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G'DAY MATE!!!
Well its been a while since the last blog, and we've done a fair bit. We've not really seen a lot, or done anything spectacular, but are main news is we've sold the van, and once again made a profit on it!!! how lucky are we!!! We decided to try and sell the van in brissy, instead of having to drive all the way back down to sydney for our flight out of OZ. we looked at internal flights from bris-vegas to sydney and they were 30 pounds each, so we thought "why waste a week travelling down by van, and it would cost 5 times that in petrol. So we put the van on the net before we left airlie beach, and within 5 hours of being on the net we had 7 emails from people wanting to view the van asap. We were so shocked, but we dicided to head back to brisbane asap to let people see the van and hopefully sell it.
We took a couple nights to travel back down the coast and we revisited Noosa heads, and this time the rain was no where to be seen, and we spent
a lovely day on the beach there. That night was good fun, and after talking to a couple of canadians, we decided to go out, and have a few beers. we ended up in the local backpackers bar, getting really drunk with some really funny ozzy guys. There was a man in the borat swimsuit, who was a legend, really entertaining!!! We had a scream and woke up with huge hangovers.
We arrived in brisbane on sunday afternoon, and the first people came to see the van. A couple of french girls who where planning to travel the whole of Oz in one year. They fell in love with the van and said "we'll have it". We were so excited, and arranged to hand the van over on fri (this gave us a week with the van to see some more around brisbane). It was great to sell the van so easily, with no panic etc, and we sold it for $5000 and only bought it for $4500. great hey. The sale was a little premature for us, but as we said, its nice to have sold it early, rather than be panicing a few days before we leave
oz.
So we where then back in the warm bosom of Martin and Dawn. It felt lovely to be back with them and once again, they've been so welcoming and we all get on really well, so its good fun. We spent the first week just shopping etc whilst we still had the van, and one day we managed to get over to surfers paradise for the day. the rain had spoilt our first experience there, but this time we spent a great day on the beach and i got to go surfing again, which iv missed a lot. On friday we were due to hand the van over, but we'd booked tickets to see the stereophonics that night in brisbane city center, so we made up some excuse to the girls, so that we could have the van to sleep in on friday night after the concert, and hand it over sat morning, so thats what happened.
So friday night we went to see the STEREOPHONICS, a long time favourite of mine. We drove into the city and spent one hour trying to find the venue. It was called 'the arena' so we expecting a huge arena
like the birmingham NEC, but there was no stadium in sight. We asked a few people if the knew where it was a they informed us it was a tiny place and we finally found it. The gig was in a tiny venue that held about 800 people. It was amazing, the stereophonics have played gigs to 1000's, sold out 20,000 seater stadiums and we were about to see them play to 800 people!!!!! How great to see them so close up and in a tiny personal venue. it was like playing in the coperage!!! the vibes have played bigger venues!!!!!
so we found a spot for the van right next to the venue, and that was our sleeping place for the night!, and we went out to a few pubs and had a meal. It was funny, because we decided to go into one pub that looked busy and nice, and it wasn't until i got to the bar and read the board saying 'GAY HOUR' instead of happy hour, that i turned around to see nothing but gay couples sat around!! We were wetting ourselves but decided to stay for a drink and ended up sitting down
with an older gay couple who were dead nice and we had a laugh. We got to the venue at 7.30 for an 8 o'clock open, and joined the small que, but were still stood there at 9.15, due to 'technical difficulties'. But it wasn't too bad, as we had made friends with 2 other couples and we got the girls to go to the off-licence and we all stood chatting and drinking whilst we waited. We got inside and were still overwelmed at how small the place was, and we watched the support act, who were ok. Then the stereophonic played for about 1.5 hours and they were amazing. Totally unbelievable to watch them in this small a venue, a real once in a life time oportunity. We were both quite drunk and i was dripping with sweat. They played all of the old classics and played nearly the whole of the 'word gets around' album. i know this means nothing to most, but some of you will know what we're on about. On the last song 'dakota' i thought i'd try and croud surf!! No one had been, but i thought i'd be the first. I got lifted
up, only to be dropped onto the floor from overhead hieght after 2 seconds. I was drunk so i thought i'd try again, and the results were the same, ha ha. Soph was crying with laughter, and i was left embarrassed and covered in beer, wine and god knows what else, but i was unhurt!!!!!! good times.
So sat morn, we handed over the van, with a hangover, and off the girls went. We've since spent time and mart and dawns just chilling, doing the gardening, swimming in the pool, watching DVD's, eating chocolate, ha ha. We went to a beach side town called southport with mart and dawn and patrick, and had a nice day on the beach, and had some fish and chips!!! its been a while since we had that!!! We've been on the ride on lawn mower and it took a whole day just to cut the grass here, as they have an acre of land, its nuts.
So thats about it for now. we fly internally to sydney on 22nd, and then have a week in sydney with darren and kate before we head of to Fiji. Its only 4 weeks until we
meet up with the inlaws and the irelands in hawaii, and we're both very excited about that. I can't wait to see my mother in law in a bikini!!!!!!!! i hope its a thong type!!!!!!!ha ha, just kidding sandi.
love to you all, look forward to some emails, love mart and soph xxxxxx
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mum
non-member comment
youve been busy
Hi ya, glad to read the latest blog and i guessed you must have been to busy doing stuff to update before now. Still all is going brilliantly for you including selling the van, you must have been sad to see it go all the same. Only 8 days till you move on to Sydney so enjoy the time you now have left with Martin and Dawn and ofcourse little Paddy. The band was good, and i can tell it was another highlight to your around the world adventures. Has Martin tried to talk you into working with him at all in the future? You both seem very fond of them which is nice. Youll always be able to return there on holidays in the future too no doubt. That will have to work both ways too as when they visit England they will want to see you as well as their family in Plymouth. Still got that awfull beard Martin i dont know how Sophie has put up with it for so long. She needs a medal, no one would blame her if she demanded compensation of some sort, having to put up with that for so long. Hope Martin is still growing his beard too you must take a photo and show us all. All that for a free meal out you two are well wierd. You will be growing finger nails next to see who gets the longest. All is well home here, Take care always, speak soon, love you lots mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx