Day 96 Sunshine Coast

Today was great with Brad and Rosemaree offering to drive us up to the Sunshine Coast, as it was finally showing signs of brightening up :) On the way up, we went past the house park, where they take unwanted queenslander houses for people to come along, browse, pick one and simply pick up and transport to a new plot! We saw the famous Giant Pineapple, which wasn't actually that giant; Brad was also shocked that we actually get pineapple in English supermarkets that are not from a tin lol. We also saw Australia's most photographed pub Ettamogah Pub which is just simply bizarre! Looks like something out of a cartoon on boomerang channel! Going through Buderim, where Brad and Rosemaree used to live, we drove to Mooloolaba beach (that took a bit of practise saying and spelling). The sand was so golden and even softer than on the Gold Coast plus with fewer crowds. After a bit of window shopping and a visit to the loo-with-a-view (we thought Brad was being a bit uncharacteristic when he called it that but it actually says so on a sign!), we then headed up the mountains. On the way, I pointed out a shipwreck so was slightly embarassed to discover it was actually and island (called Old Woman Island)... awkward moment in car :P Rosemaree swapped seats with rachel, so she wouldn't get as car sick in the front seat. It was so funny, with Brad pointing out a ceiling strap for her to hold on to on the left and.... i thought he was going to offer his thigh up, which Rosemaree had been patting for her right hand but he just joked not to grab the handbrake. Even Rosemaree paused, not sure what he was going to say! Thankfully the drive wasn;'t too winding up to the ice box - which is what they nickname these Glasshouse Mountains, as they are 5-6oC cooler than all the cities.

The coolness wasn;t really a relief today and Brad tried once again to explain why Australia had been so soggy recently. 'Right, imagine this (a white plastic platter) is Australia and this is the Indian Ocean here and teh Pacific ocean here...' WHACK. Rosemaree had just slapped down a bag of King Prawns onto Australia and our giggling (we failed to transform a dozen prawns staring at us into the states of Australia in our lacking imaginations) kind of put an end to Brad's explanation. He was soon on to lesson two though, teaching us how to peel a prawn. Before this, the only prawns i had eaten were deep fried ones from Cosmo, where you can eat eveyrthing... well, you did not want to eat these prawns whole! Apparently, you snap the head off first and then the first few legs before you can peel the mid section coating off.A tough tug on the tail then pulls teh rest of teh 'skin' completely off... Brad then pointed out a different section that you could remove if you wanted. Of course i left it on, only to be told it was the prawn's 'poop track' and that if it was brown, then you probably wanted to remove it. Nice! Still, i took more from Brad's 'prawn pile', trying not to watch him stuff them all in... Rosemaree had noticed however and didn't like his answer that you had to do that for 'the full impact of flavour'!

We also tried some MOreton Bay Bug.. Now, i'm still not sure exactly what bug is.. all i know is it was huge and had a shell. Plus it tasted delicious! Now to go along with the oysters, Brad offered to share some of their favourite white wine. Just two sips later, Rachel's staring into space at 'blurry grass' and i#m feeling ridiculously giggly. The journery back down teh mountain doesn't help the light headedness, after we haven't drank for 15 weeks! So slightly tipsy at 2 in the afternoon, we wander around Montville, finding everything slightly funnier than it should be... :S Montville is a lovely little village, with an old fashioned confectionary shop, from which we picked all the sweets (or 'lollies' as they call them out here) that he didn't know the price of... before wandering up to the ice cream shop - undercharged and i've never seen such a huge scoop of 'crumbly violet crumble' and 'english toffee' :D On the way back, and feeling slightly more normal, Brad pointed out Tibrogargen Mountain, which looks like a gorilla - seriously, there are two gouges in the rock which look like eyes and a cave which appears like a mouth! After that, i fell asleep for teh remainder of the journey, apparently doing that head bobbing thing the whole way back to brisbane :/

It was a great day and despite the new homestay student lying to Rosemaree, claiming he couldn't tell the time when he was just treating her as if she were stupid. Rosemaree, after having 'beef' with Tom for a good 15 minutes, came and knocked on my door, behind which me and Rachel were sat shamelessly eavesdropping, she came and said 'God, i hope that didn't shock you! Did you hear much of that?' Erm, yes....Still dinner was really nice - the sweetest moment was when Rosemaree admitted she kept our thank you card from Coolangatta in her handbag and she pulled it out to read last week after a stressful day at work... Rosemaree's smile, just awwww!

