Take Two

This is my second shot at getting this down, so we'll see how we go this time around. There is no chance that it's going to be as detailed as it was the first time, and I'm not even going to try and make it as good. I am lazy, and it sucks. I am also pretty tired, and this is making me slightly cranky and sucky.

I started off with saying how my Thursday was almost a fantastic day. I almost finished work at 2:30 and was going to have had a wonderful afternoon preparing myself at a leisurely pace for the weekend. Unfortunately it didn't go according to plan and I ended up getting stuck at work for an extra four hours because of what could have been a medical emergency. I did the right thing, and nice guys finish last. Whatever.

Also I was midway through bitching about how I had to drop my brother off somewhere and getting Red Rooster when I realised that he'd left his wallet in the car forcing me to drive back to where he was. Again nice guys finish last. Whatever.

I'll pick up where I left off, and where things started picking up for me too. I was packing my bags as I was heading up to central Queensland for part of the Easter long weekend. I was heading up to a place called Woodgate for Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Woodgate is a place about a half hour east of Childers. The reason for my trip up there is because I have made a new friend, and I quite like her. Her name is Ria, and I think she's okay. She's from Rockhampton, and her family had rented a house at Woodgate for the holiday, and I'd been invited up there to hang out. I'd agreed to the invitation and so was headed north to get some sunshine and good times at the beach.

I spent the night with Ria so we could get an early start on the road and hopefully beat some of the traffic. We'd aimed for a 7 o'clock start, and we almost made it. Something suddenly came up though, but this wasn't unfortunate. Woodgate is about a 4 and a half hour drive from Brisbane and it was good times out there on the open road. We managed to beat alot of the traffic and I made sure that the speedometre didn't go above the limit so that we didn't have any troubles from the boys in blue, as they were certainly out in force. The trip up was quite nice, it went pretty quickly and there wasn't too many hold ups. Just outside Gympie there was a bit of a slow passage, but that was due to a very annoying set of lights. We broke the trip up and made a couple of short stops because Tired Drivers Die, but made good time. In the end we made it to Woodgate just after midday.

Woodgate is a beautiful part of world, clear turquoise water. Calm beaches, soft golden sand, terrific shells. Not too crowded, a real family sort of place. The house we were staying in was opposite the beach and had a wonderful breeze blowing through it. It really was extremely relaxing. I was kind of packing shit meeting Ria's family, but I figured that I'm okay in most circumstances and as long as I behaved myself they'd think I was okay. Thankfully, I was able to behave myself and apparently they think I'm okay. This is good news.

Once we arrived at Woodgate it was time to meet the family, have a bit of a swim and play a game of French cricket. It was a lovely afternoon, and I don't know what I was worried about on the trip up. I guess it was just fear of the unknown and also a hope to make the right sort of impression. It was nice to be in a place where the people are obviously comfortable with one another and also eager to make the most of a holiday.

We had a lovely meal of seafood the night of Good Friday with excellent prawns which were sweet and juicy and huge mud crabs with claws full of succulent flesh. It really was a fantastic way to cap off a day which had been extremely pleasant. Cold beers, fresh seafood, cool breezes, good company and a full moon looming large over the proceedings. It was a bonza day and I could not have hoped for a better day.

Actually, the only downer of the day was when the steel bar through my nipple fell out whilst I was swimming. That's pretty minor though.

This morning was also wonderful. The sun woke me as it crept over the horizon, filling the room with it's light. A cup of tea and a breakfast of ham and eggs followed. No, they weren't green eggs. After this I went for a walk along the beach, looking at shells and discarded prawns heads. We found a crab that had been dismembered and it's shell picked clean. Also someone's fort which we destroyed. I bought a hat to keep the sun from burning my sensitive skin and we generally enjoyed the surroundings. Upon our return to the house Ria and I went for a swim which was even better than the day before and then air dried talking on the beach.

After the walk and swim we retired to the house and I played some cards with younger dudes and read some articles in a magazine. Then it was time for lunch.

For lunch it was decided that we'd make our way up to one of the only two businesses in Woodgate, the General Store. The only other business is, of course, the pub. The General Store is the place I bought my hat. They also sell hamburgers. So I bought one. And it was great. The works burger had a pattie. Cheese. Onion. Lettuce. Sauce. Beetroot. Tomato. Bacon. Egg. There could have been some other stuff on there, but I didn't have time to examine it too closely because it disappeared extremely quickly. The General Store also made a mean lime milkshake.

Unfortunately after lunch it was time for me to leave Woodgate. If ever anyone is in the area, I highly reccommend a detour down to the coast. It's a part of Australia that will forever be unique to here. It's a place where you can wet a line, launch a boat, have a swim, sink a beer, make a sandcastle, lay on the sand or gaze at the horizon and wonder what is beyond it.

So I was back on the open highway. I bought some shitty food and some shittier sunglasses. On the way I was attempting to find out where I would be sleeping that night. I'd had some plans, but I hadn't really told anyone about them, so that makes it kind of tough for people to be accomodating. I made a few phone calls, sent a few messages and hoped that by the time I arrived at my destination things would be sorted. And wouldn't you know it? Things have turned out okay.

I'm now at Joshua's laptop typing away frantically, trying to get this out before I pass out from a combination of exhaustion and beer. My trip back was a whole lot longer than the trip up, and I put that down to being alone on the way back. And being more tired.

Tomorrow is another day, and a day that I am looking forward to. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. I know it now. All of the essential ingredients are there. I think that things could get a little loose. I have a feeling that once the sun goes down everything will be kicked into overdrive. I don't fear it.