June 18th - 20th. Mission Beach.
- From 6PM I am officially 23

The 18th, as some of you might be aware, was my birthday. Recently I always seem to be doing something unusual on the day itself, from clearing a muddy field of rotting rubbish (twice!) to throwing glowstick shapes to Robbie Williams at an adult disco whilst at Centre Parks, and this year continued the trend. The day itself was very brief this year, mostly because I refused to accept my last day in the banana factory as part of my birthday and so it only 'officially' started as I pulled away from Tully on the Greyhound a bit after 6PM. Birtheve as oppossed to day really.

It was only a twenty minute drive east to Mission Beach...but that was far enough to not be in Tully anymore so was good enough for me! Liz met me at the bus stop (she'd been off WWOOFing the last 2 weeks after being unable to find work in Tully) and the hostel, Absolute Backpackers, was less than 2 minutes up the road. The contrast to the Savoy was immediate - where are the printed and handwritten rule posters? What's up with that wall, its neither grey nor decaying?! Woah woah woah, what's the expression on those people's faces...don't help me I'll remember...its a...its a...a smile! Even disregarding the immediate past I expect I'd have like Absolute because it was a very friendly, happy, positive place...having such fresh Tully memories I liked it a lot! They even have you a REAL towel! Mercy!

Liz was kind enough to have some presents waiting for me, including many things high in sugar content, some chai, a bone necklace from Fiji and a new uke! Its purple. Woop! We went to an Italian place right next door to the hostel and got some really decent thin pizza which we took back to the hostel and ate along with some cheap but nor dirt cheap white wine. Food reluctantly finished Liz made a woeful attempt at subtly sneaking off and presently returned with a chocolate fudge birthday cake, candles and all. An adjacent table of random people were enlisted to sing happy birthday and then much, probably too much but whatever - I'll only be 23 once!, cake was eaten. Then the wine glasses were refilled. This was certainly a change from Tully! It was a really good evening and there could certainly have been worse starts to my 23rd year!

The following day was my only full one in Mission Beach and as such it was feverishly invested doing...well, not much actually. Cloths were washed. We went to the beach, which was astonishly beautiful, especially considering it was a hot and sunny day. We slowly walked up the beach until we arrived at North Mission Beach where we had a very brief look around (most places were closed owing to the weekend) and completed the beach stereotype with an ice-cream. And I had a banana milkshake, clearly it didn't take me long to forgive the bananas! This blog feels like its developing into a list of food...so I may as well add that Liz made banana (on) coconut milk pancakes in the morning, they went well with a cup of chai!

DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENT! The tide has come in so we have to walk back along the road. To add to the drama one of my flipflops went to heaven on the journey. It'd make an epic film, a 2-parter if not a trilogy.

Nope, not much noteworthy happened really, it was just a really relaxed 2 nights...with even more wine and cake on the 2nd! Maybe we'll go back someday...