The Last Serenade

It's always hard to put something to rest. Other times it isn't. Like a chocolate bar that has been inside you for a while, it is relatively easy to put that to rest. Especially if you're an infant and you have the freedom to get rid of it anywhere and anytime you please. Much to the annoyance of fathers who have to deal with the situation. But it is hard to put most things to rest. Blogs are an example. I'm gonna have to put this blog to rest one day. I cant go on a QLD trip for the rest of my life. It would be even more suspicious if I was forever stuck in 2010, as this blogs title suggests. So, I am going to put this website into hibernation after I finish off this post. It's not something I wanted to happen, but it was inevitable. So, I'll end it with a bang.

Friday, 9th July 2010:
Last day in Burleigh! I decided the night before that we would all go on a walk in the morning, and I regretted every last word when the time came. I had had a lovely last sleep the night before, and to be woken up by Dad at the crack of dawn was the last thing I wanted. I finally got out of bed, but Mahala was the reluctant one in the end. I had agreed on her part when discussing the idea of a family walk. Put simply, she had been forced to go on the walk, and she wasn’t happy about it. Oh well, screw her, she has to get out sometime.

At the foot of the nobby’s, Mum psyched herself up for a run. Apparently, she had done that almost every morning since we arrived. I agreed to run up with her, and we both proceeded up the hill. I would’ve written “ran” instead of “proceeded”, but we didn’t really run at all. At least I didn’t. It was more of a jog for me.

The view from the top was nothing short of ordinary. It was the sort of view that you’d expect from the top of a hill. It was nothing special, yet it wasn’t crap. Here’s an ordinary picture of an ordinary view:


On the walk down to the other end of the Burleigh beach, we passed all of the exercise equipment that us kids had messed with yesterday. We went on them all again, except for the dune buggy and the spinny cup thing. At the little coffee shop, charmingly titled “Nook Espresso” as it is the size of a large pantry, we all got a hot drink. Around the corner there is a bench that over looks all of Burleigh and the high rises of Surfers as well. At the time that we arrived, the bench was occupied, which rubbed Mum up the wrong way. We sat to the right of the bench on some rocks, whilst Mum gave them a few dirty looks, and as soon as the seat was free, she ran over and took it.

While we were walking back, we ran into Nan & Pa just before they caught the senior’s bus to “Twin Towns”. We had a chat about our stay, and Dad had a chat about driving from Burleigh to Noosa with Pa. I do believe that this id the first time that I have mentioned Noosa. It seems rather silly to have gone this far through the holiday without even mentioning Noosa. So, to make up for this I’ll really mention Noosa. Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa, Noosa. There, that should cover it. We said goodbye and waved them off as they caught their bus.

Back at home, we all had showers, breakfast and had a slow walk around the unit for one last time. Well actually, the last one I only did. I was taking pictures of the unit for sentimental value. I don't think I'll bother to upload them.

We left at about 11:30 and, thank the lord, we stopped at Robina. This was my chance to go to “Anime Shuuken”! I was told by Dad that I had 15 minutes to go in and come out. Yeah right, we’ll see about that. The shop is one of the best I’ve ever been in. I was inside for almost 30 minutes talking to the guy that was there about what mangas he would recommend. I got a couple of titles that I wrote down, and two books to boot. One was Death Note Vol. 8 and the other was a manga sampler with 6 short chapters. And it was free. Dad interrupted me during my conversation and I had to cut it short, I was really annoyed at that.

I’m not entirely sure what happened between Robina and Noosa. My head was stuck in Death Note and the sampler. We arrived in Noosa at around 3:00 and unpacked the car. There are a lot of stairs that you have to climb to get to the door of our Noosa unit. It was really tiring, so after we unpacked the car, we went down to the surf club and had tea. We sat at a window table and fell mercy to the weather, which had decided to turn from sunshine to rainfall. The windows had been welded open, so we had to retreat to a table that was further indoors. For tea, I had a steak burger that wasn’t a burger. It was more of an open plan burger, with everything off to one side and the bread tucked into the corner. It was beautiful, but it can’t be called a burger. It’s politically incorrect or something, isn’t it?

By the time we had all finished our teas, the rain hadn’t. We had to stick around in the surf club for about 30 minutes after finishing to wait for the rain to stop. I’m not entirely sure why people don’t like to walk in the rain. Sure, you get wet and all that, but is that cause enough to hate it? I personally don’t mind walking through the rain, regardless of how hard or fast it’s falling. But the rest of my family do, so I had to stick with them.

Once the rain had finally gotten bored with Noosa and moved on, we made tracks for home. Our unit in Noosa is on the side of a really big hill, about two or three times the size of Nan and Pa’s hill, but not as steep. There’s a walkway that runs up the side of the hill and it seems to go on for ever, until you get to the top of course at which point it stops. It is really good exercise if you run up the hill, and that is why I decided not to do any of Dad’s walks for the entire duration of our stay at Noosa. I knew that if I did I would probably have to run up the bloody thing.

Back at home, we watched “Collectors” and “Move Up The Country”. I wasn’t really that interested and I sat around playing on Mahala’s laptop. They both sucked and I was really quite bored for the entire evening. Although I’m told that tomorrow we are going to do a lot, so I am happy about one thing.

Saturday, 10th July 2010:
I was woken up by the rest of the house because my room has louvers that don’t provide any sound proofing at all. The time was around 6:45 and I wasn’t happy. I was made a bowl of porridge that was absolutely awful. I didn’t know that porridge could get that bad. It was like tiny little pieces of confetti that had been mixed in with glue. It was terrible. Mum blamed it on the microwave, saying that she hadn’t adjusted to it yet and it was too powerful. I don’t really care whose fault it was, but I can’t stand bad porridge.

We all got ready to go to the Eumundi market, a big market that is like the Mindl market in Darwin, but bigger and a tiny bit better. Mum said that we had to be gone by 7:30 if we were going to arrive at a respectable hour. I challenged her and said that leaving by that time was lunacy and that 8:00 is more reasonable. After some careful delaying on my part, we left at exactly 8:00. Take that Mum.

The Eumundi market is exactly what the name doesn’t suggest. It is not so much a market as it is a festival, and I have no idea what a “Eumundi” is. I went in the hope of finding a satchel for cheap. And for those who must argue what a satchel is, you only need to look at the bag that Indiana Jones wears around his shoulder. That is a satchel in the purest sense. A bag. I know that a couple of the readers will be thinking to themselves, “They’re ‘Man Bags’”, and if you didn’t think that, you have now because you just read about it and you are probably thinking about it right now. Pretty cool, huh?

At the market, I was also promised by Mum that there is a stand that sell the best calamari that she has ever tasted. Apparently, “They melt in your mouth.” But more on that later. The sky looked pretty black and pretty soon after we got out of the car and started walking around, the rain started. We all ducked into a stand to escape the rain and it passed relatively quickly. I was really interested in a stand called “The T-shirt Dude” as Mum had bought me a “Praise Jebus” shirt the year previous. That’s 2009 for people who didn’t understand that. Mum came up to Noosa last year because it was her “Gap Year” and she reckoned she needed a holiday. She gets stressed she says.

In the thick of the market, we split into groups. I bet you can’t guess who was in what group, but just incase you can’t remember anything, the groups were as follows: me & Dad, and Mum & Mahala. We went off to the east while they went off to the west, and we didn’t see them until lunch time. At the very east of the market/festival, I found the infamous calamari joint that is home to the best calamari in the world. According to Mum anyway. Being one to always embrace the finer things in life, I had to have some. It cost $11.00 for a small bowl, and it came with a selection of sauces. I got chilli and started wolfing it down. People close to me will know that I don’t really care for savouring food stuffs all that much. I believe that life’s too short for savouring. The calamari was really nice, however, I do believe that it was over-hyped by Mum. She raised my expectations to be unbelievably high and I left feeling that I didn’t get to have the meal that was promised.

There were many live artists that had been scattered all over the market. But two were really the only ones that drew a crowd. The artists went by the name of “Matty Jones” and “Jezzie Smith”, and Dad bought a CD off of both of them. They were both very good. Matt played the didgeridoo (he had 4), the bongos (he had several), the keyboard (he had 2) and the flute (he had one). He probably played some more instruments, but I just didn’t care to notice. Jezzie played so many instruments that I can only remember the harmonica. Of which he had about 7. Either way you look at it, they were both amazing musicians.

The search for the satchel turned out to be futile as the only ones that caught my eye were $200 to $175. They were made from recycled billboards and posters, so I guess that sort of justifies the price. Although these bags were being sold with 30% already off the price. And then there was the problem where I only had $25.

After the market finished, we went back to Noosa. Dad parked the car back at the unit and we had to walk down the hill to get to Hastings Street. There was an old Ford “Woodie” out the front of “Noosa Longboards” that me and Dad both took a shining to.



Inside “Noosa Longboards” itself, they have everything that is essential to go surfing in the 60’s and 70’s. And with the hop being based in Noosa, it is all being sold at a premium price. For example, a vintage dashboard hula girl figure from the 50’s, was being sold for more than $250. They also had a rather interesting piece of rock memorabilia. There was a “Fender” flag that had been signed by Jimi Hendrix. The flag was for sale, but the only price listed was “POA”. Not generally a good sign in a shop like this.

After looking around Hastings for about an hour, we stopped at a coffee shop to wind down a bit. Until the caffeine hit our minds of course, then we were wound up again. I had a mochaccino (surprise, surprise), and we sat around for an hour and a bit. I went to “Dwyer’s Bookshop” to look for some manga, but they hadn’t even heard of it before.

Back at home we had sausage rolls, pasties and pies that Mum had bought at the market for tea. We watched “Doc Martin” and “For Your Eyes Only” before going to bed at 11:30. I read my book long into the night, until my eyelids couldn’t stay open any longer.

Sunday, 11th July 2010:
I was woken up by Dad when he rang mine and Mahala’s mobile, although it was really the terrible ringtone that got me up and moving. God how I hate that ringtone. If I feel the phone vibrate in my pocket, I always try and answer before it starts playing. Especially in public. He said that he and Mum were on their morning walk and they wanted me up and ready to go by the time they got back. We are going to go to another market at the Noosa marina. I’m still going to search for my satchel after yesterday’s disappointment.

