I had reached the stage where I began to wish I had never been to Queensland, and especially to Buderim. Nowhere else would ever do, I had found the perfect place to live in Australia...

I was just prepared to give up the search when I walked into a little old house that some friends were renting. No sooner had I set foot in it than I fell completely in love with it. That it was for sale and that my friends did not want it seemed to good to be true. That there were two huge Jacaranda trees - which made a lovely shady lawn at the back and also created a background to the cottage which was a very different proposition from the Victorian woods. It was like sawing iron.