Hey hey, it’s holiday time in the blog and I had actually managed to get Ian to go to the Coast for a week with us for a family trip!  My Dad couldn’t come over as he usually did following his operation, so his Christmas present to both of us had been money for a holiday.  I got online, “booked it, packed it and fooked off!” (thanks, Peter Kay!😀)  However, GH and I have very different ideas of what constitutes a holiday, as you will discover…

Monday:

So the plan had been that Ian would get his driving license back in time to drive us all to the Coast for the week, but of course our holiday dates didn’t coincide with that, so we ended up booking Monday to Sunday and Ian was getting his license back on the Tuesday!🙄

I spent most of the day leisurely packing as I really didn’t want to do the 3 hour drive with Mia on my own, so was delaying the inevitable (a habit I must learn to break!) and we had until 5 p.m. to check in anyway, so thought I could take my time.  What I wasn’t banking on was that, as we were going to Tweed Heads, which is just over the New South Wales border, there was time difference and so, instead of arriving with an hour to spare as expected, we had actually just missed check in!!!🙈

All was fine…after I spent half an hour: trying to call an after hours check in number, working out the visitors door code, locating the late check-in box and finding the envelope with my name on!😒

We then got into the lift to go up to our floor and walked around said floor trying to find our door, only to realise that it didn’t exist!  I re-read my information which told me there were two towers and of course we had just got in the wrong one.  Always read instructions before blindly setting out people!  (That last sentence was for me, I’m sure you all already do this!)  We went back down to the ground floor and tried again.  PS. My case was really heavy because I always over-pack!  In my defence, a 5 year old needs a lot of outfit options and beach toys and beach towels take up half of your case in the first place!

We finally made it to the room and I was excited to read that there was a complimentary bottle of wine waiting for me…until I found it and it was red!  I haven’t been able to face red wine since the “Nouveau Beaujolais” hangover from 1999 and even the whiff makes me heave, so that was a no-no!

Ian had been ringing me for a while, but I had ignored him until I had located our room because sounding like an idiot in retrospect was more appealing than admitting I was currently lost!  I informed him that this was why he should have driven (a passive-aggressive way of shifting the blame onto him!)  He suggested that I swap the bottles at reception tomorrow when I officially check in.  This is why he is the ideas man in our relationship!

That didn’t solve tonight’s refreshments however (c’mon, first night of holiday needs to be toasted!) so went for a wander in the dark with Mia.  Stayed on the same block so I couldn’t get lost again and ended up at a fish and chip shop for a takeaway and found a bottle shop!  Result!  Even got the correct tower on the way back!  Things were looking up!

Then Mia decided to swing between the couch and the table and over-extended herself forcing her to face-plant the floor and get a huge egg on her head!  She was definitely wearing the right nightie for it!  An eventful start to the holiday but would you expect anything less?!

Tuesday:

Ian was meant to be going to get his driving license reinstated, then driving to Warwick to pick up a kayak and then driving to us, so we were expecting him at around lunchtime.

We were up ridiculously early as Mia was excited to get to the beach so just ate cereal bars and got down there, via reception, where I exchanged the free bottle of red wine for white (someone in the lift asked if I was starting already- I wish!  Clearly look like a lush!😆) and they charged me $500 less than I arranged to pay online!  Sssssshhhhhh!  The prices are extortionate in school holidays anyway, so I’m not complaining!😜

Went to the Tourist Information Office to ask if there were any cheap places to take kids and they proceeded to show me brochures for theme parks, obviously oblivious to the word CHEAP!  They gave me some maps though, so hopefully I will find some places on my own (or get lost!  Jinxed myself already!🙄)

Poddled down to the little bay made by the river and Mia was straight in the water and, as luck would have it, stood next to an elderly couple who had brought a ton of leftovers to feed the fish!  The guy gave Mia loads of bread to feed them and it was such a good, free experience!  The cheeky seagulls tried to steal the bread before the fish could but it was a good battle!  The fish even ate the chicken pasta leftovers the woman had brought though!  Who knew fish ate that?!?!

“Ouch! Something got me!” screamed the woman and we looked down to see a large crab scuttling away.  “Oh it’s just a baby,” she said.  “At least we didn’t run into its Mum or dad!”  A baby?! Bloody hell!  I would have freaked out if it had bitten me!

After that: we swam, Mia trampled sand all over my clean towel, Mia swallowed too much sea water and Mia cut her foot on an oyster shell!  I would say she’s a liability, but that seems slightly hypocritical!😅

Getting a kid to leave the beach has to be up there as one of the hardest things to do as a parent.  Even my usual bribery tactic was unsuccessful!  And Mia is always hungry (so she says) so I was taken aback when my offer of lunch was rejected too!😲

We walked to the playground via a circus tent (damn the circus being in town and giving me something else to say no to!) and then walked into the Twin Towns club to try to get lunch but were told “no beach attire” so went to a non-judgmental Turkish cafe down a side street, which was cheap and cheerful – perfect for us!

