Saturday 6th April – Greta’s Wedding
Ominous weather at Coffs Harbour
Rain rolling in shortly after the wedding
7am
Having got up horribly early and packed, Bronwen and I left shortly after seven and drove to a nearby servo for me to check my tyre pressure, then from there, headed to Coffs Harbour. The drive took 3 hours 55 minutes, and was 377 kilometres long—according to Oruxmaps. I averaged 96.5 km/h moving, with a maximum of 137.8. There are lots of speed cameras—including an annoying amount of average speed cameras—in NSW, making it hard to drive at a safe and reasonable speed. It rained a little bit, getting worse the closer we got to Coffs Harbour.
Midday
We arrived shortly before midday, and checked in to our room at the Hoey Moey, and bumped into Donna. We ate some potato wedges and garlic bread (and the biggest bowl of sour cream ever) for lunch, then went to see if we could find the wedding location.
Afternoon
After walking around a few beaches and failing to find the wedding location, and having suddenly realised that it was an hour later than I thought—apparently today is the last day of daylight savings’ time here—we drove back to the hotel and got ready for the wedding. Having stopped raining shortly after we got here, it again began to rain.
3:30pm
Gerrit turned up and Donna, Bronwen and I followed him to a beautiful grassy spot overlooking some hills and the ocean. The rain stopped, and stayed stopped just up until the last of the photos were finished and we were all safely at the reception. Friends and relatives started turning up. The photographer thought I was another photographer and was worried she was at the wrong wedding. We milled around a little—the mother of the groom was running a little late—and then the bride arrived, looking stunning, and got married in what was a truly beautiful ceremony.
Evening
After the wedding we all headed to the reception at a nearby surf club, where I got to chat to most of my relatives who were there, and we all had a good time.
Night
After the reception a small group of us went to the penthouse that the newly married couple were staying in, and continued partying for a while, getting to bed quite late—though due to daylight savings stopping at 3 o’clock—which promptly became two o’clock—we all got more sleep than was logically possible.
Sunday 7th April – The Barbecue
Bronwen on the beach, Coffs Harbour
Bronwen taking photos, Coffs Harbour
5:30am
The TV at the end of the bed woke up, and began playing what seemed to be Asian news, very loudly. This surprised me, who had prior to this been sleeping peacefully. I tried to turn the TV off, but it kept turning off, then a moment later, back on. After a while I woke up enough to analyse the buttons on the remote and realised I was pushing the TV button, which apparently turns the TV off before turning it on, even if it’s already on. Having now cleverly worked out which was the power button, I managed to turn the TV off permanently… until half past six, when it again woke me, again playing loud Asian something or other.
7:30am
I got up a little before half past seven, to fight the TV—but to my surprise it didn’t turn on, so I went for a walk to the beach instead, then went and visited Donna—who was staying in the room two rooms from us.
9am
Bronwen eventually woke up, and we packed our things and checked out of the room. We went for a little walk along the beach, then drove to a nearby shopping centre for breakfast (I had a yummy vegetarian pie and a milkshake) and to buy a few things for the BBQ. After that, we drove to the caravan park where Sandy and Robyn were staying, and from there to a BBQ at the married couple’s hotel.
4pm
After a pleasant morning, and then afternoon, chatting to relatives and new friends (and eating things), Bronwen and I went for a little drive through Coffs Harbour, down to the marina, and walked out onto a headland full of birds, before driving back to the Hoey Moey (where everyone had moved to after the BBQ ended) and saying goodbye to everyone.
5:46pm
At precisely 5:46 PM, I started Oruxmaps for the drive home—which took 4 hours 11 minutes, and was apparently 373 kilometres long. It rained quite a bit as we got into QLD—heavy enough to make driving dangerous and difficult.
10pm
Having arrived safely home, I had a quick shower and went to bed.
Monday 8th April – ALDI Coffee Capsules
Lunch from Pasta Pantry, Rosalie
Day
I worked, dropping past ALDI on the way home to buy more coffee things to replace the ones I’ve been using at work—I don’t know who buys them.
Night
I had a quiet night at home.
Tuesday 9th April – G.I. Joe Retaliation
Day
I worked, having veggie pasties from Rosalie with Bronwen for lunch.
Night
Bronwen and I drove into West End, where I got a milkshake from Ice Cream Mania (I’m finding two scoops of vanilla and one of caramel whirl in a milkshake—not a thickshake—is fantastic) and we both got felafel rolls from King Ahiram’s.
After our dinner we drove to South Bank, parking under the Cineplex, and watched “G.I. Joe Retaliation” in 3D. It was actually better than I expected—still very American, and not very clever, but lots of action, which was quite fun in 3D.
Wednesday 10th April – Chez Tessa
Day
I worked.
Night
Bronwen stayed at work late, as did I, and after we drove over to Maz’s, and then to Hawken Village and Chez Tessa for dinner.
Thursday 11th April – Derubberised Flash
Day
I worked.
Night
Bronwen pulled apart a monitor that had gone through the flood at Umart. I found that my Canon 580 EXII flash has rubber parts coming out of it.
Friday 12th April – Govinda’s
Day
I worked.
Night
Bronwen and I dropped past Stones Corner Govinda’s just before it shut, having a yummy dinner there.
Saturday 13th April – Oblivion
Day
Bronwen and I drove to Bronwen’s parents’ place, then to Sizzler’s for lunch, before stopping at Maz’s and walking through the rain (half the roads are shut and traffic congestion into the car park makes parking there untenable) to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. I used up my gift card I’d got from work, buying two pairs of sandals for $4.33 each, four pairs of jeans for $8.40 each, a pair of double dragon double plug thongs for $6, another pair of sandals for Bronwen and a $2 pair of slip-on shoes for her.
Night
After Maz left to go see Chris and play bass guitar, Bronwen and I drove back to her parents’ place, had a political discussion, and then rushed to Southbank Cineplex Cinemas to watch “Oblivion”, via Ice Cream Mania and King Ahiram’s Lebanese Foods in West End. We managed to get parking under the cinema by waiting in a queue for a while, and then got free tickets to the movie—while we were waiting in line to buy tickets, worried we might not get some as the queue was quite large and the sign was saying “few seats remaining”, someone came up and asked if we wanted free tickets to the movie, as they’d somehow got given double.
The session was sold out (as were all sessions all day according to the security guard in the car park). The movie was the generic action you’d expect from a large Hollywood blockbuster with Tom Cruise in it—fun to watch, but nothing to rave about. Though, to be fair, the plot was probably a little more interesting and thought out than the usual action movie.
Sunday 14th April – $5 Shorts
Morning
I had a huge sleep-in, waking up not long before midday.
Afternoon
Bronwen and I drove to Garden City, where I bought some $5 shorts—everything is so cheap at the moment. We also went to Woolies, and bought some food.