Getting from A to B courtesty of Virgin Blue

I felt a little sad leaving the white house; staying in motel after hotel for weeks on end, it’s been nice to settle down and unpack. No 73 had become our haven, our home from home, and yeah, I was sad to leave. We had a very pleasant ‘last supper’ with Jean and Graham but I felt a little sorry for Graham when Phil ordered a second bottle of wine because Graham, our driver, had to get up early for work the next day. Jean and Graham have had quite a lot on their plate but next week they off for a 10 day break on Fraser Island where hopefully they can relax, chill out and forget all their worries.



Talking of worries, we received some bad news from home. Phil picked up an email from Jim who returned from his holiday to find that Aunt Daphne suffered a heart attack in the hospital last week. She has been moved to another ward which apparently she is happier in as she has access to a TV and there are other people she can talk to. The doctor’s have yet to decide what treatment Daphne needs but the heart attack will no doubt have been a set back to her recovery. Thank goodness she has Jim because we feel pretty useless out here. We have our flight booked to LA on the 19th Feb which we will confirm in the next couple of days but Phil has decided that we won't book anything or make any plans until for the US until we’re are actually there. For now all we can do is send positive thoughts and sit and wait to hear from Jim.

As Phil said, Tuesday was cleaning in the morning and then the cinema in the afternoon. I was pleased that I woke up early yesterday morning because it gave me time to strip the bed, put the sheets in the washer and get them dried and ironed before we left. Just in the nick of time and I turned off the iron just minutes before Jean arrived to take us to the airport. Townsville airport was small, efficient and civilised and we enjoyed a very good flat white coffee with Jean before saying our goodbyes. Our flight to the sunshine coast was with Virgin Blue, plenty of leg room and we landed at Coolangatta at half past twelve. Lunch was a beer and a Hungry Jack’s and then in no time we were back on a Virgin Blue flight to Sydney. It was a shame that we couldn’t get a direct flight but the 90 minutes flew by and we reached Sydney at 4.30pm. We collected the backpacks and jumped in a taxi which took us the ‘The Oaks’ at Darling Harbour. Our room wasn’t as good as last time and Phil phoned reception to see if we could change but just our bad luck, they were fully booked so we were stuck in room 245. It wasn’t so bad but we were slightly miffed that we are paying double the amount that we paid at Christmas for an inferior room.

After dumping our stuff we headed to the harbour for a drink and then went to the little back streets at the back of The Oaks away from the harbour to get some supper. We stopped off at Mum’s Thai restaurant which is a restaurant in the lonely planet. We had tried to eat here at Christmas but the restaurant was closed for the holiday period. Phil went for the house special dish of drunken duck and I went for my usual, green curry. Phil’s dish was tasty and hot but mine was a little bland. I am going to have to be more adventurous and try some other dishes. I am becoming tired of my own palette! After dinner we popped into the Chinese supermarket for some breakfast supplies, and then it was back to cell block 245 for some TV and some shuteye. Weird, we had a whole day in transit, mostly spent sitting our backsides and we were completely knackered.