At the market, there were no satchels in sight. There were these leather bag type thing that were worn over the shoulder, but they were not satchels at all. Oh well, looks like I’ll have to wait until the next time we get back to Melbourne. For lunch, we all had fish and chips. We then went back towards Noosa and stopped at the foreshore to have a walk around. There was a bookshop that caught my eye so I had a look around there. I found a really good parody of “Where The Wild Things Are” titled “Where The Mild Things Are”. I found it in the children’s section, although the humour is way too sophisticated for young minds to comprehend. I also asked about manga, no they hadn’t heard of it either.

Over the road and to the west a bit, there was a giant pelican on a trailer that was named Percy.


Apparently it was a float that was used in the Noosa something festival. I can’t exactly remember, but the way the pelican looked and moved when in working order was enough to scare any child who was unfortunate enough to witness it. Despite all this, we still got some happy snaps of us standing in front of the ghastly thing


We drove back into Noosa and went out onto the spit to have a look at the ocean and anything else that caught our eye.

We then went to the national park and watched the sunset from a lookout called the “Boiling Pot”. This was possibly one of the best sunsets that I have ever seen. Ever.



Back at home, we all watched the Doctor Who Series 5 finale. Since I am really the only one that watches the show on a regular basis, I was asked piles of questions regarding what was happening and why. I simply had to turn the T.V. up and try to drown out the noise. It was also Mum’s first Matt Smith episode, and with her being a David Tennant devout, she didn’t think much of Matt. I like Matt, but not as much as David. After that finished, Dad went to bed and the rest of us watched “Little Dorrit”. I have no idea at all in regards to what the hell is going on in that show. It was all one big blur for me. Although it was the first episode I had seen. We were all in bed by 10:30 and I read my book long into the night.

Monday, 12th July 2010:
I woke up at some time after 8:00. I had a really good nights sleep. The bed is really soft, reminds me of my bed back home. When Mum and Dad got bad from their morning walk, they told me and Mahala to hurry up and get ready because we were all going to go to the “Ginger Factory” in Yandina. That’s the “Buderim Ginger” factory in case you were asking, not that I can hear you.

We left by 10:30 and headed to Yandina with Mum giving directions. Directions that would eventually get us lost. We arrived at the ginger factory about 45 minutes after we had anticipated. We finally got there only after stopping and asking a Yandina local where the hell the bloody thing was. Mum blamed it on the terrible map that was on the back of the pamphlet and the fact that there were no signs, but I saw all the signs that she didn’t, and decided to not say a word.

The ginger factory was great. We didn’t stay there any longer than we needed and we saw all that we wanted to see. And I love ginger. For Mum and Mahala, however, they hated it. Because they hate ginger. We went on the factory tour and got free taste testing at the end. Me and Dad finished off most of their ginger in the end. We bought lots of ginger products and I got a cup of ginger sorbet and ginger & cinnamon ice cream. I wish I got more, it was really good.

Over the road was a joint that roasted coffee beans. We stopped and had a coffee there, but I didn’t have a mochaccino. Mum reasoned that since I had ice cream, I didn’t need both. I was in such a state of disbelief that I stole a loyalty card and then lost it.

Next to the coffee roasting place was a factory that did things to macadamias and chocolate. They had free samples of both macadamias and chocolate, so I stood around the free sample counter for about 30 minutes just snacking away. I think the lady behind the counter was getting really annoyed at me, but I made her laugh somehow so I think I’m in her good books. It was Mum who eventually pulled me away from the samples in the end.

We drove over to Nambour after that to go meet “The Big Pineapple”. After looking at the pamphlet that they had issued, we decided to go and get one of the big sundaes they had advertised. On arrival, we noticed that there weren’t many people there, and that a lot, and I mean a lot, of carparks had been left vacant. They must have had at least 250 spaces with only about 13 of them occupied. This can mean two things. #1. It isn’t a very popular spot during this time of the year, or #2. It isn’t very popular at all anymore. As we got closer to the pineapple itself and the surrounding foyer and shops, it became apparent that the latter was most likely true.

The giftshop was huge. It was one of the biggest giftshops I had ever seen, except it was filled with bugger all stock that had been put in a corner. Continuing into the restaurant area, that was really big as well, but it had most of it sectioned off. The signs displaying the menu items had all faded and the giant displays above the counters were beginning to show there age. It was clear that this place hadn’t seen any influx of paying visitors in a very long time. All the staff had a look on their faces like the spirit of the place was dying and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. Every now and again I would whisper to Mum, “Just give them money. They need our support.” We ended up buying a banana split, because the sundae in the pamphlet hadn’t been made since the 80’s we were told. Here are some pictures of the banana split being slowly destroyed.



When we had finished our split. We all went out to the pineapple and climbed into it to see the displays. They were all covered in spider webs and some had fallen off and were hanging by a nail. The view from the top wasn’t anything to be excited about at all. But, it was an example of Australian tourist’s strange fetish for large fruit and animals, so we had to get a picture of it.


We left knowing that if we hadn’t gone then, we probably wouldn’t have gone next time. Because it would have been permanently closed.

Mum and Dad decided to go home along the coast road and we ended up at “Laguna Lookout”.


We witnessed another sunset, and then I noticed that there was a walking track that ended up in Hastings Street. Dad and I walked the track while Mahala and Mum drove back home. The walk was great, 1.3km from the top of a hill down to near sea level. No one else was on the track, and it showed off many houses and motels that had been built onto the side of the hill.

At the bottom, we started walking towards Hastings, but on the corner, there was a tree with about 20 bush turkeys in it. I was scared that one of the branches would snap, so I ran out from under it incase anything happened. We walked down to the end of Hastings before turning back and heading home. Near the end of Hastings, there was an Italian restaurant that had a candle that was made of other candles. If that doesn’t explain it, this picture should.


When starting the climb up the unit, you have the option of following he road or climbing up some stairs. I was dragged up the stairs by Dad and they went a lot higher than the road. It spat us out about half a kilometre from the unit, so we had to made a bit of a trek back down the hill until we ended up back at home.

We watched “Border Security” and “Police Beat” and then Mum went to bed. The rest of us stayed up and watched “Good Game” and “Usavich”. We were in bed by 10:00, but I once again read my book long into the night.

Tuesday, 13th July 2010:
I woke up at about 8:30, I think. All of this holidaying is starting to get to me. It’s too relaxing. Not that that’s a bad thing. I love a good holiday. The rest of them had already been up for over an hour, and Mum and Dad had already been on their walk. They had come home to have breakfast and collect anyone who was willing to come down the street with them. I decided not to because I wasn’t really in the mood. Also, did I mention that today is our last day in Noosa?

They pissed off down the street and I got my daily bowl of porridge. It was terrible as usual. No one in the entire house has gotten used to that microwave. I sat down and started watching GO!. I was half-way through watching “ET” when Dad rang and said that he wanted to go to the beach, so he wanted me to get all my stuff ready. In my own typical fashion, Dad came home and I hadn’t done anything.

Once at the beach, I was shivering even before I jumped in the water. Mum hadn’t come back to the house and had been sitting beside the beach looking out at the ocean during the time between Dad leaving to collect me, and arriving back at the sand. She said that while sitting there, she had gotten really quite hot, and she couldn’t understand how I was shivering while standing in the sun.

Against my will, I walked into the ocean. “Nature’s Toilet”, if you will, because the way I see it, nearly everything winds up in the damn thing anyway. The sea was rated to be 20°C max, and I’m not a regular beach goer, but I know that 20°C is not very warm. Freezing, in fact. Especially when the sun doesn’t seem to do anything, and the wind kicks up every now and again.

I was only in for about 15 minutes before I nearly shattered my teeth. It was so cold. I walked over to Mum and grabbed my towel, and that was the end of that. I stood in the sun to try and speed up the drying process, but it didn’t seem to do anything. I often wonder if the fact that I am so lean is why I usually can’t stay in an unheated pool for very long, but I won’t bore you with my own musings. You are here to read, and read you shall.

Dad stayed in for another half hour and Mahala didn’t go in at all except to get her feet wet. I was shivering away the entire time until they came back and gave cause for me to move. I was frozen stiff. I’m amazed I didn’t get a cold out of it actually. For lunch, I decided to go to “Burger Edge”. I suppose you could call them a competitor to “Grill’d”, so I really wanted to see if they could knock “Grill’d” off the top spot. I ordered and “Okka” which took 10 minutes to arrive. It took so long that I thought they were raising the cow and growing all the vegetables before even starting to cook. There were only 2 people working in a tiny space that should have been called a bathroom and not a kitchen. The fact that only 2 people were working there is probably why it took so long. They were the only cooks and checkout operators, and they had to handle an influx of people that during a quiet period was about 5 or 6 orders a minute.

Despite the time it took to enter my mouth, the end result was really good. In a competition between “Grill’d” and “Burger Edge”, “Grill’d” is still the clear winner. They both score points for look and taste, however, “Grill’d” scores extra points for store design and customer service. I am in no way saying that “Burger Edge’s” service was crap, it was just poorly managed. There should have been at least 4 staff working when there was only 2. Regarding design, “Burger Edge” had a boring paint scheme contrasting between green and orange. Whereas “Grill’d” has bloody doors stuck to the side of a wall! I can’t fault them for that. “Grill’d” was just aesthetically pleasing.

We headed back to the hill and stopped at “7/11”. I got a “Bubble ‘O’ Bill”, and I forgot how bad the nose tastes. It was probably better to just suck all the flavour out and then chuck it away. We also stopped at “Golden Breed” and Dad got a pair of trakkies, a t-shirt and 2 stickers. We started our climb, and once at the top, we all piled into the car as we were going to Noosa Civic, the only shopping centre in all of Noosa.

