:: off the coast of gold.. ::

Just got back home at 1am this morning (yay). But we had an excellent time up north in queensland - 13 of us in 2 apartments at the plush Q1 towers (5 star! and australia's biggest residential building..) and I took heaps of photos on Karen's camera, so hopefully she'll upload them soon and you can have a look at what we got up to ^-^

We arrived at the Gold Coast at about 9:45am on Thursday, and got a hire car (tarago) which Kabs drove to the hotel. We dumped our bags in one apartment and headed straight for MovieWorld at 12, which meant we had 5 whole hours to play! But.. MovieWorld isn't as big and exciting as I remember it being..

Karen and Ning and the boys went on the high-speed Superman rollercoaster while I looked after bags and wallets and phones and hats and glasses (the ride looked far too fast and loopy for me to willingly go on.. there was a HUGE drop and three upside-down loops!! O_O ) and I took a few photos of the others while they were on the ride. It looks exciting, but also so so scary! Afterwards Ning decided not to go on anymore rides because she got so scared.. so I'm glad I didn't go on, or it might have spoiled me for going on other rides ^-^

Karen, Darko, Jason, Phil, and Herbert-Basil continued on to the Lethal Weapon rollercoaster which is famous for DANGLING YOU UPSIDE-DOWN and flinging you all over the place while the not-so-brave Jun, Ning, Vik and I had lunch.

After that, we all went on the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster which was dark but fun (it went BACKWARDS at one point, which freaked me out), and the Wild West Falls water coaster which was BRILLIANT FUN but got us so drenched in chlorine water -_-".. we were like a pack of drowned rats afterwards.

Oh! and Karen kept trying to get me to take a photo of her jumping in the air, with mixed results.. first photo I caught her just as she landed, so it looked like she was just squatting in the middle of the road. Second photo looked like she was standing on one leg, and the third looked like she was standing in the road reaching out with her arms to the sky. But after the water ride, she found this wooden trough to stand on.. and leapt off, so I finally got a good shot of her mid-air.. flapping her arms like a chicken. But still - airborne ^-^ She was so pleased with herself, hahaha..

We also went on the Batman virtual rollercoaster, which was interesting, but the moving screen gave Basil a headache, so he stayed with Ning and I to watch the parade at 2:30 while the others went on the Batman Spaceshot which is a ride which just shoots you up into the air & down.. many times. Like a yo-yo only with jetpackness.

Then at 3pm we went to watch Shrek's 3D Dungeon Adventure.. which was okay visually but kind of boring. And it was one of those 3D interactive theatres where it sprays water at you if there's a splash on screen, and moves the seats up and down when you're supposably on a bumpy cart.. we came out of it going "what the heck?" because.. well.. there was no dungeon in the entire thing.. despite the introduction telling us we'd be going into a torture dungeon.

And then we shopped till about 4:30, looking at all the stores. Karen and Ning bought Superman T-shirts, I bought a few keyrings but there wasn't really anything exciting.. not even in the Harry Potter shop O_O which i originally thought I'd go mad-crazy shopping-spree in. So I left MovieWorld with a handful of keyrings which cost me.. $5 altogether. Hmm, big spending -_-" Lunch was more expensive.. $9.50 for a beef & onion burger, orange juice and chips.. AND you got a free plastic batman mask (it was the Penguin Kids' Meal at Gotham City Cafe).

I let Jun have the mask. Jason also got a kids meal.. and the two of them donned the Batman masks to take a photo next to the Batmobile, ahahahaa..

Garry and Seb and Jade arrived about 8pm, and the boys cooked kebab skewers and sausages and coleslaw and pasta salad in their apartment. Yes, the boys cooked - they insisted us girls didn't have to lift a finger (which was lovely) ^-^ It was a lot like a BBQ - we had sauce and bread for the sossies! Mmm.. sossiebread.

