It's all too easy...Part 1

After arriving from Sydney having had no sleep, I stumbled around Brisbane for a bit - but everything was shut because it was Monday. It was also overcast, cold, and rained a bit - so I jumped on the train to the Gold Coast where Dave kindly picked me up from the station.

Here's a few random pics of Briso:

Some random street:



The war memorial:



The Treasury building - which is still being used for Financial Services: it's a casino :-)



A statue of a woman:



A thingy:



It was really great to catch up with Jenny and Dave again - I really missed them when they went - but I already knew I'd be staying with them which was good.

Jenny and Dave are in a fantastic spot on the Gold Coast - about 5 minutes walk to the harbor front, and about 10 mins in the car to the beach. There also near to Surfers (think night life), Brisbane, and the Hinterland is only about 40 mins away if you want a change of scenery. There's theme parks and shopping centers, surfing, wind surfing, kite surfing, all within 30 mins. In fact - there's just about everything you'd want on the door step.

Oh - and did I mention that the weather's almost perfect all year round? It's just too easy...

I can't believe how much stuff we did in the week I was there. In fact - the list of stuff we talked about on the first day would have been enough to fill up a good month. And that was just stuff on the doorstep.

One really great thing is that Auntie Margaret let me know that Doug and Maria (relatives from South Africa - don't ask me how we're related - but we are :-) had moved to Brisbane, and I managed to get in touch with them.

Given the busy schedule both agreed to meet me early on Tuesday so that we could spend the weekend doing longer trips.

It was really great to see them again, swop news, and see there new house. It's a fantastic place - in a great location just north of Brisbane. We then headed into Brisbane to a restaurant Doug knew and had fantastic Turkish food.

I can't believe how quickly the time past, because we ended up having to run to the station to catch my train to the Gold Coast. I wish I'd had more time...but...maybe next time.

Here's a pic of us at the restaurant:



The next day Jenny and I headed to the beach, and after picking Dave up we had Fish and Chips sitting on the Broadwater: it was too easy...

The next day Jenny showed me around some more of the local area, and I was able to meet some of Jenny's family who also live out here. It was really good to put faces to names, and get jumped all over by Daniel and Cameron - something I really miss from home.

That night we went to the Palazio Versace - which is the hotel they use for "I'm A Celebrity." What a place - just 10mins from Jenny and Dave's house. Here we are enjoying the high life:



We also ended up looking after Daniel on Friday which was great. He's about Joshua's age, and has that "everything's exciting and new" outlook. We ended up looking for large fish in the sea at Paradise Point, and amusingly trying (and failing) to catch them using only our bare hands.



(Thanks to Jenny for the pic).

I'd also arranged to catch up with Tatts while I was here, and Tatts and Anne invited us down to their place for a BBQ. Stu suggested that they get a cat (I'm allergic to cats just in case anyone doesn't know) and force feed me meat.

Thankfully there was none of the former, and I've started eating chicken occasionally, so there was no problem with the second. I even tried a snagger (that's a sausage to everyone who's not Australian) - and enjoyed it. With real Heinz Tomato Sauce.

I forgot to take my camera (sorry) but there is a picture of me eating meat circulating somewhere...