We went back to the apartment for a bit of a relax and I was just dropping off when Ian rang to say he’d arrived.  I got him parked up and went up to the room to drop his bags when he finally divulged that when he had gone to get his license back, they had said that there was an error on his letter and on their computer system it said that he couldn’t get his license back until a month later!!!  When I asked him why he hadn’t rang me to tell me he couldn’t drive, he said “Because you would have gone mental if I hadn’t come on the family holiday!” (Fair point!)  “But you shouldn’t be driving!” I exclaimed.  “No, so you’re going to have to do all the driving this trip!” he retorted.  Great!😒  Disclaimer:  Although this is written about events which happened six months ago, if anyone in law enforcement is reading this, I completely made the last section up for dramatic effect!!!😬

We all went to swim in the pool together, which is when I noticed I had ridiculously red feet! I’m 50% sure I remembered to put sunscreen on them! Ouch!😖

I forced Ian to dress up like us girls were to go out for dinner and we ended up with an unintentional navy colour scheme! I LOVE it when that happens!  I was taking a few photos of Mia and I in the room, when she pulled out this gem of a pose!!!

Completely shocked, I asked her what the hell she thought she was doing?!  She looked baffled at my anger and said “You know, like, “Peace man!””  I very quickly corrected the direction of her fingers!!!😳

Went to the Twintowns club (second time lucky?!) but soon found out that most of the restaurants only operated Wednesday to Saturday, so ended up all dressed up in a sports bar eating pizza! GH (Grumpy Husband) came out in full force – about the price, about the noise, about the seating, about how tired he was…so it wasn’t the perfect family dinner I was envisaging!😒

Then, when we got back and got Mia into bed, I was thinking some drinks on the balcony would be nice, but Ian informed me that he was getting up at 5am to go fishing, so wanted an early night!  Then Mia kicked up a fuss because she wanted Ian to sleep in the other twin bed in her room!  I had a mini huff about being neglected AGAIN!!!  “You’re not going to do this every night, are you?!”  I lamented.  “Well I do want to get a few sessions in and that’s when the tide is”, he replied.  I was disappointed, but thought I would hold out for some compromise…😐

Wednesday:

Seeing as we were abandoned in favour of fishing, Mia and I went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.  It was pretty pricey, so called the RACQ and managed to get half-price tickets which saved us quite a bit.  It was a lot bigger than I was expecting and had so many wildlife shows on, so I was pretty impressed, but they were still after our money at every turn, which gets on my nerves when you’ve already paid a hefty entrance fee!  It was also pretty busy (school holidays of course!) but the worst was the heat – 36 degrees in the blazing sun watching the bird show is not much fun, but I waited for Mia to start whinging so I could use her as the excuse to leave!🙊

We went to the Crocodile show early to get a good spot and a load of kids came in front of us just as it was starting and started standing on my toes and breathing on me!😷  Then Mia couldn’t see over them so I had to lift her up (she is not light any more!) and was really wishing Ian had come as the muscles of the operation!  Mind you, we wouldn’t have even been standing there if we had Ian with us, because, as you should all know by now, GH doesn’t like people and will only brave a crowd on a very special occasion, he won’t like it and you will know about it!

Mia had a few tantrums over the course of the day because she didn’t get picked to hold various animals during the shows so I made sure we had a few photos taken holding things when they came around and they wanted $20 per photo!  I managed to sneakily take some photos of the photos, even though that’s not really allowed, but after buying extra bottles of water, lunch, ice cream etc. I was feeling well and truly fleeced!

Despite reapplying factor 50 sunscreen at regular intervals, by the time we got back to the car I was soooo burnt!  Living in Toowoomba is clearly not giving me a year-round golden tan!  Mia tans much better than I do, but even she was a little pink…😬

I drove back to Tweed Heads to meet up with Ian.  Apparently he’s been making friends with the locals over where to launch his kayak! Once I had showered and after-sunned, I could not bear to leave the room again so Ian went and got Japanese takeaway, which was thankfully delicious!

Thursday:

Mia went fishing with Ian this morning while I walked around the headland to Snapper Rocks and then around to Duranbah, where I was met with beautiful views and interesting information about WWII shipping losses (no, really!  I can travel geek with the best of them, I’ll have you know!) We only learnt about the European side of WWII at school in England really, so it was all new to me!