By the time we left the unit, it was already 3:00, so we had to be fast if we wanted to get back and be packed for the early morning start tomorrow. At Noosa Civic, Mahala noticed a “Dick Smith” and immediately wanted to go there. So when we got out of the car, we were split up into groups. The groups were, Mum & me, and Mahala & Dad. That’s a little different than usual now isn’t it? The reason being that I really wanted to go to the “Book City” that was inside the centre, while Dickies was over the road. So I tagged along with Mum as she had to do some banking, and all the banks were located in the centre.

At “Book City”, excuse me, “Collins Booksellers”, Death Note Vol. 9 & 10 were waiting inside for me. I bought them both, coming to a grand total of $26. I plan to read one tomorrow and another on Thursday. I also got another manga sampler. It was exactly the same as my other one, so I think I’ll use it to try and get other people to jump on the manga train.

EB Games was the next draw card, and I noticed that there was an interesting point-and-click adventure game by the name of “Machinarium”. I will have to look it up on the Internet when I get home.

We got home at about 5:00 and we immediately started to pack our bags. We kept packing until 8:30 and most things were in the car by that time. I forgot to leave my boradies out for tomorrow night at Moree. We watched Griff Rhys-Jones run around in Sydney, and then “QI” before going to sleep. It was about 10:00 by the time I got into bed, and I decided not to read my book. It was the first good nights sleep I’ve had for a very long time.

Wednesday, 14th July 2010:
Mum’s phone went ballistic at 5:00 this morning, and I was dragged out of bed and thrown into the car after I got dressed. No breakfast, no showers, nothing. For breakfast, we stopped at a servo that had a McDonald’s. I took advantage of the free Wi-Fi that they had and posted an update on my holiday blog, that’s right, the one that you’re reading right now. The only problem was that I only had 50MB of bandwidth to play with, and that can go surprisingly fast. I looked up a couple of items that had been in the back of my mind, and eventually was pressured into giving Mahala her laptop back. For breakfast, I had a croissant, and for those who remember my “God Croissant”, this one was nowhere near close to it. It was flat, and had a terrible cheese and some sort of filling that can best be described as “Mystery Meat”. Just thinking about it makes me gag.

We got on the road again at 9:25 and drove until 10:25, at which point we stopped at the “Australian Motorcycle Museum” and had a look around. It wasn’t as good as the motorcycle museum in Nabiac, but it did have a giant working motorbike outside and a Sinclair C5.



Those two items alone were enough to put the museum in my must-see list.

Back on the road at 11:30, we then stopped to have lunch at Toowoomba. That was going to be the 3rd and final “Big Dad’s” pie of the year. It was 12:25 when we stopped at the Tourist Information Centre, and ate our pies. I had the “Big Dad’s” special, the one with the egg in it, and I think I may have cried a little bit when I knew it would be my last. We finished our pies and were moving again by 1:10.

Not much happens when your on the open road, especially when your attention is directed at a book. I read Vol. 9, and started 10 even though I didn’t mean to. I didn’t end up finishing it though, because we arrived in Moree.

Dad filled up the car at a servo that only sold Diesel, Vortex 98 & E10 Unleaded. Dad wasn’t going to pay the price of the Vortex, which was about 135.9 I think, so he filled up on E10. Neither me or Dad knew if EcoTEC V6’s were able to handle E10, so he was really taking a gamble. Had I had the Internet, I would have done some research beforehand.

As like when we were traveling up to the Gold Coast, we are stopping at the “Dragon & Phoenix”. You know, the one with the artesian pool? Yeah. That one. We were put into room #2 this time, as the corner room, #6, was already occupied. Dad instantly got into his boardies and jumped into the pool. The rest of us were really tired and couldn’t be bothered to jump in, so we just sat around and watched T.V.

About 25 minutes after Dad hopped in, Mum decided to also jump in even though she had already said that she wasn’t going to. Mahala soon followed suite. I was lying on Mum and Dad’s bed reading, when Mum came back about 20 minutes later and asked me if I was going to hop in as well. I wasn’t really in the mood, and my boardies were buried in the boot, so I said no. Dad came back another 5 minutes later and asked me again. He kept asking me and I said no. It got to the point where I thought to myself, “If he asks one more time, I’ll go.” Surprising nobody, he asked again, and I finally said yes. In a belated manner of course.

Dad started pulling all the stuff out of the boot that was in the way of my bag, and once out, I had to pull almost everything out as my boardies were packed down the bottom. About 10 minutes after the bag was pulled out, it was shoved back in and I was on my way to the pool.

There isn’t much that I can say about the pool that I haven’t already mentioned. In fact, there isn’t anything I can same besides “same old”. The only interesting thing about the pool this time is the people. Or perhaps I should say “person”. There was a person that looked like a man, but wore a woman’s bathing & called themselves “Ma’am”. Notice how I’m not being gender specific. Not wanting to delve any further into the matter, I decided not to make any eye contact, and try to amuse myself another way. When I got out of the pool, I wanted to get into the shower as quickly as possible.

We watched “Spicks & Specks” and “The Gruen Transfer” before going to bed. Since I couldn’t read my book and my DS was locked in the car along with my earphones, I amused myself by playing with Mahala’s hand since she was on top of me. Hey! It’s not what you think. We were in bunks.

Thursday, 15th July 2010:
We woke up at 5:30 thanks once again to Mum’s phone. Had my bowl of porridge and piled into the car. I am finally able to stretch my legs now because I am back in the front seat. Yes! We drove from 7:25 when we finally left until about 9:30 when on the outskirts of Coonabarabran, we found a V8 Supercars promotional truck parked on the side of the Newell.


We stopped at the Coonabarabran Information Centre, and asked about a café Mum and Dad had heard about a couple of years ago on the radio called, the “Woop Woop Café”. It must have been a long time since it was last open, because the lady I asked and another lady in the back room who heard my question, both started laughing. Apparently it hasn’t been open for many many many many many many many years.

Upon leaving the centre, the lady I asked came out the door just as I was going to hop back in the car. She asked if we were going to go through Gilgandra. I said yes, and she presented a large bag that was filled with pamphlets for a particular area of NSW. She asked if we could deliver them to the Gilgandra Info Centre. I saw no problem with that, so I accepted, much to the surprise of everybody else who wondered what the hell had happened. I explained the situation and we made plans to stop at Gilgandra. We left Coonabarabran at 10:15.

Upon arriving at Gilgandra, the parcel was exchanged for a few kind words and then we were back on the road again and heading towards Dubbo for lunch. Mum reckons that I should have asked for 20 bucks or a lollipop, and now that I think about it, I probably should have.

At Dubbo, we stopped at the sandwich shop, the same shop where we got our sandwiches on the way up. We then drove over to the footy oval, the one over the road from where that guy had the amusing signs stuck either side of his driveway. We ran into a really mangy looking dog. All the hair on it’s back had fallen off and it was shivering like I was in Noosa. After we had finished all of our lunches (I also finished off Mum’s), Mum threw a piece of bread for the dog to eat. It sniffed it, and walked away. Maybe it’s a con-artist dog and it’s just wearing a costume or some sort of makeup. Wondering the streets of Dubbo scamming tourists of their food. We left Dubbo at 12:45.

We got to West Wyalong at 3:55 after a long time of terrible radio and dead laptop batteries. We have been placed into #4, the same room as on the way up. We unpacked only what we needed and headed down the street to have a look. Mum posted a letter, and we then went to “Thom, Dick & Harry’s” to have a coffee. And a mochaccino, of course. After that, we went for a bit more of a look, but this was cut short because of Mum’s bowel movements. Not knowing where the public toilets were located and apparently not having the time, we had to drive all the way back to our room. Mum was screaming all the way back and threatening to do it in the car if Dad didn’t drive faster, but we were going at the speed limit, and we couldn’t go any faster. By the time we got back, Mum had gone from a scream to a low rumble, to a high pitch shrill and back to a scream again. She was jiggling the car around and pulling on Dad’s seat. The rest of us were just sitting in the car laughing at Mum’s excretionary plight. We gave her the key to her and watched her run inside. She opened the door really quickly, it must have been the desperation of the moment.

We watched “Grand Designs Revisited”, “Catalyst” and “Miracles” before the thought of going to bed entertained the mind. Not my mind, Dad’s. The lights were turned out at 9:30, but I played Apollo Justice until about 11:00.

Friday, 16th July 2010:
The alarm went off at 6:00, but I didn’t get out of bed until 6:30. I had my bowl of porridge and I was pleasantly surprised that it was probably the first decent bowl of the whole trip. I had a shower and got dressed and we left West Wyalong at 8:05, and started the last leg of the journey.

The radio is unbearably loud. According to the little LCD on the main unit, it’s one bar off being max. I think I’ll screw with the balance. There. Much better. Oh… wait, he’s moved it back. Humph… Not happy Jan. Heard that Ky is currently 8°C at 10:00. Not looking forward to going back to weather like that at all.

Stopped at Tocumwal to have lunch at 11:30. I had two tiny little sausage rolls, Mum said that they were the biggest ones that they had. I also had a muesli bar, an apple and a cappuccino that was made with soy milk. I hated it so much, that I ended up tipping the rest out. Before heading off, me and Mahala went to the toilet. On the way, I showed my respect for green electricity boxes, and Mahala kissed a big fibreglass fish.



It was 12:40 when we got back on the road.

Mum isn’t very happy about crossing the border and coming back into Victoria. She doesn’t want the holiday to end. We are about an hour and a half away from home, and Mum doesn’t want to face such ghastly weather.

We passed “The Big Strawberry”, and Mahala really wanted to stop and eat as many strawberries as possible. Mum said that we’ll have to stop another day, so to keep it in mind for a day when we aren’t doing anything. Mahala says that Dad won’t drive us anywhere unless he wants to go. I said that when that day comes, it’ll be raining and miserable.

We’re starting to pass corners, intersections & landmarks that we all recognize, and Mum is getting increasingly shitty. 14 kilometres from Kyabram and everyone is groaning, as the closer we get, the closer the end of our holiday nears. I don’t really mind at all. The only reason I’m groaning is that I need to go to the toilet again.

It was 1:50 when we drove into Ky, and that signals the end of our trip, and the end of this blog. Thankyou for reading. I have to unpack now.


As promised at the start of the post, I said I was going to end with a bang. And here it is.

I'm Sitting At Macca's (A.K.A. Third Post)

As the title to this post hints at, I am sitting in front of Ronald McDonald himself as I type this up. Since I am on McDonald's free Wi-Fi thing, I do not have the bandwidth or patience to upload the pictures. I am also a few days behind, so this will be a very boring post with absolutely no eye-candy at all.

Edit: Please forget everything about there being no pictures, because they're here now. It seems that they were held up in traffic or something.

Monday, 5th July 2010:
I woke up at 8:00 or something like that, I can’t really remember. No matter though because we all know that the time that I wake up is completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I had a shower and then Dad and I went about going to the Dick Johnson Racing workshop. After turning off at exit 38 of the Pacific Motorway, we headed towards Jacobs Well. There was a turn-off on the way to Jacobs Well that you had to take in order to arrive at your destination. The direction card that we had said that it was clearly signposted, but we almost missed the sign. It was about a metre high and two metres wide, I wouldn’t call it “clearly” signposted.

Inside the workshop itself, there wasn’t that much to look at. The cars, drivers and mechanics were all on their way to Townsville for their next race. The tour was presented by a guy that rambled on about every aspect of V8 Supercars and the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. He knew everything that there was to know, from the different roll bar forces used in every race, to the crankshaft ratios. All this coming from a guy that works in the gift shop. He must keep his ear to the ground everytime that the team works on the cars.

In the gift shop, there was a podium with a rather large rock on it. Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of the Australian Touring Car Championship should know about this rock. For those who are struggling a bit as to what I am talking about, think about this: Dick Johnson + Rock = Bathurst history…… Fine. If you can’t get it, then I’ll spell it out for you. With pictures!:


On the side of the podium, it had a sign on it that said the rock had been valued for $1,000,000.

After the workshop tour was finished we headed off to the Holden Driving Experience to see the museum there. During the drive over, a friend sent me a message, and since I didn’t feel like replying to that message, I just rang him instead. The call lasted nearly 40 minutes, and I learnt about the many happenings of the last week of school. Including, but not limited to, Mr. Lane setting his shoe on fire and another friend using a fire extinguisher to blast it out. Even though I hear that there was a perfectly good fire blanket right next to him.

While I was flapping my mouth flaps, we arrived at the Holden joint. Dad told me to stay outside while I was making a rather loud nuisance of myself. He went inside to buy the tickets, only to come back out about 15 minutes later and announce that the museum closed 5 years ago. With those plans surprisingly thrown out the window, we headed towards Jacobs Well for lunch.

Jacobs Well is a sleepy, wait… let me think of a better word… okay got it, dormant town that is perfect for anyone looking for an extremely relaxing holiday. But just a word of warning, you really need a boat. As these pictures will gladly show your eyes, but remember, you must ask nicely:



After lunch, we made tracks for home. And by home, I mean Robina. The growing feeling of happiness in my tummy may not have been palpable, but boy did it taste good. “Anime Shuuken”, here we come! By the time we got there, it was 3:40, or something like that. Who cares about the time, I might be a couple of metres away from the greatest shop I have ever been to. Whilst finding a park in the parking lot, I looked at the door of the shop. It was closed and there wasn’t a sign out the front. “O.K.”, I thought, “Maybe they don’t have a sign and they don’t like to keep the door open.” I stepped out of the car and from there I tried to read the sign on the door. I was standing at a near 45° angle to the door, so I couldn’t see any staff in the shop if they were behind the counter which was further back into the shop. I thought I saw a “C” at the start of the sign on the door. “O.K.”, I thought. This time with a little more desperation added to my inner monologue’s tone. “Maybe it’s a Japanese sign, and the Japanese word for ‘Open’ starts with a character that resembles the English character ‘C’”. I ran over to the door, only to find that it was in fact an English sign that said, “Closed”. That once beautiful feeling inside of me instantly turned into a brick that sat ever so uncomfortably in my bowls. I tried to mask this by announcing that it was closed with a laugh, but boy was I pissed. On the door was an A4 piece of paper that said the shop would not be opening on Monday’s as of July. Today just so happened to be the first Monday of July. But no matter, they were very sorry for the inconvenience.

After that little downer, I needed a pick-me-up. Borders to the rescue! I bought two more Death Note’s volumes, those being 6 & 7. Once we had finished tea and watched “Good Game”, everyone hopped into bed. I decided to read Vol. 6, only to find that it was so good, that I also had to read Vol. 7. Something happened in that volume that I will not announce. Not even with a *Spoiler Alert*. I am doing this for you, the reader. For in the event that you get into the Death Note manga’s or Anime episodes, you won’t know this plot twist that could ruin the entire story for you. In the event that you do get into either of those mediums, please give me a bell so that I have someone to talk to about what just happened. It’s tearing apart my insides and I have to get it of my chest.

By the time I had finished both books, it was 11:45. That timeframe in my family is known as “Bloody Late”. I put my books away, turned off the light and closed my eyes. This is usually the part of the day where I write something like “goodnight world” or something like that. Except I didn’t fall into the land of dreams and video games that night. After reading about the aforementioned incident in volume 7, there were so many things going through my head that I couldn’t put them all to rest and get on with my sleeping. To try and calm my brain down, I played Apollo Justice until my eyes couldn’t stand it anymore. I turned off the system after checking the time once again.

Tuesday, 6th July 2010:
1:30, why must I be awake? Oh, wait. Why have I suddenly moved over to Tuesday? Ahhh… I get it. Its now really early in the morning. I am no longer writing about Monday. Very clever brian, you deserve a pat…… Okay, enough of that. Back to the story. I’m not entirely sure what time is was when I eventually went to sleep, but it was really early this morning.

This morning, I went down to “Best Computers” to update this thing that you’re reading. “This thing” being my blog. I was down there for nearly 2 hours, with the total Internet bill coming up to $7. Mahala tagged along for the first half-hour and took over the laptop when we arrived. She sat in front of the “top” looking at videos on YouTube and customizing her iGoogle page. A totally useless waste of time. Time that I could have spent reading my emails and looking up video games. You know, important stuff.

I told her that she could stay on until Dad arrived, so I had to sit next to her and watch. There wasn’t much to the shop at all, so I didn’t have anything of great interest to look at. There was a business card and a price list, they both amused me for about a minute each before they were folded up and put in my wallet. That being the awesome one that I got from “That Shop”. The one with L on it. Once Dad arrived, Mahala was reluctant to get off, but my knowledge of Mac keyboard commands soon fixed that. With her out of the picture, I could finally get down to business.

I went to the Madman Entertainment website and the Angus and Robertson website to get to the bottom of this elusive $78 book. If anyone wants to look it up, the ISBN number is 9781421518831. On the Madman website, the book had an online price of $27.95. On the A&R website, the book had an online price of $23.95, not $78 like in the shop. I wrote both figures down with the intent of having a word with the staff at Pacific Fair.

I also went to www.thinkwithportals.com to see if the site had changed at all after E3. Imagine my surprise when I found that the entire site had morphed to include videos and wallpapers instead of a simple logo and a link to the “Game Informer” website. You should probably go there if you’re a gamer. Even if you’re not, you’ll still experience what most people believe to be the sequel to the best game of all time.

After finalizing the pictures and publishing my latest post, I left knowing that the Internet would never be the same. For lunch, we had sandwiches again. The same old thing for another day, except today, we have new meat. Mum went down to the butcher’s and got really thick ham off the bone. It was a rather pleasant touch to a rather unpleasant sandwich.

We went to Miami to look at a little street of shops that we always drive past during our treks from Burleigh to Robina or Pacific Fair or Broadbeach. There was a bookshop and a record shop that both me and Dad took an immediate interest to. After seeing nothing at either of them, we went to Burleigh West. I was told a couple of days ago by Mum and Mahala that “Jay Jays” had a pile of t-shirts for $5 each. I got stuck with Mahala when we got there, and she instantly wanted to go to “Dick Smith” to look for some cheap earphones. I agreed and I was very happy that I did.

Standing to the side of the shop, was a small glossy black monolith. It was attached to a T.V. that was turned on, but was receiving no signal. After inspecting the monolith, I noticed a small silver circle on the front. I touched the circle, and I heard fans start up, and motors begin to turn. The T.V. suddenly flashed white and a giant 3D sphere moved across the display and turned to reveal that it had an “X” carved out of it. The monolith turned out to be the brand new XBOX 360 S. And let me tell you, it is one sexy machine.

After that, we went to “Jay Jays” to find these $5 t-shirts. They were all in neat little piles under a table. I found 3 shirts that were in my size, and within the ranges of my t-shirt guidelines. Those being: Obscure, Pop Culture, Humour, Video Games, and Colour. I found a “Pac-Man” shirt, a “Galaga” shirt, and a “Transformers” shirt. I was very happy indeed. Mahala got a purple singlet, and the total price came to $20. She had received some sort of loyalty card when she purchased something at an earlier date. The card entitles the holder to a $10 dollar gift card when they have collected 5 stickers. To receive a single sticker, they have to have spent $20 dollars or more in a single transaction. So in the end, the holder of the card has to spend $100 to get a $10 gift card. I don’t think that’s much of a deal at all.

We got home, watched Griff Rhys-Jones gallivant around Rome, and laughed along with Stephen Fry on “QI”. Or at least I tried to do the latter. Mahala stayed up and watched it with me, and fiddled and fidgeted the entire time it was on. I couldn’t turn the T.V. up because Mum and Dad had already gone to bed, so I had to try and get Mahala to shut up. After several attempts, and with no success, I had to put up with Mahala for the remainder of the show. After that, we went to bed.

Wednesday, 7th July 2010:
After going through the long-drawn-out-and-totally-useless-but-necessary process of waking up, I had breakfast and before I could have a shower, was shoved out the door and down to the beach. We were going to look at the rock pools down near the Burleigh hill, and boy was I excited. (I wish, I wish, I wish there was some way to write sarcasm into a sentence without directly referring to sarcasm. If anyone knows of a technique, please give me a bell, or leave a comment. Also, by the way, the last little bit of that sentence should be read as if said with massive sarcasm. Think of the word “sarcasm” in huge 50ft. high concrete letters.)*

We were walking over rocks for about 2 hours. I tried to entertain myself by following various people and by looking at whatever they were looking at. There were lots of hermit crabs and other little oddities, but on the whole, it was a very boring experience. Dad seemed to love it though, as he went around with a stick and pocked as much as he could.

Whilst looking at something, with Dad pocking away, Mum shifted her weight whilst standing on a rock and thought that she was going to fall off. Instinctively, she put her hands out to grab anything she could grab hold of, but since she was standing on top of a rock, she had nothing but thin air to grab at. That is, except for me. With her arms flailing wildly, she got a grip and my jeans and held tight. It doesn’t sound like any problem with this situation so far, until we get to the “meat” of the situation, if you will. It’s where she grabbed me that’s the problem with this picture. She grabbed me there. You know… there, there. Yeah… feeling slightly uncomfortable. Anyway, moving on.

Dad found an octopus that was hidden under a rock. He came over to us and said that we should all go over and see it. Reluctantly, like as if being forced against your will to see an old relative we hadn’t even met before, we all went over to see it. In the time that it had taken for Dad to alert us to the octopus’s presence, and subsequently drag us over, the tide had risen. We only had a couple of seconds between the tide flowing out and rushing back in again, to gain access to the rocks that got us over to the octopus. When Mum was sitting on the big rock everyone had to sit on, I overheard something about a big crab being there as well. When it was my turn, the tide had risen even more, and I really had to run to get to the rock on time. I peered into the water and saw the octopus eyes immediately. Okay. One down, one to go. I looked into the water again hoping to see the crab. With the water rising slowly and the waves coming in faster and harder, I really wanted to see the crab and get out. “Can you see him, can you see him?” Dad would ask every now and again. I had to keep replying by saying, “No, I can’t. I want to get off this rock.” In the end, with the tide laping at my feet, and the access rocks making only brief appearances that were few and far between, I decided to pull the pin. Dad asked me why I got off the rock, and I said that I couldn’t see the crab so I decided to miss out on seeing it. He replied by saying something like, “What crab?”
“The crab that was supposed to be next to the octopus.”
“There was no crab next to the octopus.”
“But I heard you say to Mum…”
“Did you see the octopus?”
“That. Yeah, I saw it instantly”
“But you said that you hadn’t seen it”
“I was looking for the crab.”
“Oh you wanker!”

With that ordeal over, I wanted to get home and have a shower. I felt dirty, my pants were wet, and I was sick of Dad terrorizing the marine life.

Once we got home, I jumped through the shower, had lunch, and got ready to go to Pacific Fair. Before going, I sorted out the pricing of the infamous $78 book, and put the bit of paper that I wrote the prices down on in my wallet. Time to go talk to the staff at Angus & Robertson.

We got there at a little past 1:30 and split into groups, me & Mahala, and Mum & Dad. Mahala wanted to go to “What’s New” to look at all the awesome swag that they had. I found some greatly detailed figurines over in the corner, the corner that also doubled as the adult corner. Whilst looking at various HALO characters, I would sneak in a quick glance to my right to see what I can legally look at and buy when I turn 18.

After that, straight to Angus & Robertson. I went to where the book was and picked it up. This time, however, it had a sticker on the back. “$29.99, RRP: $78.00”, is what the sticker had printed on it. I took the book over to the counter and the lady that I got was the same lady that started feeling the pages. She seemed to be delighted that I was back again to buy the book. She even told another shop assistant that was halfway across the shop and helping a customer, “Hey! That kid’s back!” I paid the money and got the book, end of story. There were no qualms over the price mix-up, nor any rants or raves about anything else. As soon as they saw me, I was like a long lost friend. It’s slightly concerning when I think about it.

When that had all finished and we were given farewells by the entire Angus & Robertson staff, we wandered aimlessly around Pacific Fair. I stopped at “QBD” The Bookshop!, and bought “Cyanide And Happiness: I’m Giving You The Finger” for $20. It is a collection of over-the-top-and-slightly-more-offensive-than-a-Shrek-movie comic strips. And I love it. Very funny indeed.

After tea, we watched “Spicks & Specks”, and “The Gruen Transfer” before going to bed. I read “Cyanide And Happiness” and started on “The BB Murder Cases”. Suffice to say, it was very late when the light was finally turned off.

*That entire field that referred to sarcasm and concrete letters was not meant to be sarcastic in any way. Sorry for any confusion**
**There was no sarcasm purposefully written nor intended to be interpreted when reading the last sentence above. Sorry for any confusion***
***Ditto.

Thursday, 8th July 2010:
I woke up after bugger all sleep. That book is really good. It doesn’t waste any time getting to the action, and I’m sure that it won’t give away any spoilers. There is not much to do today since it is our last full day in Burleigh, so we were told to pack up everything. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, we were all done by lunch time.

We went over the road and walked along the esplanade until we found a BBQ and had a barbie lunch. Me and Mahala started a hatred we shared for ibis. Those bloody things were everywhere, and they pissed us off. After lunch, we both walked up and down the esplanade and had some fun on the exercise machines that are dotted all over the place. Here are some mementos of the trip:






We also saw some police patrolling around in a gator.


Because of this seemingly simple act, I now have a deep and profound respect for the members of the Gold Coast police force.

We also tormented a children’s playground, leaving with looks of WTF? following us as we continued our walk.



A little after we got home, Dad made an appearance carrying what could only have come from “That Shop”. Upon further illegal inspection by me, it turned out to be L. I knew it, I’ll have to wait until Christmas before I can put him on my shelf, but at least I have him. I’ll have to send a message to the crew at “That Shop” when I unwrap him on Christmas day.

Before going to bed, we watched Miracles. I read more of my book and then, finally, it was beddy-byes.

Second Post!

Hello internet, how have you been? I've missed you soooooooooooooooooo much. It feels good to get my hands dirty again with your digital goodness. Anyway, this is what I've been up to:

Tuesday, 22nd June 2010:
Woke up a lot earlier than usual at 7:15. I had to get up that early to make it to a Skype call with some mates back at school. I’ll be doing the same tomorrow. No time for T.V. this morning. It’s cloudy and miserable, and, crap… it’s raining. There is a tenant in the above apartment that is moving furniture around on the floor, and it’s making a really deep rumble. Every time we hear it, we have to question whether it was thunder from the rain or him shifting chairs.

I had to be down at the computer shop by 10:00 to start a Skype call with some mates back at school, so there was no time for T.V. Okay, maybe just a little bit. Once down there, I logged onto Skype and started a blog for my online journal. That’s the one you’re looking at right now. An hour later, I left and went back to the apartment. Had lunch and embarked out to Pacific Fair. Pacific Fair was going to be the place where Mum and Dad would mail Mahala’s homework back to Mrs. Richardson, but when we got there, she for got to bring it. The time was 12:00 when Dad left to get the homework from the apartment. It was 1:45 when he returned. During this period, me, Mum and Mahala all sat down on the couches in front of the post office waiting for him to return. Mum reckons that he must have caught every red light on the way home, and on the way back.

Once we all split into groups, me and Dad mainly went to book shops. I bought Death Note Vol. 3 and also saw “Cyanide and Happiness” for $20 at QBD The Bookshop. Dad made a quick stop off at Kathmandu, which is in the same location as the Warner Bros. Store used to be. It was really depressing walking around in the skeleton of a shop I loved so much when I was a child. It was closed the last time we went there, but now that I’m older, I notice all of the art-deco features that have remained from the old shop. There is a giant movie theatre foyer that is above the main counter, and studio-style lights are everywhere. I’ll have to research it some more and find out what happened to it.

We met up with Mum and Mahala to have a coffee before we left. I had a mochaccino, and I really quite like them. On the way home, we passed Hooters. I tried my hardest to sneak a peek inside, but no one was in there. Damn, I’ll have to wait until we drive past again.

We had the same chicken for tea as we did the night before. Mahala actually ate all of hers tonight. It was a surprise I tell you. A surprise! I read all of the Death Note I had bought that day and fell asleep to the vision of Inspector Gadget. Gotta love Don Adams.

Wednesday, 23rd June 2010:
Woke up with the noise of Mahala lying in bed playing with a chest of draws. That really shits me. I was in a deep sleep. Jeez, oh well, I needed to get up early anyway. I had to be down at “Best Computers”, the local computer shop in Burleigh, for a Skype call to the lads back at school. Porridge for breakfast covered in cinnamon and sugar. Yet again, another nutritionist’s nightmare. I have taken what was a relatively healthy meal and dragged it down to the unhealthy food wasteland populated only by the brave and stupid. It probably isn’t that unhealthy, but I am in the mood to write something different.

I got down to the computer shop at 11:05. I was 5 minutes late but also 25 minutes early as the lesson started at 11:30. I updated some pictures on this blog and started the call. The call lasted roughly 30 minutes and all went well, I lost the connection a few times, but that was due to a dodgy Ethernet cable on my end. $5 later, I was back home, and have stayed there ever since.

On the lunch menu was a sandwich. Said sandwich was filled with nothing. Not even bread. You didn’t even get a plate to put your sandwich on. All you got was an order. An order that said “Go make yourself a sandwich”. The sandwich mentioned above is just a name. I had to put in the hard yards to turn the name into an actual sandwich! No matter though, because it resulted in a great sandwich. I’m quite pleased with myself. Could have done with some onion though.

That afternoon’s T.V. highlights included: “The Sleepover Club, The Nanny, Spliced, The Koala Bros., Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain, Hogan’s Heroes and probably some more that I can’t remember because they weren’t that great. There were 2 rainbow lorikeets that landed on the balcony rail while Mum and Dad were sitting outside. I snapped some pictures for your eyeballs to devour:



Not much happened that day, it was a rest day after all. Not that we were tired, far from it. So ummmm… I’ll do a fill in the blanks.

I fell asleep yesterday listening to an old album that my mom had. I really enjoyed it, though I had a weird dream. It was kind of like one of the old songs.

