex.  Les seems to have been a person of great significance in Lawnton.  Anyway, the public toilet had green and red flashing lights to indicate occupancy, a disembodied voice that relays instructions, and a loiter alarm that flings the door open after ten minutes!

We whizzed past Lifeline, and parked at Kallangur Fair, which has three close by.  The Salvos store was closed for renovations, but we checked out Save the Children and One World.  The latter has oodles of clothes, and SOOO much stuff for children.  The prices are good too.  I found a pristine Tupperware sugar bowl to replace the ageing one in our caravan.

Our destination for the evening was the Bribie Island Hotel, where we were each given a cute little breakfast box. We were all together in a well set up family room, only a stone's throw from the eatery.  Jo was trying to choose what she would wear, out of the many dresses she had bought. One was just right for me, and better than anything I had found, so she sold it to me.

When we hit the bistro, the weekly trivia competition was happening, but it was not our kind of trivia.  Too old, I suspect.  We oldies needed an early night, so had one.

  

Soul

 Because it popped up randomly on facebook, I discovered that there is an op shop and coffee shop at Bridgeman Downs called Soul. Research indicated that it is only open three days a week in school terms, so I waited until last Friday and headed out there. The address in my navigation software led me to an unmarked driveway at the rear of the Bridgemans Down Baptist Church, so bravely I entered.  If I had chosen the second driveway, where there is a sign and a dedicated parking area, life would have been a little easier, but I found Soul in the end.

What a pleasant surprise.  The coffee shop is in and behind a lovely white weather-board house, and the op shop is in what must originally have been the garage.  There is a well-stocked plant stall under cover next door.

Because the space is small, all clothing is out the back in the coffee shop's outdoor covered area, and the prices are cheap.  Inside the op shop, not a square millimetre is wasted.  They have an amazing amount of stock for such a small space and it is really well organised - books, CDs and DVDs all in alphabetical order, and the LPs and also alphabetised. i don't think I have ever seen this before (made it easy to find Kamahl!).

Linen, kitchenware and sporting goods are crammed into a small room off to one side, still beautifully organised, and even colour-coordinated!  The coffee shop was busy and packed with happy church-goers.  There is a children's play area, and even a community garden.  It's just lovely.

I was musing while I was there about how op shops - especially my favourites - regularly disappear. This prompted me to re-read this entire blog when I came home, to identify which oppies have disappeared since i began writing it in 2014.

The first op shop I ever patronised was Lifeline in Gympie Road, Chermside. It was there from my teens, but is gone now.  Another Lifeline that vanished, no doubt due to rent rises, is the one in Lutwyche Shopping Village/City/Market Central.  The one at Everton Park disappeared, but I just found its new location one block south.  The big Endos at Stafford has gone, along with the one at Capalaba, when the Dollery Road oppy precint there was wiped out.  At least Footprints still exists up the road. My two favourite RSPCA shops at Kedron and Strathpine both went, although the latter suffered a slow decline after its new manager decided to smarten it up, not realising that its crowded, chaotic state was the attraction.

Then there was the lovely little Lutheran oppy in Union Street, Nundah, and the latest to vanish is Vinnies at Northgate. I suppose the big new Vinnies at Virginia is meant to take its place.  There are, however, some compensations, as the Geebung cluster has grown from four shops to six.

Out of town, the squeezy Lifeline in the double garage at Woodford has been replaced by a much bigger shop on the other side of the road. I guess I must be thankful for small mercies. 
 

Awards Night

The Thursday after the Road Trip was Michael's birthday, and that weekend the 4WD club were camping at Amamoor, not far from Jo's home at Imbil. We couldn't camp because we had sold our camper, and our caravan still wasn't finished, so a plan was cooked up where we would stay with Jo for the weekend, and spend a day with the club at Amamoor.  A bonus was that Heather's Halloween party was planned for the Saturday night, so this would take us a long way away from home.

We decided to not only celebrate Michael's birthday on the Thursday, but turn it into the Awards Night.  The husbands were required to wear the T-shirts we had bought them on the trip, and we had to wear clothes purchased but not worn on the trip.  The significance of John's shirt is that he was born in 1949.

Jo put on a tight-fitting lace dress, and promptly proceeded to harvest veges from her garden.  She looked very fetching amongst the cauliflowers.  

After dinner, the winners were announced. My mouthguard game won Quirkiest Object, so the previous winner, Jo, passed on the perpetual trophy to me.

Then it got better.  I also won Quirkiest Book for Awkward Family Pet Photos, so Jan presented me with the other award.  She said I cheated, because I know the sort of things Michael would choose. If I did, it was unconscious, I swear.

