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.
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