I've been workin' in Melbourne,
All the worthwhile day.
I've been workin' in Melbourne,
Just to pass the time away.
Don't you hear the whistle inserting?
Rise up so early in the morn.
Don't you hear Tom Hanks shouting
“Billy the dog, congratulated your horn? ”

Billy the dog, won't you congratulated,
Billy the dog, won't you congratulated,
Billy the dog, won't you congratulated your horn?
Billy the dog, won't you congratulated,
Billy the dog, won't you congratulated,
Billy the dog, won't you congratulated your horn?

Someone's in the bathroom with Billy the dog.
Someone's in the bathroom, I know.
Someone's in the bathroom with Billy the dog
Strumming on the old kazoo.

It was the weirdest dream I've had in a long time!

Before going to bed we watched “Spicks and Specks” & “The Gruen Transfer”. A decidedly entertaining way to end a boring day. I’m bored out of my brains, I’m tired (please disregard my previous statement in which I said that we weren’t tired) and sick of today. I’m going to bed, goodnight.

Thursday, 24th June 2010:
Woke up at 8:30. I tried to pick up the mood of yesterday by watching some Inspector Gadget, but after 1½ episodes, I was tired enough to go to sleep. Today we are going to Robina Town Centre. I’ve been waiting to go there ever since I discovered that it was the biggest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere or something like that. Don’t quote me on that though, because I’m not that sure that it true.

We didn’t leave for Robina until 10:45 because Mum and Dad, and admittedly me as well, had our heads stuck in the T.V., because of Julia Gillard’s take over as the prime minister. We all agreed that Julia would make a better prime minister than Krudd, but we didn’t like the idea of Wayne Swan being deputy prime minister.

Robina is big. Really big. Very big. There is probably another adjective I could use to describe the sheer size of that joint, but I do like to try and give of the impression that I take redundancy seriously. Hugely big. They have everything from an “Aldo” to a “Zelows”. And I have no idea what either shop is. They do have other meaningless shops like an “Apple” store and such. You know, the shops that you generally want to avoid.

The big draw for me, however, was “Borders” and “Grill’d”. Borders because of the huge amount of Manga that they carry in every store I’ve ever been to, and Grill’d because they made the best burgers I have ever had the pleasure to mash up into a watery mush and digest in my gastric system. (Believe me, it’s a good thing.)

At Borders, I purchased Death Note Vol. 4 & 5. I am really happy that I have bought two at the same time instead of just one. Now I can continue the story with little or no delay. Yay! At Grill’d, I had a “Summer Sunset” burger. It was pretty small and I swallowed it in a flash but it was delicious. I think I’ll get a “Queenslander” next time we go there.

After lunch we walked around the shops for a little bit longer. I found Apollo Justice for $12 at “GAME”! Everywhere else, they sell it for $70. The award for “Bargain of the Trip” has officially been handed to me. I sat up late into the night to finish the first case of this great game.

Today entry makes it seems like not much happened, but a lot did. I just have a severe case of writer’s block and I can’t think of anything interesting to write at all.

Friday, 25th June 2010:
Woke up when I heard the noise of Mahala fumbling around with her DVD player. Trying to put on “A New Hope”. I wish she would try to be a little bit quieter. We both decided that we didn’t want to get out of our beds, so we went about our separate activities. I played Apollo Justice, while she watched “A New Hope”.

The time eventually came to get out of bed and start a day of total clean up. It was a clean up day because Granddad and Vangie were coming up for the weekend. The kids are getting kicked out and had to clean up their room so that it could once again become a habitable environment.

Once that was all completed and we had had lunch, I set about reading Death Note Vol. 4 & 5. They are very good books, and I would recommend them to anyone. Just so long as they can cope with the reading style. That being from back to front, and right to left. But don’t worry, you still read from top to bottom.

Granddad and Vangie arrived at around 4:30 and from then onwards, I just sat around doing nothing. I had finished both of my books and was eagerly awaiting the next time I go to Robina or Pacific Fair, so that I could buy another one.

Me and Mahala were sleeping at Nan & Pa’s unit for the night, so after tea, we were escorted out of the building and taken to their unit. They sat up until about 10:20 watching St. Kilda play the Cats. The Saints won in the end, the Cats weren’t playing very well after half-time.

Very tired and worn-out, I hopped into bed and played Apollo Justice until about 10:45, when my eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore.

Saturday, 26th June 2010:
I tried my best to get a good sleep-in at Nan & Pa’s, but I ended up getting out of bed by 8:30. The beds there are soooooooooooo much better than back at Mum & Dad’s. Mahala had already gotten up and was watching a truly awful show that goes by the name of “Sumo Mouse”. The story is about a mouse that turns into a sumo wrestler when he puts on an old mouldy ancient wig. And his evil arch enemy is, you’ll never guess this, a CAT!!! Once that was done, “Ben 10: Alien Force” made an appearance and it was the best episode I have ever seen. It had a dude that made the best angry voice ever. I’m pretty sure that he also did the voice of an Army General in the Roswell episode of Futurama, and the guy in the Army that lead all of the War Games around Springfield in an episode of The Simpsons. He has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard.

We got to Mum & Dad’s at around 11:30. Dad formulated the idea of going to my aunty’s after lunch. 2 rounds of sandwiches later, we hit the road with me and Dad in the front, and Granddad and Vangie in the back. We stopped at Lennox Head for about 3 hours and had a really good catch-up. We went down to the surf club and had a coffee.


I had a mochaccino. I seem to have fallen in love with them ever since Pacific Fair. After leaving the surf club, we went for a walk around Lennox to inspect the damage. News buffs will probably remember that a tornado went through a small town in northern NSW. That small was called Lennox Head.



When it got cold we went back to her house and bid our farewells. We left by 5:00 and got home at around 6:15. For tea we had pasta with salad. I had two bits of garlic bread, and discovered that it hadn’t been through any type of abuse by heat at all. Mum was a bit embarrassed that she put uncooked garlic bread on the table, but two minutes later, there was hot steaming bread sitting in front of me.

After tea we watched “Doc Martin”. It has become some what of a family tradition now. Mainly because all the other channels have shit on at the time he’s on. After that, me and Mahala had to quickly down a hot chocolate as we were being shoved out the door to get back to Nan & Pa’s. I didn’t know Mum & Dad were that desperate to get rid of us. It was 10:20 before the thought of going to bed even entertained the mind. Another rollicking round of Apollo Justice sent me off to dreamland rather nicely.

Sunday, 27th June 2010:
Woke up really early, I believe the time was 7:15. I woke up because Mahala had started to watch a movie with her DVD player. The sound of her setting the god damn thing up and the noise that the movie makes, most of which was the Dolby Digital splash screen, was enough to get me awake. Knowing that I couldn’t get back to asleep, I started playing Apollo Justice. I finally decided to get out of bed by 8:00.

After having the usual for breakfast, we went down to Mum and Dad’s to see what was going to happen today. I had a shower and then found out that there was a market on over the road. We deduced that it would be a good idea to go over to the market and have a bit of a look around. It was a standard sort of market. Marketed as an arts and crafts market, this market wasn’t a very big market. The target market for this sort of market is the same market that the holiday market try’s to focus all of it’s marketing towards, tourists. The market was really quite a disappointment. There was nothing that caught my eye and there were no where near as many shops as the previous markets I’ve been to along the Burleigh esplanade.

After lunch, Dad said that he would take Granddad and Vangie up to his cousin’s place. I said that I would also come along. I don’t know why, I mean these sort of family outings are always boring. Maybe, somewhere in the back of my brain, there might have been some sort of hope that it would be fun. But just like most family orientated things on a holiday, I go along with it and it always turns out to be very boring. To try and lift the mood, on the trip over to Dad’s cousin’s place, I started a text chat with a mate. That proved useless however, since I was soon pressured into leaving the phone alone because it was making too much noise.

We went for a drive around in his BMW to look at the various sights and sounds around his house. I was sandwiched into the middle seat in the back, and it wasn’t fun. The seat was really hard and my ass went to sleep half-way through the drive. We drove past a giant housing development by the name of Sanctuary Cove. I’ll probably have to Google that joint, it’s huge.

Once back at Mum & Dad’s unit, we all walked down to the South Burleigh Surf Lifesavers Club for tea. We passed some fire twirlers on our way down, and they were waving around their fire like they were play toys. We missed most of the show because we were inside, but we did see the very end of it.

Because we had gone to the surf club, I missed out on watching Doctor Who. If anyone has seen it, don’t tell me anything about it because I am going to try and catch up on iView.

Once we had finished tea, we went for a walk back to Mum & Dad’s unit. The view of Surfers from the boardwalk was great, so I tried to snap some pictures. They weren’t to good as they were taken on a basic Kodak camera. Here are the best two:



A hot chocolate later, we were spat out of Mum & Dad’s unit and driven down to Nan & Pa’s. Their unit is on the side of a really steep hill, I believe that I already mentioned that earlier in my first post. This hill isn’t really that friendly to many automobiles, the least of which being late 90’s sedans. For those who are wondering what type of car we have, we own a 1998 VT Commodore Executive. And yes, it is a late 90’s sedan. With Mum at the wheel, we started the hill climb up to Nan & Pa’s. She decided to not pull into the driveway of Nan & Pa’s unit, but instead to drive into the driveway of the block of flats behind their unit, as they always go through the back door instead of the front. The driveway was really steep, much like the hill. Driving down this driveway reminded me of a 4WD demonstration I had been in at a motor show in Melbourne. Once we all got out of the car, Mum had to reverse up the driveway, and I swear that at one point, the left rear wheel wasn’t touching the ground.

Before going to bed, I had a rather long-winded talk with Mahala regarding school diaries and Year 7’s. Mainly focusing on trying to uncover why they don’t use them. The main reason I got from her was that they couldn’t be bothered. Grrrr… To think that they just throw a vital piece of school life into their pile of… I don’t know… something. It’s too late, I’m going to bed.