We ended the night by playing Mario Kart Racing on the Wii, so all in all it was a pretty tame day. Went to bed at *gasp* a Fairly Reasonable Hour!

Then Friday morning Ming arrived, and we all set off for SeaWorld (10 minutes drive away from our hotel.. too good!).. I was so excited. We saw dugongs, pelicans, turtles, a polar bear, dolphins, fairy penguins, sea lions, sharks, fish.. so many animals to see, it was brilliant. There weren't many penguins, but we got a good video of one wiggling its butt and flapping, like it was trying to squeeze something out ^-^ so funny.

I got a really good photo of the polar bear in his enclosure.. it turned out so well, and the polar bear's face is so sweet, as he's perched on top of his rock looking down at the pool. Also, his enclosure had this really awesome huge log that looked like it had a dugong face! Hurrah for the dugong-log.

We saw the Sea Lion show "Fish Detectives" (bloody adorable), and there was a Dolphin show (which Karen, Garry, Ning & Ming and I missed T-T) , and a kind of theatre water sports show. And Jason fed a panadol to a seagull to test the rumour that they explode when given panadol, but we didn't see whether it came to any harm.. and we tried to make him feel guilty for the rest of the day >_< ..there were so many seagulls at SeaWorld.. and none of them understand the concept of "Mine!" when it belongs to someone other than themselves..

We also went on a few rides - the others went on the Corkscrew rollercoaster while Ming & Ning went to find food, and then we all went on the Bermuda Triangle water ride.. and got wet again ^-^ though Darko was the only one to get top-to-toe drenched..

And we shopped lots ^-^ Ning and Karen and I felt the need to buy these adorable plush white seals (thereafter dubbed "smeals") and big seaworld dolphins.. so we each got one ^-^ I also bought squeaking tail-waving dolphins and assorted other goodies for the rellies. Such cuteness in plush.. I can't bear to give the smeal away now, it has this absolutely frickin ADORABLE confused WTF face >_<

After we got back to the hotel, we sorted out all our new purchases and then joined the boys upstairs for dinner again (Domino's pizzas, garlic bread, and roast potatoes and pumpkin) and a big apricot cream sponge cake from the Cheesecake Shop because it was Vik's 25th birthday! The boys bought him 5 candles that had carousel horses on them, as a joke ^-^ But the cake was so good. Will have to see if they have that cake in the melbourne Cheesecake Shops..

The others went to go drinking & clubbing after that, and Ning and Ming and I headed back downstairs to sleep. (I like Ning & Ming.. they're my sort of people ^-^)

Saturday morning the boys made toast, cereal, bacon and eggs and corn for breakfast (yummm) and then there was JetBoating for an hour - I decided to stay in the hotel and nap while the others went on the boat. Kabs felt sick afterwards - the motor fumes and 1 hour of constant boat skippy moving made her feel ill, so I'm glad I skipped it ^-^

The boys stayed on the beach for surfing lessons while Karen and I checked out the shops and streets near the hotel.. Orchid Avenue has a lot of stuff. Picked up a few things at the weekend market for Dad (there was a lady playing the erhu and selling cds of her music.. it sounded really good! so I bought one for Dad, and Karen got one for her dad.. and the lady autographed them for us), a cooling necklace for Gran (soak in cold water and the crystals expand, squeeze out the water & tie loosely around neck to keep cool), and this cute little butterfly denim bag that would be perfect for my cousin who just turned six.

