Clifton to Coloundra

4/21/14

Packed up my belongings & headed outside to enjoy the beautiful morning weather while waiting for Loretta and Graeme to pick me up. So very quiet and deserted after all the weekend festivities. I was reflecting on my life and the wonderful opportunity I just had to return for another chance to revisit some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met. I am so glad I came. I probably won’t return again so I want to savor every last moment while I wait for Graeme & Loretta.

We do head out at about 11 AM and take a different route back to their home in Coloundra on the Sunshine Coast. We head through Gatton, enjoying the country scenery, and then into a cute little place called Esk, where Loretta wanted to try lunch at a new place, Exquisite Holdings – kind of an English tea room.

OMG – while we were waiting to order, this English woman ahead of us in the order line was bemoaning the fact that she was there by herself (sighing heavily like only the self-afflicted can). Before I could stop myself, I invited her to join us – mainly I was joking and not expecting her to take me up on the offer. Well, damn if she didn’t jump on my offer like flies on rice!

Unsuspecting Graeme was seated at the table – holding it while Loretta & I were placing our order, so our guest joined him before we even had a chance to ask him if that was okay with him. Suffice to say this woman’s inane conversation was so overwhelming that I know all of us were wondering if she was ever going to pause to come up for air. She NEVER stopped talking. We heard about all her ailments; about how she slept on the floor of her home so she could lay on the floor & use some extension item to grab the sliding doors whenever anyone came calling; about how cluttered her house was – essentially on and on. I know all 3 of us were trying to devise an exit strategy – only for it to be thwarted when she ordered dessert and coffee!

I couldn’t take it anymore, so I excused myself – with Loretta and Graeme doing the same – and we couldn’t get out of there soon enough!

Soon we were enjoying the coastal scenery, and once we were unpacked in Coloundra and rested, we went to Marsey Brothers Seafood to pick up some absolutely delicious scallops, pork dumplings and fish, along with our wine, for a little picnic dinner on the water just before sunset. (I thoroughly enjoyed the seaweed salad they offered as well, but neither Graeme nor Loretta wanted anything to do with that).