We had a great night and a great trip.  My total haul was:

3 pairs pants

2 pairs jeans

3 pairs shorts

2 pairs leggings

5 tops (2 designer brands)

3 tshirts

1 Xmas tshirt

1 pair swimmers

1 bra

1 pair shorts for Michael

1 tshirt for Michael

5 items of clothing for Wednesday

1 elephant-shaped bag for Wednesday

1 necklace

2 pairs earrings

2 bracelets

1 bookends featuring thongs

9 books

1 DVD

4 jigsaws

1 game

1 binder diary for Tash

1 soap

1 body mist

1 shampoo

1 conditioner

1 hair treatment

1 lip gloss

1 hand cream

1 watering can

1 quiche dish

1 Vision saucepan with lid

1 Danish jug

2 acrylic wine glasses

1 egg lifter

1 small Sistema container

1 wire cooling rack

2 knives

100 business card size laminating pouches

1 750ml bottle honey

Total outlay: $184.25

My favourite purchase would have to be the crossword dictionary. When I took it to the counter at the Burleigh Salvos, the man serving was fascinated by it, because he had never encountered one before. I have thrown out Mum's original one, and the second one will live in the van.

The black shorts I bought have barely been off my body since the trip so they would come second.

.

Home on the Range

Toowoomba can be cool in October, but we awoke to fog, and it was actually warmer than the previous evening, which was lucky, because I hadn't thought to buy any warm clothes. 

My plan for the morning was a surprise trip to historic Harlaxton House, to show the the girls where lamingtons were actually invented, while Governor Lamington was up on the range avoiding the heat of Brisbane.  However, somehow in the excitement. I completely forgot about it.  

Our first stop was to be the Red Cross, which is in an old petrol station, but we decided to give that one the flick, since the other Red Cross shops we had visited so far hadn't been kind to us.  We had been to the big Lifeline Vintage shop twice before, so skipped that as well.

Jo decided she wanted to walk into town, while Jan and I would find a park and meet her at Save the Children.  The plan was going well until we spotted Bunnings en route to the city centre and decided to make a brief stop.  Jan then misdirected me to an exit that sent us the wrong way with nowhere to turn around, so we had an unscheduled scenic tour of inner north-west Toowoomba.  Eventually, we found a paid parking lot, and headed north. Unfortunately, Save the Children was south of us.

When we all found each other again, we liked this shop, which is large, neat, and cheerful.  Our D photo was taken there, with us all wearing denim on the bottom half, plus dragonflies for me, dots for Jan, and a very brave Jo wearing a T-shirt featuring a dog throwing snowballs.  

The next on the list was the ADRA shop, but it is only open from Monday to Thursday, the strangest opening hours we have ever encountered for an oppy. This was Friday.  We peered in the window at their display, clearly themed for a Carnival of Flowers competition, and were intrigued by a patchwork jacket that had been made from pieces of knitted fabric. We had never seen anything quite like it before, but, of course, couldn't check it out further.

Last time we were in Toowoomba there were two shops close together in Russell Street, but one had gone, leaving only Orphans and Widows, which we had liked last time.  It is a long, thin shop with an almost hidden doorway right up the back which leads to an almost identical space next door, where everything other than clothing lurks.  Jo found a top to change into, because the dog shirt was uncomfortable, and Jan found a replacement lid for her Tupperware container because the original had cracked earlier in the trip.  I was intrigued by some of the signage. "Not for Sale" would have been much less interesting.

We needed food and the loo, so made a beeline for Grand Central Shopping Centre, where I learnt that if you press the LOCK button on the disabled toilet door before it has closed, someone can pay you a visit at an inconvenient time (I was using the disabled one because I had brought my folding shopping trolley with me).  By this time we had noted that Toowoomba looks a bit sad at present, with quite a lot of apparently homeless people out and about. There was one sleeping on a seat near our coffee shop.  It seemed so incongruous among Toowoomba's beautiful buildings.

Our last shop down town was Good Samaritan, which we thought was a sad little store.  I have since learned the rent they are paying for this out-of-the-way location, and now I understand why they look a little desperate. I didn't find anything to buy here.   I tried to find the Collectables Boutique Op Shop, but apparently I was looking in the wrong street.

Time was now an issue, because we had to get back to Brisbane in time for Michael to judge the quirky things, and for the girls to get home to the northern Sunshine Coast before nightfall, so we decided to revisit one more shop that we knew was a good one, Vinnies Madonna House.  It is two-storey shop with bric-a-brac and big things downstairs.  Here I found a cute tulle skirt for my granddaughter, my last purchase of the trip.  Heather had wanted me to look out for a mini bundt pan, so she could cook little pumpkin-shaped cakes for Halloween.  I thought I had struck gold, send her a photo, but was informed it was in fact a donut pan, so that was that. 

Down Darren Lockyer Way we headed, with the obligatory stop at Schulte's Meat Tavern at Plainland.  We had had our usual fantastic time.

Out came all the quirky objects, once we had dragged about thirty bags out of my car. Jo had high hopes for her 1950s novelty salt and pepper shakers, and Jan had found a definitely quirky Chinese hand puppet. My thong bookends were in there with a chance too.  What would Michael choose?