We all met up again for dinner at 6, and went to this malaysian seafood restaurant nearby called Golden Legends or something. I picked up their business card - the food was REALLY DELICIOUS. So if we're ever in Gold Coast again, or if anyone going to Gold Coast wants to know a good asian restaurant to eat at, the dishes there were lovely. There was golden sand (gum saar?) prawns, you know, those eggy crunchy coated ones, but there was also an egg crunchies garnish on it done in the style of the fried taro dumpling thing my dad likes.. what do you call it.. I can't remember -_-" the one that looks like a flaky version of haarm sui gork..? I wish I'd thought to take a take-away menu.. I can't remember the names of the dishes. But they were so good ^-^ I think it was kind of Malaysian-Canto cuisine, really. I do remember there was roast duck which the others raved about, and also a ginger & spring onions on scallops dish, and the house specialty "Yum Yum Chicken" which was diced chicken served in a clay pot with a soup/sauce that seemed to be a blend of tom yum and thai red curry. It really was very yum yum. ^-^

And at 7:30 we dashed off to do some BOWLING! we had 2 teams of 6 (Ning didn't want to bowl but was happy to watch & take photos) and.. and.. Karen's team won, they bowled 700 for the first game and 736 for the second! My team.. we weren't very good bowlers >_<

And then we all got icecream at Royal Copenhagen, because the smell of fresh-made waffle cones was driving Jade crazy, and we walked down to this small amusement park with extreme rides.. the boys all wanted to try the Vomitron.. which is basically this tall windmill thing that flings you round and round high off the ground... got some good photos of that, too ^-^ The shrieking as the boys went flying past was sooo funny! They bought souvenir photos of their ordeal (screaming faces and all) and we trotted back to the hotel. Some of us went to sleep, while the others carried on for a few more hours with drinking games.

Sunday morning was spent packing up, with a quick breakfast of leftovers to get rid of whatever was still in the boys' fridge, and checkout. We dumped our bags in storage and went to do a big last minute group photo shoot at a costume photo shop - old time Gangsters and bargirls, it was so much fun kitting up in costumes. The photo-taking was a little embarrassing, but the results were hilarious! Jade and Karen and Ning and I were in these fancy sequinned dresses.. with lace-ups at the back 'cause they were just APRONS, so we had to wear boxer shorts underneath, hahaha!! And the boys' zoot suits were also lace-ups.. the pants were slip-ons to put over jeans with a tie at the top.. so from the back, it looks like pants EXCEPT for the bum where you can clearly see jeans, we cracked up so much to see the boys walk around, all serious-gangster from the front, and looking like they had baby-outfit bumflaps and big clothes pegs to pin the coats (like mannequins in shop windows) at the backs ^-^

After lunch, we dropped the others off at the airport and Karen and I drove to Brisbane (where our flight was). Tell you what, Brisbane is not at all exciting on a Sunday night.. so only stuck around the Brissy CBD long enough to take some photos, and then scurried off to the airport where we bummed around for two hours and had red rooster for dinner. Spent some quality time with my nintendog (poor neglected digital puppy..) and then we hopped on the plane and came HOME.

So that's all the excitement that has happened in the last 4 days.. but don't expect any thrilling tales beyond friday, when we go to Ning's place for steamboat for her birthday ^-^ swapping photos and lots and lots of eating..

= WoWphotos, vol 01 =

This is Aeilfe the elf, when she'd freshly turned 33.

Aeilfe likes fresh sashimi. Here she is fishing for her dinner.
She likes fishing.

Here are Aeilfe's friends, Doragarn and Kukees, and Kukee's pet genie
Tanganak. They all like to dance. (Aeilfe sits this one out.)

Here is another friend, Immapriiest. He likes to cook.
Anytime, anywhere.

Sometimes Immi and Dora combine cooking and dancing.
(I like this photo because it happens to look hilariously dodgey.)

Stacks on, WoW style. Oh, and another friend, Urien, on the left.
He likes chopping things, and whizzing around with his jetpack.

Everyone sits and poses nicely for a photo.
Kupar the minion sits away from everyone, 'cause frankly,
nobody likes him.

This is what happens when you don't watch where you're running.

This is what happens when Urien happens.

And this is Aeilfe's chocobo. Hawkstrider. Whatever. Her biggest pet birdie yet! It sent her broke to buy him, but that's okay. New birdie!!

And this is Aeilfe with her pet turtle, sitting down to watch the sunset after a day of WoWing. ^-^