Blogs from Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Geo: -28.1681, 153.535Yesterday was the first day of the Oceania Congress. While Fletcher went to the meeting I had a day to relax and do as much or as little as I wanted. After a good breakfast I read for a short time and then ventured out of the hotel and down the street. Griffith St is the main strip of Coolangatta/Tweed Heads so I walked the length, up and down, looking for interesting shops. There weren't many. I did find two second hand bookshops which were compulsory stops for browsing. In the second was a book by Isabel Allende which I hadn't read, 'Ripper', so I had to buy that. I then went down to the beach and had a short stroll along the sand. The Gold Coast' high rise loomed in the distance but ... read more

Monday - 19 November - I headed for the beach in Byron Bay to eat breakfast, the streets were stained burnt orange with millions of squashed beetles from the invasion, shop owners were scrubbing them off of everywhere! Once I had eaten my breakfast on the beach, I left on the bus from Byron Bay to Coolangatta, the Gold Coast, where i met up with my friend Rob who had been kind enough to let me stay at his apartment for a few days. We went for a drive from town and covered Tweed Heads, Tugun, Currumbin, Palm Beach, Broadbeach, Burleigh Heads, Mermaid Beach and Surfers Paradise, stopping at points of interest and look outs as well as quirky antique shops and for nibbles. I had my first taste of Cold Rock Ice cream, amazing thanks ... read more

Squires and Shorty woke us up getting ready for work at 6am, so we got up and had breakfast with them, then lounged around drinking as much water as possible to rid us of our headaches. Ellie noticed the tips of my hair had turned lime green! Probably from the chlorine in the Hot Tub last night. Ate left over BBQ food for breakfast then made an important phone call to Ant, my boyfriend back home. It’d had been about 10 weeks since we’d seen each other and the last few weeks it hadn’t been the same between us. I’m not going to go in to any more details, but we decided to finish the relationship. Spoke to Steph on the phone. We were missing her lots since she left us a few days ago. She ... read more

Squires’ boss had kindly agreed to let us borrow his 4x4 jeep for a few days while he was away on holiday for the weekend. Steph drove us to Surfers Paradise (about 45minutes away from Coolangatta) but the motorway signs were useless so it probably took us a lot longer. It felt like we were in the car for yonks and by the time we finally arrived we were all a bit drained. When we had left Pommie Palace it had been cloudy and raining, so we’d not bothered to pack our bikini’s, but just our luck, it was bright sunshine in Surfers. Surfers Paradise reminds me of somewhere like Miami, with pricey skyscraper hotels, plush shops and plenty of Silicone and Steroids. Grabbed a toasted sandwich for lunch at Charlies bar then hit the shops. ... read more

Checked out by 10am. The girls were really hungover so slept on the sofa’s in the Arts Factory common room while I pottered around reading and on the internet. It was a miserable day in Byron Bay - absolutely hammering it down with rain so I didn’t fancy walking in to town. A girl came round to clean the common room. She had a Hoover strapped to her back like a rucksack - what a great idea! I need one of these. I was just getting in to Chapter Two of a new book when Steph sat up and said “Oh My God. There’s our Camera Man”. I looked over just in time to see the back of Abnormal Norman disappear behind the Café counter. He was wearing the same bright blue t-shirt as the other ... read more