Day 103 (Saturday 27th January 2007)

We sat down and worked out a few things we wanted to do whilst here at David and Wendy's and the rest of Queensland. David and Wendy generously handed us the keys to ute for the rest of our trip so we can now get on with selling 'Fran'...we're gonna' miss her!

We spent the afternoon loading the back of the ute with our gear and preparing 'Fran' for advertisement. It was a stinkingly hot day so we rewarded ourselves with a refreshing dip in the pool.

In the evening David and Wendy took us to the exclusive Morgans Seafood Restaurant Teppanyaki and Asian Grill at Scarborough Harbour, which David had to book a week in advance. They had been on about this place all week and it didn't take us long to find out why.

Our teppanyaki chef literally cooked up the food from our eight coarse meals right in front of us. First we had prawns. Not just the meat, the whole lot! The heads, complete with big black eyeballs and legs and claws, were left on the barbie a bit longer to really crisp up and then, once realising that the chef, David and wendy weren't joking about it, we popped them down.

Bit weird, bit crispy, but not distasteful. Next up we had salad and having explained to Marc that yes people sometimes eat salad on its own, we got down to the next coarse. We both had barramundi, Sarah's first time, which we thoroughly enjoyed. David and Wendy opted for a good old piece of steak, which looked equally good.

Coarse number four was the eagerly awaited Moreton Bay Bugs. Unfortunately for Marc, our chef had to go drizzling some nasty cheesy sauce on them at the last minute. Nevertheless, he swallowed them down and past that distinctive, foul smell and taste of the cows' terrible gift to this world, he could tell that they would normally be very good to eat. Sarah meanwhile was lapping it up and having only had her first ever prawn a month ago, was loving life in the seafood restaurant!

The scallops however was a very different proposition and even Marc had his doubts about this shellfish. The thought of anything chewy and rubbery gets Sarah reaching like marc on a boat, so fair play to her then for eating them all up. They were different, perhaps not something we'd ever order again, but just like prawn heads, not too distasteful.

Back to the healthy stuff and again everyone was explaing to Marc that sometimes people eat just vegetables too. Then came the fun bit... Christ knows what Marc's ever done to this guy, but he obvious didn't like the look of him. First we all had to catch an egg in our bowl as the chef lobbed it at us. Everyone caught it except for the cack-handed Wendy, redirecting it instead all over Marc.

This was tame in conparison to what he was about to get dealt out. There was some sort of purpose to the whole egg throwing thing it would seem, the chef cooking a little omelette to mix in with his fried rice. Then out of the blue he made Sarah get the camera out and point it at Marc. Suddenly he started chopping up his omelette and launching it all over the hapless Marc. Everyone found it hilarious, but there was more to come...

Once the fried rice was complete he served it into bowls and flicked them up into the air for people to catch. Having seen Wendy's earlier attempt, he took the safer option and just put it in her hands. Then he skipped Marc and went straight to sarah. Just as Marc wondered what the hell he had instore for him now, he gathered the rice in a nice little pile and instead of placing it in the bowl like he did for everyone else, he passed Marc the bowl and throw him the rice.

All the Hampshire cricket trials in the world couldn't teach him to catch a few hundred grains of rice, and as it hit the bowl, half of it went bouncing off to join egg and omelette all over his lap!

Once scrubbing himself off, Sarah gave up trying to explain to him that sometimes people eat just rice too without meat as it didn't appear to matter much, sitting there wearing most of it!

The meal finished with a lemon sorbet and Marc got the hell out before the chef found something else to throw at him! The evening was very good, unlike any other meal we've ever had and we thanked David and Wendy (Marc not so much so) for our wonderful experience.

We returned home to find Eola and Andy lying on their mattress on the living room floor under the air-con. It wasn't a surprise at all and as Marc tossed and turned all night long, he couldn't have got much more than 5-minutes sleep in this barmy heat!!

Day 104 (Sunday 28th January 2007)

It was part II of the boat trip, but after his hellish night's sleep, Marc decided to pass up on the offer and stay in bed. It probably proved to be a good decision, the water even choppier today. The current was pretty strong too and no one caught a thing...Sarah was most disappointed.

Marc drifted in and out of conciesnous for the rest of the day and Sarah joined Wendy to do the fortnightly shop...that was as exciting as it got!

That night the heat showed no signs of holding up and after tossing and turning for another painful few hours, Marc got out of bed and wandered outside for a lay-down. Then he came inside, woke Sarah up and forced her out of bed to put the air-con on for him in the living room (how the hell can she sleep???). He stayed up until gone 05:00!

He thought he'd make the most of it mind and tuned in to watch the live FA Cup fourth round match between his boys and Bolton in the middle of the night. They just won't be beaten at the Emirates and Kolo of all people popped up to save the day against our bogey team Bolton.

Sleep...must have sleep!!