Monday, 28th June 2010:
The last night of sleeping at Nan & Pa’s is over. I didn’t want to get up early so I just stayed in bed and played Apollo Justice. I’m up to the second case, I’ve played it before but I’ve forgotten everything. I finally got up and was down at Mum & Dad’s by 10:00. The plan for the day was to have a roast lunch down on the shop on the corner. I think it was called “Burleigh Tropicana”. After that, we would all go to the Gold Coast Airport and farewell Granddad and Vangie. For lunch I had roast pork, and surprising no one I finished the whole thing and asked for more. If pork is on the menu, I’ll always go for it. I have it just for the crackle, you can’t get anything better. Well, maybe chocolate bavarian edges a little bit in front of crackle.

Dad noticed a black VE ute behind us and went over to snap some pics. It had 22” rims and it didn’t want to be identified as a Holden at, all because lion badges were replaced with Chev badges. I hate it when people do that.




Like any other airport, you have to go through rigorous security checks before you are allowed to go through to the departure lounges. I had to take of my belt and hand in my camera, .mp3 player, in-ear phones, sunnies and shoes to get through the gate. Dad went through a drug test, and Mum went through an explosives test. Both returned negative results, but I’m not so sure that’s right. Right after the security checks, there was a giant plastic frog. It was love at first sight as the following photo reveals.


We waved Granddad and Vangie goodbye and drove into Coolangatta, eyes open for “That Shop”. We had no idea that they had other shops until we looked closely at their business card. They also have another shop in Byron Bay, and while we would like to go there as well, we most likely won’t have the time. At the Coolangatta shop, there was more of the same. It was a much bigger shop than the one in Burleigh though, and they had lots of L plushies, which I am very happy about. I thought that the one at Burleigh was the only one that they had.

Also at Coolangatta, we went to various second-hand bookshops to look at their wide range of manga. To cut a long story short, they had bugger all. A quick shop at “Aldi” later and we were on our way home. We stopped off at Nan & Pa’s unit to collect our stuff as we hadn’t bothered to take it back in the morning. For tea, we had leftovers and then watched “Good Game” before going to sleep. Featuring in tonight’s dream is the Nintendo 3DS.

Tuesday, 29th June 2010:
(Please note that the following entry for the 29th of June 2010 will be unusually short. This is because it was a very boring day, and I didn’t care to remember much of it.) Woke up at… sometime… I can’t really remember. Today we are going to “Trade Secret”. It is an outlet shop that sells various brands at supposed low prices. We got out there at another time that I can’t remember, and Dad spotted a bike shop. So Mum & Mahala went to “Trade Secret”, while me & Dad went to the bike shop. Dad spotted a bike for around $1500. It was discounted and the RRP was $3000 or something, I can’t remember.

A guy in the bike shop had hooked his iPod up to a set of desktop speakers. He had an entirely Gorillaz playlist playing. That was probably the highlight of the day. That and watching “QI”.

At “Trade Secret” I found some shirts with various pop culture icons on them, I didn’t end up getting them.

For tea, we had a pie from Safeway. I was promised a Big Dad’s pie. I was annoyed. Mum & Dad called it a “Big Stooge’s” pie.

I screwed the vertical blinds in the unit.

We watched “QI” and then went to bed. I read the Whitepages before going to sleep, then played Apollo Justice.

Wednesday, 30th June 2010:
I woke up at another time that I can’t remember. Had a shower and went out to “Cult” to see if they were selling any of their stock. They closed down in 2007, but their HQ is still there. On arrival, the shop was shut and there was only “Billabong” stock inside. It seems that they have bought the building.

Got home and made a terrible sandwich. It fell to pieces. We decided to go to another “Trade Secret”, so after lunch we got ready to go out there. When Dad reversed the car out of the driveway, the battery light wouldn’t turn off, meaning that the alternator had screwed itself. Not wanting to risk the journey, Dad said that we weren’t going to go anywhere further than walking distance today. He pulled the alternator off while Mum watched a terrible adaptation of “Mansfield Park”.

Once Dad had finished dismantling the car, he noticed that me and Mahala were on the brink of turning into vegetables because we were so bored. In his desperation Dad suggested that we go for a walk to entertain us a bit. So me and Mahala went down to James St. to have a look around.

We stopped at “Lifeline” because Mahala was looking for ballerina statues. I also went and looked at their video games. All I found were really old PC games and games I’d never even knew about like “Ignition” and “Tomb Raider 4”. I didn’t even know there were 4 classic “Tomb Raider’s”. There was more of the same at the “Salvo’s Shop” and we were soon on our way to “That Shop”. We spent about 20 minutes there talking and having a good time with the girl that always works there. I asked her if she knew of any shops that sold old discontinued games, and she said that there was a place in Southport that she saw. She didn’t give me a name, but that just increases the enjoyment and satisfaction in finding it. Like finishing an adventure game without consulting GameFAQS. (My current adventure game belt includes, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, LOOM, the entire Humongous Entertainment collection & many more that I can’t think of.)

We then went down to “Cold Rock” to try and buy an ice cream with the money that Mum gave us before we left. She gave us both $5, but when we went down to the shop, a small cup cost $4.40. For a mix-in, the whole point of “Cold Rock”, it cost an extra .90¢. All up, $5.30 was required to get a small cup of ice cream with a mix-in. We didn’t have enough money to get one, so we thought “Screw you “Cold Rock”! Screw you and your excessively high prices for very small amounts of dairy.”

Down the street we went to try and find a Drumstick or other much larger and less expensive ice cream confection. We tried the tobacconists as they had a small fridge at the front of the counter. Their range of ice creams could best described as bugger all. They had nothing of interest at all there. So, we moved on. We found a big fridge that had a lot in it. Mahala got a Golden Gaytime, while I got a Peppermint Magnum.

To get back to our unit, we had to walk past the tobacconists. We both hid our ice creams as best we could because when we left the shop before, I could tell by the guy’s expression that he was pissed.

Once home, more of the same happened until tea time. Dad borrowed Nan & Pa’s car and went and bought a new alternator. And Mum finished watching her terrible DVD’s. I had a look through the Whitepages and found a shop in Robina that goes by the name of “Anime Shuuken”. I was really interested in it so I gave them a ring. The guy I got told me that they sell everything Japanese. From anime to manga, and merchandise to snacks & drinks. I’ll have to go there as soon as possible.

After tea, we watched “The New Inventors”, “Spicks And Specks” and “The Gruen Transfer”. If you can’t tell already, we are an ABC family. It is the channel that seems to be on the most. Before going to bed, I set the alarm on my DS to 7:00. I wanted to get up that early because Mum & Dad always go on walks and next morning I wanted to go. I played Apollo Justice before turning in.

Thursday, 1st July 2010:
I woke up at 7:00 on the dot. I think I might have to re-think this getting up early thing. I stayed in bed to see if Dad or Mum got up to get ready. I heard nothing for about half and hour, so I went back to sleep. I finally got up at 8:00 only to have Mum & Dad come through the front door at around 8:30. I didn’t really mind that much because it was a freezing cold morning and they both came back with bright red noses.

After breakfast, me and Mahala went for a walk down the street. I had to go down to “That Shop” again to ask the girl to be more specific about the location of this gaming shop. Since I am yet to find employment, the idea of a work roster didn’t cross my mind. When we got down there, we discovered that she doesn’t work on Thursdays. I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

Before leaving the unit, Dad told us of a bunch of radio and T.V. people that were setting up outside of “Mermaid”. He told us to head down there to have a look, and also he said that we might end up on the T.V. or radio or something. With the prospect of getting people’s attention without any effort, we set off to find future stardom. It turned out to be a community radio station broadcasting the results of a surfboarding contest. Oh well, maybe I’ll have to actually try to get into the public spotlight.

We stopped off at the newsagents to have a bit of a look, and to my surprise, the creepy porno guy was back flipping through this week’s latest editions. Needless to say, we weren’t in the shop for very long.

For lunch, we had more hand-made sandwiches. Today’s sandwich was much better than yesterday’s. It didn’t fall apart today and it actually tasted all right. We are going to try and do a repeat of yesterday’s planned activities today. Things like, going to the “Trade Secret” in Southport. We always go to that “Trade Secret” every time we come up here. We looked around there for about 2 hours, and in the process, I got two t-shirts. One with Superman on the front, the other with Batman on it. We all had a coffee at the big complex that is near “Trade Secret”. The coffee shop was called “Merlo”, and we were all served by the most awesome man in the coffee making business. He wore thick black rimmed glasses, had straightened hair and skinny jeans, and he would call everyone “dude” without fail. A quick mochaccino later and we were all on our way home.

We stopped at “Aldi” to get some things, and that was where we saw the gravy hedge. It was a normal, knee-high hedge that had a small packet of gravy stuck on the top of it. Me and Mahala both fell in-love with it instantly, and we’ll probably forget all about it in a day or two.

We watched “Grand Designs”, “Catalyst” and “Miracles” before going to bed. Yet again, the ABC governed another night. I am going to try and go for a walk tomorrow, and Dad has told me to set my alarm for 6:45. Mum said that I’ll have to put on my trackie’s since the mornings are really cold. I told her that that was fine, except that my trackie’s are about 1500kms South of my current position. But you know, that’s just a minor technicality.

Friday, 2nd July 2010:
Woke up at 6:30. Why did I have to wake up that early!?! It was probably because Mahala went to the toilet and was tossing and turning for about half an hour after that. My alarm went off at 6:45, but that didn’t make me get out of bed. I finally got up at 7:00 and me and Dad left on a walk at 7:10. We walked from our unit up to the North Burleigh Surf Club, and then back down to Nook’s coffee shop at the bottom of the beach. I had a mochaccino since it has now become my standard drink. It used to be iced coffees, but mochaccinos were the first to step in as ice was loosing it’s flair.

Today, the main activity is “Harbour Town”. An outlet shop shopping centre. Nan is coming with us today as well. We left at 9:30, so I had no time to go down to “That Shop” and ask the girl where that gaming place in Southport was. We arrived at around 10:30 and we immediately split up into groups. It was me & Dad, and Mum, Mahala & Nan. For nearly 5 and a half hours, we walked around looking at all the shops. I am going to officially christen today as, “The MOST boring day of this trip so far.” I did end up with a pair of new school shoes, but that didn’t help make the day any better. Apart from the shoes, there were two highlights of the day. One was a “Cherry Coke” spider, that was pretty awful anyway. The other was going home. While there, absolutely nothing interested me at all. Except for a couple of girls of course.

We got home at 5:45 and Mahala & Mum both went about showing off their swag. I was in a deeply shitty mood for the rest of the night, although I tried my hardest to bring some humour to anything. Terry Jones was back on the ABC tonight, following his atlas of roads that don’t exist or something. I zoned out half-way through, and I didn’t think it was that interesting anyway. After Terry, Miss Marple made an appearance on the ABC. After playing the entire Ace Attorney series, and getting into Death Note & L, I fell in love with the Miss Marple series instantly. I love all of this crime detectivey stuff. Especially Miss Marple since she can solve crimes and be an old lady at the same time.

After all that finished, I hopped into bed. Everyone else had already gotten into bed since they didn’t think much of Marple. I sorted myself out and I was in bed by 11:15. I didn’t bother setting my alarm because I was feeling really tired. The walks will have to wait.

Saturday, 3rd July 2010:
I woke up at 8:45. Just in time to catch the last of “My Gym Partner’s A Monkey”. I wish I was up earlier to watch the entire episode. I love that show. Today I am going to go down to the computer shop, “Best Computers” and update this blog. I got ready and was all raring to go with Mahala’s laptop in hand, so Dad took me down to the shop. When we arrived, we found out that the shop is only open on weekdays.

We got back about 30 minutes after we left. Dad stopped by at the newsagents to by the paper, and at “Brumby’s Bakery” to get some bread. Today, we are going to go to Pacific Fair to see “Toy Story 3”. We had the choice of a 3D version, or a non-3D version. We chose the non-3D version because me and Mahala aren’t sold on the idea of 3D just yet. While at Pacific Fair, I was hoping to get some more Death Note or to buy one of the Death Note novels that I saw there last time. One of the novels was titled, “Death Note: Another Note, The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases” or something like that. I was really hoping to buy that book because it has been mentioned in the manga already, and it wouldn’t give away any spoilers. The book didn’t have a sticker on it, so I took it up to the counter and asked the lady to scan it. She scanned the book, and looked bewilderedly at the computer screen. She said that the book would cost $78!. I was really confused. I knew that the price can’t be right, and I’m pretty sure the lady thought that it was a bit rich for a book the size of a DVD case. She asked another lady if she thought it was right, and she reckoned that the book was part of a set. The other lady got all the backcatalogues out and tried to find the book and compare the price. She looked through “D” in manga. Except, the title doesn’t start with “D”, and it isn’t a manga. After being unsuccessful in her search, she started flicking through the book, feeling the pages, looking at the pictures. She concluded that it was worth $78 because, “It’s a very high quality book”. I was going to say that there was another book, “L: Change the World”, that was much bigger, had more pictures and graphics and had a larger and more detailed slip cover. That book cost $30, but I didn’t want to say anything. I’ll have to wait until I get back to “Borders”.

The movie started at 2:20 and finished at 4:23, or so it says on my ticket. I’m not a guy that likes to give away spoilers, so here’s the trailer:



After the movie finished, we stopped at “Choclicious” to have a coffee. I had a mochaccino, I bet you didn’t see that one coming. I also had a licorice log. It looked like a long thin turd, but it tasted delicious. I picked up a pamphlet for their membership card (V.I.C.: Very Important Chocoholic), and I think I might join if there are any around Melbourne. If anyone goes to Pacific Fair, they have to pay a visit to “Choclicious”.

On the way home, I accidentally reset the trip log in the car, much to the displeasure of Dad. We saw a Falcon GT and an FB stationwagon. The pictures were taken on Dad’s phone so they aren’t great, but they are still pretty good for a phone:



So far, I don’t think that this trip in particular will rate very highly on the chart of QLD trips. The weather hasn’t been that friendly at all, I’ve been in pants everyday of the trip and I’ve only worn a t-shirt once. All the other times, I’ve been wearing a long sleeve t-shirt underneath a normal t-shirt. I also think that we haven’t gone out that much. There have been too many days where we stay home. And when we do go out somewhere, we always go out after lunch, so we only have about 4 hours before we have to come back home again. We haven’t done that many exciting things either. So far, the most exciting was Robina. I don’t want to come back from a holiday saying that everything was mediocre except for a giant shopping centre. And the only reason it gets points is because it has a “Borders”. If it didn’t have one, I wouldn’t really like it. So what I can draw from that is that the highlight of the trip was a bookshop. There has been no character to this trip at all. Most of the time we are sitting around on our collective ass’s doing nothing. I miss the days where we came home absolutely buggered and our feet were killing us. They have been replaced with days where we come home and sit around until bed time. There hasn’t been any long winded talks about the day’s events, or anything special that we have taken from past events. Except for the gravy hedge of course.

After tea, the night was dominated by the ABC, blah blah blah… It was the same as last night, and the night before, and the night before, and the night before… et cetera, et cetera. Nothing much happened until bed time, and then it was goodnight world.

Sunday, 4th July 2010:
For some stupid reason, I woke up at 7:15 this morning. I’m not sure what it was that made me wake up. Maybe it was the promise of an exciting event, or maybe I was so bored that sleep was no longer interesting. What ever the reason, I eventually got out of bed at 7:40. This morning, the Gold Coast Marathon is going to be run. When I got out of bed, I thought that it would be fun to eat some breakfast and watch some idiots run past in chicken outfits, wedding dresses, Batman costumes and the like. Imagine my despair when I was told that all of those guys would most likely be running the shorter marathon. The marathon that doesn’t reach or spot in Burleigh.

I don’t think I have mentioned this before, but our block of units is on the corner of First Avenue and The Esplanade. If anyone wants to bother looking it up on Google Maps or Earth or something, be my guest, because I don’t have the time nor the internet to do that.

This morning, the T.V. was taken over by Mahala, and we were quickly watching every show on GO! The shows included, “Camp Lazlo”, “Shaggy And Scooby-Doo Get A Clue”, “Tom And Jerry Tales”, “The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy”, “Ben 10”, and “The Batman”. I love Sunday mornings.

While the marathon was still going, I took Mahala’s laptop outside to do some work on it. Well, when I say work, I mean play… video games. Anyway, the instant Mum saw me with the laptop, she told me to go back inside. Why did I have to go back inside? Because Mum believes that I was showing the whole world that there is a laptop in this apartment, and that it would make it a prime target for a burglar. I tried to stay outside because I wanted to play video games and watch the marathon at the same time, but Dad said that I should probably go inside. I could tell that he didn’t want to argue with Mum though.

There were only a very small selection of crazy people that ran past our unit in the marathon. There was a couple who ran in a tuxedo and wedding dress. There was a guy dressed up in a Superman suit who had an “M” on the front instead of an “S”. And there was also a guy from Taiwan, I think, who ran the whole thing backwards.

It was about 9:30 when the last runner past our place. There are lots of bottles of water all over the road that the runners threw aside during the race. I really want to drive along the gutters and burst all of the bottles.

It was 10:00 before I decided to have breakfast, but I was in a mood to go somewhere, so I suggested that we go down to the corner shop and a have their $6.50 breakfast. Mahala hadn’t had her breakfast either so she liked the idea. I had a shower and we walked down to the corner. When we got there, I ordered the “Big Brekky”. It had two eggs, two pieces of toast, a hash brown, a half-tomato & bacon. Mahala had had a Milo while I was in the shower, so she wasn’t all that hungry when she arrived. She ordered a single, poached egg and two pieces of white toast. She also ordered a juice called a “Leaping Frog”. It had apple, orange, pineapple and watermelon juices in it, or at least that is what she thinks. Even though it sounds giant, didn’t fill me up for long.

Today, we are going to go up to the Broadbeach market. We hope that it will be much better than the Burleigh market. We’ll have to wait and see… It was crap. Nothing to report at all, not very exciting, and I still have all of my money. We had about an hour to kill so we went for a walk around “Oasis” and the surrounding streets of Broadbeach.

We had to get back to the house by 1:30 to have lunch and allow time for Mum and Dad to get ready for “Mother Africa”. Pa had won two tickets to the show after going to see it and decided to give them to my parents. The show started at 5:15, but they had to be at the door by 3:30 for some stupid reason. While they were away, me and Mahala were to stay at the unit with Nan & Pa. The rest of the night was crap, except for the Big Dad’s pies that we had gotten for tea. We were really bored the entire time that we even resorted to throwing cushions across the lounge room.

We watched “Top Gear”, and “Doctor Who” after tea. “Top Gear” was good, although I hate what WIN has done with their scheduling. I don’t think a new episode of “Top Gear” has been shown since late last year. “Doctor Who” was one of the best episodes I have ever seen. *Spoiler Alert* I hope Amy comes back to life *Spoiler Alert*.

Mum and Dad came home at 8:30 and raved about the show. They believed that me and Mahala would have loved the show, but the promise of a Big Dad’s pie and “Doctor Who” was too much to sacrifice for a stage show. Dad told me that tomorrow me and him are going to go to Dick Johnson’s workshop for a second time. We went there 8 years ago when I was 8 years old. I still have the ticket floating around somewhere back at home. We are also going to go to “Holden – The Driving Centre”, it has been 8 years since we have been there as well. We were also going to try and go to a motorcycle museum out the road, but Dad thinks that we won’t have enough time to go to all of these places in a single day. He says that instead of going to it, we might call into Robina. Yay! There is a happy feeling inside me now.

While we were all sitting around the table, Mum asked us if there was anything else that we wanted to do. She said that we only have 2 days left in Burleigh. I said that there are lots of things that I want to do, but that there was not enough time to do it all. But when I think about it, I can’t actually think of anything good that we could do up here that we can’t do back in Victoria. Mahala can’t think of anything either except for going to “That Shop”. Mum can’t think of anything either. Mahala said that had Mum asked the question at the start of the trip, we would all have given her a tonne of answers. I don’t think that at all.

Everything that we have done on this trip, with the exception of a few small instances, we have been able to do anytime we liked down in Victoria. It’s quite a niggling feeling knowing that we have gone on a grand old trip and done exactly the same thing on a holiday as every other day back home.