Sunshine and Rain

Well, more rain than sunshine but I don't mind so much; I like watching rain, listening to rain and being woken up by rain at 3am as it fills roof gutters and cascades over the edge and hits the ground with a loud splatter. It poured buckets on Saturday night and Sunday; we managed an early morning walk on Monday. Since then it's rained on and off, often. Yesterday was sunny and the pack made it to the beach; today is just the same and HOT. When I went out for the papers I walked back along the beach and near melted.

Saturday night was grilled or crumbed fish and salad, Sunday night was home-made pizzas at Seagull Pde, Monday night was wagyu night, Tuesday night was spaghetti bog night, last night was seafood night; tonight is another wagyu night and tomorrow night is Friday Night Dinner night up the road at D&A's. We've had some wonderful feasts and haven't used our vouchers yet.

I haven't yet experienced that feeling of holiday freedom that usually strikes me here. I put that down to the fact that I've made three trips to the two biggest shopping centres on the south coast desperately seeking inspiration for Christmas gift ideas. I have managed to nearly wind it up now but I felt like today, Thursday, was the first real day of my holiday when I didn't have to do anything more taxing than buy the paper and read it!

My life is a little different this year too. Out of the four families in our group and the one that lives nearby, we have the oldest child (by 5 years) and are the first to step off the education treadmill. There are 14 offspring spread across the 5 families, ranging in age from 3 to 22. Everyone gets along famously and the U shaped complex and courtyard lends itself to communal living. We all eat together for the nightly meal and provide our own breakfasts and lunches which are still often eaten together at the picnic tables outside the rooms.

Four of the group have headed off to see U2 tonight at Suncorp, catching the train from Robina to Central then walking from there.

Drew bought a laptop for Canada - a Macbook Pro. He is very chuffed with it. I appreciated the assistance and advice of his friend Jack who is quite conversant with the whole Mac range.

It's about 50 days until Drew flies out; just the other day it was 3 months!!! Time waits for no man...or woman.