Day 97 Beach Trip --> Retail Therapy

After such a sweet start to the day, with Rosemaree making me a cooked breakfast and Brad bringing through a hot chocolate complete with marshmallows, Rachel and I set off for teh beach, with our matching 'nappy sack' (freebies from EKKA) bags bulging with towel, book, mp3, drink, camera, sunnies and cardigan for the evening. What we should have packed was a poncho. Getting off at Roma Street to catch the train, it tipped down and the sky showed no sign of clearing so we decided to stay in the city for the day instead. For the first time since we arrived, we finally walked from Roma Street into the city, finally understanding the weird underground junction there... with only the minor mishap of avoiding a bin on fire!

Museum of Brisbane was first on our list. Everytime we wlak past it after uni, we want to go and so finally walked through the posh entry foyer... to find a Prejudice and Pride exhibition. Aka a Lesbian and gay exhibition. Oh My God... what strange displays... the only one meaning anything to us (aseverything else seemed to be in a different language and very definitely a different target audience) was a display of the most unusual condom wrappers... from the discrete durex to fluorescent green sachets with SAFE SEX in bubble writing; others sporting bananas wearing protection. Well, we left there after about 7 minutes, heading instead to the more familiar Queen Street Mall for some window shopping, where Rachel and I wouldn't be mistaken for a kinky couple! Window shopping turned into an intensive retail therapy session though, with my Birthday money buying 3 dresses and a green lacy top... i could justify it by saying that it was for my birthday, that i had only bought one other dress since i arrived out here and that i will buy no more clothes until after travelling but i know it was bad! However guilty i felt though, parading them around for Rosemaree to see made me feel better :) And teh dress with a zip down teh front got quite a reaction... i can wear it on the beach during teh day and simplu unzip the front to make it a raunchier outfit for the clubs :P :P better remember those durex ;D

We also visited the markets on southbank though another downpour sent us sheltering in the tourist information centre... so although i ended up with a delicious lemon and orange sorbet crush from the juice bar, all that trip really produced was a bag full of leaflets (don't call them pamphlets...pleeeease!) and brochures about Brisbane lol. Thankfully, the bag of brochures came in handy for Rachel, as she used it as a showercap, as we swam up King George Square. I was terrified that i was going to slip in my flipflops so crossed the long way round, edging my way up clutching on to the handrail for dear life... returned to everton park just slightly soaked... much to Brad's amusement when he asked whether we had a good time at the beach :P

This evening, Rosemaree has been so chatty, saying just the right comments about our purchases and acting like Sharon Osbourne judging all the school choir acts on TV :) They've also decided that they're going to put the christmas tree up ridiculously early this year, so we can be involved with all the xmas celebrations and we;re going to have a fake xmas dinner before we go travelling. She also admitted that she's going to 'miss our giggling after november'... physical tears are going to happen at 63 forrest street come november 15th :'(

After dinner, there was even more beef with Tom, who knocked Rosemaree out of the way in the kitchen, left his chair out again (Darcy finally snapped..) and then refusing to put his plate in the dishwasher. I mean, how difficult is it to clear a plate and drop it in the rack??? The weirdest thing...? He turned up to dinner wearing pyjamas. Pyjamas that 6 year olds would wear, shirt and trousers with bears on. I feel so guilty that when we leave in november, they could get 3 students like Tom :(