Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Mid afternoon on Monday 13th I flew to Brisbane for the Colorado Awards night - it was preceded by a couple of days of interesting training.

The flight itself was an eye-opener. As usual, Mr "I want to talk to you until you can hear no more" sat beside me. I heard all about his music tour and was brow beaten into agreeing to go online and listen to his new album! Im sure it was excellent, but after the first hour I went on to auto pilot and just mindlessly said a few appropriate words and nodded - must have been convincing and sounded sincere - all those years of training as a Mother paid off after all.

Arriving in Brisbane I jumped in a cab to take me to the hotel. It was a great room, but I was dumbfounded to see that there was one bed in there & I was sharing with a complete stranger. The stranger was fortunately very pleasant and female - PHEW!

Training and tour of Queen street - just work!

I got ready for the awards night and off we went - a big show business type night, but pretty clicky and unenjoyable. Its difficult when you come from Darwin as you dont know anyone else and have had no association other than a conference call with everyone. I made the effort, got dressed up and went with all the optimism I could muster for the occasion. I stayed for the arbitary length of time and quietly diappeared into the night, with aching feet, at the first available chance. Dont get me wrong - it was a night full of glitz and glamour, excellent food and free booze, but not that great when everyone else had their own teams with them and knew each other.

From there I was off to the Gold Coast.....

Merle and Steve picked me up from the hotel and we went straight home to catch up with 2 years of news and events. I spent 2 days working in Pacific Fair, which I dreaded, but as it turned out it was really enjoyable! Before work on the 2nd day I went for a walk along Surfers Paradise at an ungodly hour in the morning, but thoroughly enjoyed it.

The following day we went to Byron Bay - a beautiful bay, so picturesque and a great spot to cook up a feed on the barbie then relax. I did the usual tourist thing and bought my souveniers, took loads of pics and got sunburnt. Sometimes we never learn!!!
The following day we took a trip to Rainbow Bay (after a short trip to the beach with the dog) and then went to Coolangatta to see where Queensland borders New South wales - with a time difference of an hour at 2 sides of a street! We cooked breakfast on the BBQ, watched the whales & dolphins swimming free in the ocean and took in some of the most amazing sea views I have ever seen.

Thanks to Merle and Steve I had a fantastic couple of days and saw more of Australia than I could ever have hoped to see in such a short time.

Flying home I couldnt wait to see Mark and Molly - I really missed them the week I was away from Darwin - Oh to be home again!