Life's a Beach

Well if 2007 and my first nine months in Australia represented little in the way of exploration - Hervey Bay, Toowomba and Melbourne and Sydney trips with work excepted - then Em and I were determined to ensure that 2008 offered a contrast to and have made a pact this will be a year of discovery. So this fine Australia day long weekend saw some firsts. Well for a start it was my first Australia Day in Australia. This was celebrated at the Story Bridge Hotel where they held the 27th annual cockie races! This was a an event not to be missed in my eyes and I was glad when Em agreed to come along to this, as did a colleague. The races themselves actually are little more than a fringe element of what is essentially an excuse to get thoroughly twatted, and by jove we did. As two of her majesty's loyal subjects (Em wasn't drinking) my colleague and I saw to that we would show our respects to the Australian national day and join in the merriment. It wasn't all just beer and cockroaches, there were also some boobs! Some Aussie girls saw fit to share with the general public their mammaries, some good , some bad but nonetheless they were shared. There's only so much boob and beer two men can take (by this time Em and had left to go to somewhere a little more sober lady friendly with another friend - female - who had shown up) and so my colleague and I decided to move on to where Em was. However, due to said excessive consumption of some of Australia's finest I don't recall too much of this point. Sunday, well that wasn't really worth writing about as I just recovered around the house due to the previous days efforts. As Australia Day itself fell on a Saturday, we were granted Monday 28th January as a public holiday. This day shall be marked in the annals of Robinson history as it was our first proper foray to a beach. We have been to Mooloolaba and to Sunshine Beach, the former was just a sojourn whilst on the way to Hervey and was in Winter and the latter was where we spent Christmas and experienced generally poor weather. This outing was one where I actually lay on the beach and even swam in the sea! The location for this momentous occasion was Bribie Island, about 50 miles/ 80 KMs north of Brisbane. This trip has instilled in me a desire to go more often and to really seek out some nice beaches (it was OK, the water was warm but could do with being a little bluer for my liking!). All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable weekend all round.

Sue Lawley, Sue Lawley, Sue Lawley.....

There a number of ways in which this blog could have been titled. Notwithstanding the fact that this is my first blog of the year, it is being penned at something approaching midnight to capture the feeling of just having seen the Police perform live. This is a band that: a) still doesn't like each other; or b) has no need to undertake any costume changes; or c) is just so damned tight that they can just come on and play for an hour barely needing to interact with the crowd. They were awesome. Sting may now sport a greying beard that makes it look like he has just finished a stint as Santa at the local shopping centre, albeit a well toned Santa - must be all that tantric loving - Andy Summers, now 65 has lost the bleach blonde hair of his youth but still knows how to drive that Police sound and Stewart Copeland may now need to sport jeps but still bangs the drum as hard as he always did. I don't necessarily feel I need to say much more at this point. My feet and legs ache slightly from the dancing plus the walk home and my ears are ringing slightly. Happy days and good times.