Brisbane to Coloundra to Toowoomba

4/18/14

From the airport we head off to Coloundra, Graeme & Loretta’s home, north of Brisbane and along the Sunshine Coast. Of course the 2-hour drive seems short because we are busily catching up with stories and assorted adventures. Stuart, his wife Verona and children, Ashleigh and Jaden, are on Easter break & will be house sitting for Graeme & Loretta, while the 3 of us drive down to Toowoomba later this afternoon. We’ll be staying with Peter & Alison – me for just one night and them for 3 nights. Tomorrow Loretta & Graeme will drive me down to Clifton, where I will stay 2 nights celebrating the 50^th Jubilee celebrations at the high school.

I realize early on that this trip will involve lots of sitting, eating and drinking while catching up with friends, so I absolve myself from any guilt about not working out and not eating wisely.  While true that Aussies do make & eat a lot of salads like the Brits, they also love their desserts, and it doesn’t take long before we are out on Alison & Peter’s back deck enjoying coffee, tea and some incredibly delicious Anzac cookies with craisins, almonds & rolled oats and some mouth-watering syrup, caramel, chocolate fudge-like squares that were fantastic. It took everything I had to restrain myself from having more than one – and a good thing too, because later that evening after tea (dinner), we had a caramel cheesecake for dessert.

I fought to remain conscious and almost made it until 8 PM, but after nodding off at the dinner table a couple of times it was pretty apparent that I needed to crash. My timing was perfect since my Aussie hosts & friends were keen to enjoy the televised rugby match that was just coming on. So off I went to bed, listening to the accumulated fat crinkling and quite content to be horizontal for at least 8-9 hours.