Dracula Near The Sea

Hi!

Well, have survived yet another busybusy week - whew! Was pretty tired Saturday (went out for work-drinks after work on Friday until way past my bedtime) so didn't do much more than the usual chores. Well, didn't have any energy to do much at all actually, was pretty hot out, nearly 90 degrees, which made doing anything pretty hard. Ugh. Not humid, which was great, but hot.

But today, you all will be pleased to know - I took myself on a little adventure. A couple of friends from New Zealand (Rebecca and Pete and Bex's Mom) are here vacationing for the week down on the Gold Coast (just a quick summary of the Gold Coast - it's about 45mins south of Brisbane on a very pretty stretch of ocean. It's where all the theme parks are, including Warner Brothers Studios (like Universial studios in L.A.), and Sea World, and lots of cabaret-type dinner shows like Dracula's and Outback Spectacular, etc; it's also the place where big sporting events happen, like their Grand Prix motor racing, numerous surfing competitions (the Surf Lifesavers are a pretty proud group in Australia and for good reason, in fact, their surf clubs often have little restaurants (basic diner-type food with beer) and all the money you spend there goes to support them, because the Government sure doesn't), and triathlons; and it's also the home of more apartment buildings and hotels in one small space than I've ever seen outside of Aneheim. It's a busy, fun-oriented place). So I took myself down there to meet them, for the day, on the train. Pretty easy when the train goes direct, I imagine. I picked this weekend when Queensland Rail decided to do track maintenance on about 1/3 of that particular line between here and the Gold Coast. So, it's usually supposed to take just under an hour to get there from here, but with the track fun, it took an hour & 45. It also involved buses. But in saying how much of a pain it seemed, all in all, for a Sunday, it went reallyreally smoothly. The buses were there when we showed up, we didn't sit around, we left right away and when we got to the next train station (about half an hour away), we didn't wait more than 5-10 minutes for the train to appear. So, pain as it was, it was pretty efficient for a Sunday. So that in itself was it's own little adventure.

And once there, well, it was like we'd seen each other last week, not almost 2 years ago. It was really nice. The weather was a little overcast and cool, but lovely compared to Saturday here in Brissy. We had a wander through this little market (Sunday is usually market day for most towns), then some lunch, went for a windy walk along the beach, walked to this massive mall, walked back to their rental car and drove back to their little apartment (nice view of the sea and surrounding apartment buildings, which makes up most of the ocean-front Gold Coast) and had a glass of wine, chatted and basically spaced-out in front of the tv for a little bit while we recharged our batteries. They only arrived Saturday and are still on NZ time (3 hours ahead). Then, it was time for me to start my 2 hour trip home.... Went so quick! But was so great to see them. Now I have to really plan to go visit NZ at some point in the new year.....

And that was that! Am home now, obviously, just in time for the ARIA Awards - the Aussie version of the Grammy's. It's interesting because these bands are huge in many parts of the world, and I hear these songs on the radio all the time here, and here's this nice ceremony for it, that's not nearly as garish as the Grammy's. It's a bigbig deal here. I tell ya, Australia is happily doing their own thing down here and every now and then they pop up on the radar in the US, but really, it's pretty cool what they're up to and they seem pretty content, more or less, to keep it here, they don't seem to care if the rest of the world takes notice or not. But they sure like it when the world does notice!

Ok, now I'm rambling. Means I'm tired. So off I go to space out and watch the ARIA's, and man, compared to the Grammy's, it moves pretty fast - no long-winded, fake speeches, no hosts who think they're stand-up comedians, no goofy performance/dance/video interludes, or cheesy historical moments or silly interviews. It hits the ground running and doesn't mess around along the way. And the best part of it is - I don't know any of these bands (they have rap!)! Am learning new things!!!! Hooray! Right, rambling again.

Hope you all have a good week and here's to more adventures!!!?

BYE!
J!