Friday afternoon I went to the local chemist and had a sleep test questionnaire. They say I’m a high risk for sleep apnoea (I already knew this) and are going to test me in November by getting me to strap a machine to myself and let the sensors read my vitals overnight.
I went home and Catherine came over and we grabbed our suitcases and headed for the train. She was astonished at the price ($17 each) to go to the airport. We caught the train, changed at Eagle Junction and then hopped off at the Domestic Terminal. We booked in and got our plane. While flying Catherine suggested we get a drink. They have small sized bottles of wine on the plane so I pressed the hostess button. She came over and I asked for a drink. She said they would be up soon with the trolley. They brought the trolley up and asked what we’d like. We ordered two bottles each. They said we could only have one each at a time, but could pay for both and they would come back with the others afterwards. She said to push the button when we were ready for the other bottles. I was going to push it again and nearly did but didn’t ;) We drank our bottles and they brought the other ones which we had on the way back to Earth near Newcastle. My cousin and her boyfriend picked us up and we headed to their home. We sat up for a couple of hours talking and went to our room. We had a relaxing bath and it was off to bed around 1am. We woke early but got back to sleep for a bit.
Later that morning the visitors started arriving. After some time we had 40-50 relatives buzzing around us and eating the BBQ lunch. I was roped into a cricket match as the captain of a team. We didn’t bother much with keeping score and just had a fun time. I went to hit a ball which bounced over me, spun around, dropped the bat and landed smack bang on the ground on top of a bindi patch. They were stuck in my hands and leg which got scratched up and I had a pocketful as well. Catherine was having a lie down due to hayfever and I found her in the bedroom when the game had ended. Once most of the people had left we borrowed an old Festiva and drove into Newcastle to meet up with Chris and Jo and their daughter. I bought a couple of coffees at the Kotara Garden City shopping centre. Unfortunately (!) the cash register was broken so they had to give it to us free. Sweet! After a chat we jumped back in the car and drove home again. On the way I had passed a place I used to live in at Broadmeadow and showed Catherine. We got home and had another chat and drink then went to bed. Earlier in the day I had shown Catherine the YouTube page for Chris Crocker crying about Britney Spears and all the parodies of that recording. We had a fun time looking at that.
Sunday morning we got up and just relaxed, playing Pool and checking out the computer DVD burner which I didn’t have time to ascertain any issues. We had another BBQ lunch of the leftovers from the previous day and Jenny (my cousin) drove us back to the airport. We got our plane back and Catherine drove her car home to look after her animals. I drove over to pick up Sienna and we came back, tidied up the house and drove back to the airport to pick up my friend RuninDeer and her husband. We drove them back to my place and I cooked some pork and baked vegetables. We headed off to bed.
Monday morning we got up and had breakfast then drove down to the Gold Coast and stopped at the Hard Rock cafe so RuninDeer’s husband Don could buy some souvenirs. He collects Hard Rock cafe pins. We had lunch there and headed further south to the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary. We had a photo of us holding a koala taken then checked out the other animals and things around. Sienna had a photo of her holding a baby crocodile which I will upload to Flickr later. We saw koalas, dingoes, kangaroos, wedge tail eagles, giant crocodiles, wombats, etc. On the way out we bought some things since I paid with my credit card and that brand supplied me with a $5 food and drink voucher and a $5 souvenir voucher. We jumped in the car and RuninDeer & Don bought some honey from the local store and we drove home. On the way home we got caught in the storm and by the time we were about 10 mins from home we could hardly see 10 feet in front of the car. We parked the car and ran inside as fast as we could. I cooked up some spaghetti pasta for everyone for dinner and the guests fell asleep watching TV so I turned it off and put the dishes in the dishwasher and went to bed.
Yesterday we got up, had breakfast and I drove everyone to the Sunshine Coast. We first stopped in at The Big Pineapple at Nambour. We just got there in time to catch the little train around the plantation and stopped at the Koala Station to go feed the animals. Sienna fed the donkey, alpacas, cow and goats. We also saw a dog, some ducks, chickens, dingoes, koalas bellowing and pigs. We went back to the station and waited about 20 mins for the train which took us to the top again. We went inside and for lunch had icecream (oops hehe). I had a really big icecream parfait thing. It was half a pineapple with a little trench dug into it and topped with fruit salad and two big scoops of icecream as big as a fist, drenched in cream and chocolate topping. Yum! I ate all the top stuff and Don asked if I was going to eat the pineapple as well. I took that as a challenge and did so. They were surprised I could eat it. I said apparently I ate one the same size when I was about 8yo and was on a holiday up there with my parents. Sienna had a junior parfait with two scoops of icecream and cream and chocolate topping. How spoiled is she? hehe :) After that, we drove down the coast again to Opals Down Under. I bought Sienna a necklace with an S shape which has an opal imprinted on it. I bought Catherine an opal pendant surrounded by cubic zirconias (let’s hope she doesn’t read the blog hehe). I wish they had a photo of it on the website, but maybe I can get a photo of it myself. They had an outside room which had a floor covered in little stones and lots of smooth rocks and opals scattered around amongst them. Sienna got a small plastic tub for $5 and we went in there and found a bunch of stones. I will need to get a photo of that for Flickr as well. Shortly afterwards we went to Aussie World. We didn’t go on any rides but went into the souvenir stores to find some things for the guests. RuninDeer wanted an aboriginal doll for her sister but only one could be found and it is $150!! We headed home around 4pm after having a beer at the Ettamogah Pub. It took 2 hours due to traffic on the Gateway Motorway and we got caught in a bit of a storm again. Last night Catherine came over and I bought some pizzas from Dominos pizzas. We watched a couple of episodes of Fawlty Towers and Black Books and it was time for Catherine to go home as the guests were getting sleepy again.
This morning we had breakfast and I drove the guests to the airport where they caught a plane to Sydney. Sienna and I came back and then went to a local Smash Repairs shop to get a quote on the dent in my car. We came back and now am just waiting for a call from Sienna’s mum to take her home again then I’m off to Catherine’s for the night.