It was so hot and humid again today and I forgot to bring my water bottle, so was dripping by the time I got to the café at the top.  I had to wait ages for my smoothie but it was delicious, so definitely worth it!

My new sunglasses wouldn’t stay on my face, because I was a sweaty mess, so I was in a catch 22 between taking them off and blinding myself or continually pushing them back up my nose until I had worn all the skin away!  Decided to fluctuate between the two!

I was hoping that Ian and Mia would come to meet me and we could have lunch together (and get a lift home!) but they were already back at the appartment, so I had to walk all the way back again.  Mia was buzzing with excitement because she’d caught a fish!

I went to read in bed and fell asleep.  I love being able to have a siesta on holiday!  Unfortunately, I had to budge not long after, as I had promised Mia I would take her down to the pool and elephants and small children never forget!🙄

Post-swim, when I was battling to get Mia to leave, some old guy kept trying to sabotage me by telling her things like “Stay in the middle of the pool so your Mum won’t come and get you!”  What a joker!😒  I fake laughed it off and then gave Mia the death stare which thankfully worked as I was anticipating a scene!

Apparently I took too long in the shower so GH was grumpy about wasting away.  (I hadn’t realised there was a time limit!). We had decided to go for dinner at a seafood restaurant but the wait was too long for someone who was wasting away, so we went to an Italian which was overpriced, the portions were too small and the aircon was freezing!  I wouldn’t recommend!

We have arranged to go out for dinner with my friend and her family tomorrow night so then our food budget will be blown!  Hopefully Ian will catch some decent fish tomorrow so we can have a nice lunch!

Friday:

The Fish Gods were listening!  Ian caught quite a few fish and fried them all up for a yummy lunch!

We went out for dinner with my friend Shannon and her family in the evening to a Chinese restaurant in Broadbeach.  On the way we had an argument: because we were running late, because I had to drive, because we kept missing the turning on a one-way system so had to keep going around the same block over and over again, because Ian kept going fishing at 5am every morning and wasn’t paying attention to me, because I hadn’t given his fish lunch enough appreciation…I could go on and probably did!

We had a set menu at the restaurant.  The food was great and there was lots of it.  We almost had the mishap of a language barrier situation between Shannon’s son and the waitress which meant he almost had the pleasure of a fresh King Crab, which would have well and truly blown the budget, but luckily Shannon intercepted that little faux pas before it was too late and we were washing dishes!

PS. I honestly thought I had corrected the finger situation!😬

Saturday:

I got up early and drove to Kingscliff to do parkrun.  It was the first time I had done parkrun anywhere other than Toowoomba and I felt like I was cheating on them!  It was a nice flat course which I must try again when it’s a normal temperature, but it was 28 degrees at 7am so I looked like a big sweaty tomato!  I also packed running bottoms not shorts and yep, forgot my water bottle again!

In true parkrun tradition, I got Mia and Ian to join me for breakfast afterwards at Duranbah café and God, it was good!😋

We went for a drive along the coast to a few places: first to Fingal Head and the Giant’s Causeway which has the same rock as the one in Northern Ireland hence the name!  Then back to Kingscliff.  Such a huge, beautiful beach with hardly anyone on it – perfect for people who don’t like people!🙊

Sunday:

Last day of holiday and you guessed it, Ian got up early to go fishing!  Mia and I took advantage of this and went out for breakfast at Black Sheep Espresso Baa!  (Like what they did there?!😀)

We looked at the markets and Mia played on the playground until GH arrived, moaning about how long it had taken him to get a parking space!  Saying that Coolangatta is literally around the corner from Tweed Heads, the difference in tourist population is crazy!  Tweed Heads has a lot sleepier vibe, whereas Coolangatta was buzzing with people and noise.  The beach there is great and the waves were pretty choppy so Mia had a great time splashing about!

We decided to go to the surf club at Kirra for lunch and why is it that you always find the best places on the last day?!  I had the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth Calamari rings with chips for $12 and drinks were dirt cheap too!  We had a balcony view overlooking the beach, Mia and Ian were both loving their meals as well and all was right with the world!😌  I extended myself to a second glass of wine and tried to convince Ian to stay another night so I could finish the bottle but he insisted he had to go to work the next day!😩

We went back to the hotel, packed up and reluctantly drove home.  We took it in turns to go ahead of each other and prayed that Ian wouldn’t get pulled over!  (Just another bit of poetic licence, not law-breaking!😬)

Back to reality.  Holiday over.  I enjoyed myself and even felt relaxed at some points!  But I felt a little deflated that it wasn’t the romantic break I had been looking forward to.  I know it’s never going to be that romantic when you add a child into the mix, but late night drinks and early morning fishing trips don’t mix.  Maybe I was setting my sights too high…