Ballina Weekend

Sunday 26 Feb 2012 - Really glad that I left Brisbane early on Saturday morning to avoid traffic. I left at 6:45am Brisbane time, and by 7:45 I was sitting in barely moving traffic on the Pacific Motorway, Gold Coast, in the pouring rain, as cars had to merge from 2 lanes to 1, taking about 45 minutes to move 5km. Workmen worked in the rain, fixing potholes, for about a 100 metre stretch, then the traffic pretty much disappeared and I was on my way again. Random. Then, I seemingly missed my turnoff to Ballina and ended up on the other side of town to what I was expecting. All up, the normally 2.5 hour trip took me 3.5 hours. So yeah - glad I left Brisbane early to avoid traffic!!

Ballina is definitely more laid-back than Brisbane - I love going there for weekends to get away from it all, so to speak. This weekend, we watched a Collingwood vs Western Bulldogs game from last week, an episode of Monk (family favourite), and Mum & I watched Revenge and Smash (which is on a channel I don't have, so I got to check it out - it's good!), and we went through Mum & Dad's upcoming cruise itinerary, which looks amazing, and I am quite jealous about it all... Today we all went out to lunch at Pelicans, a seafood restaurant on the river, for Dad's birthday which is on Tuesday, before I headed back to Brisbane.

Yesterday I also visited my friend Angela.. She has a little menagerie at her house, consisting of a very timid but lovely, fluffy cat called Dalai, a friendly puppy-like bunny called Milo, and a squawky bird called Alby. Ange and I got Thai takeaway, a bottle of wine and a DVD, for a good Saturday night catchup. Ange is a great friend that I've known since the start of high school. She and I travelled to Croatia and Ireland together a while ago, and to Hawaii with another friend, Sally, for my "big birthday" a couple of years ago. Ange is an excellent travel buddy as she is very "laid back and cruisey", and nicely counterbalances my "uptight and stressy"!

She is also a good Band Buddy, who got me hooked on Muse, and used to go to bands with me when we both lived in Sydney. We went to Sydney for a weekend when Green Day last came out to Australia. I managed to score box seats through Thai Airways and work, so we happily consumed free drinks and nibblies, and had great seats for the concert. Here we are beforehand: