Gam and Sarah's Coolangatta trip, part 2

Now we get some nice weather- when we're leaving!

Yesterday we got turkish pizza for lunch again- its name was 'kiymali' or something- lamb mince with capsicum paste, spices and chilli on that delicious crisp, chewy base, served with a couple of wedges of lemon. Mmmhmmm.

We also went to dinner at a place called 'Farley's', on Marine Parade (i.e. the road along the beach), with a couple of Gam's workmates who live on the Gold Coast. It was nice to finally meet some of the people I'm always hearing about! I have to say, I liked them even before I met them, because Gam goes to work and comes home happy every day and enjoys his job thanks to the nice work environment and team-mates he has. It means a lot to me that he's happy at work. So I kind of love his work-mates :) They were very nice in person, too. One brought her hubby and their adorable 2-year-old boy... not only was he very well-behaved, he had red-hair... There's something particularly cute about red-haired kids... maybe I just like them because I've just never met a bratty one due to the fact they're comparatively rare compared to blonde and brunette kids! At least Gam can't accuse me of getting clucky over little gingernuts, because the chances of us having one of them are absolutely nil!

I had a nice seafood spaghetti with prawns and bugs, while everyone else had a huge hunk of red meat. As usual, I was the slowest eater (I suppose having a small tub of Baskin Robbins icecream before dinner didn't help matters), so I only finished about a third of my meal. God I'm hopeless. It was very tasty, though the 'tomato pesto' was made with dodgy unripe supermarket tomatoes, letting the dish down somewhat. Still, I'd have it again.

View from our balcony...

We had been disappointed to discover yesterday that the New Zealand Natural store in Coolangatta has closed down- we settled for Baskin Robbins, but it's nowhere near as good. Even Connoisseur from the supermarket is waaay better. There's also a Cold Rock just downstairs from where we're staying, but Cold Rock icecream sucks. It's just nasty cheap icecream with lollies and chocolate mixed in- pure novelty. We would have gone to the little gelati place across the road that we went to the night before, but it was shut.

It's getting towards the end of the year for me- my thesis is due in two weeks (I got a 2 week extension because I'd been sick for 2 months and had an operation)... I have to say, in the last week or so I've become a bit disillusioned. My supervisor was away for a whole month when I was sick, which wasn't such a big deal because I was too sick to do much and pester him with questions, but now he's away for another 2 weeks, ending this weekend, and hasn't been very good about replying to his email. It's probably a lack of access, because he's usually very good even when he goes away, but still... I sent him a bunch of questions on Monday and I still haven't got a reply! I cant check my email today because my 24 hours' access has expired. If I hadn't got that extension, he simply wouldn't have been there to go over the thesis with me before it was due! His uninterfering, hands-off approach has suited me for the most part, but having never written a thesis or submitted a journal article for publication before I do have questions for him and I do need them answered. He is a great guy and a really busy person, involved with a lot of different committees and things, as well as supervising numerous PhD students, but I think maybe he is a bit too busy to take on honours students as well. I'm a bit disappointed. I've got the opportunity to go on and start a PhD at the same place next year, but even if I don't I really want to do well in my honours. I suppose I'm a bit more nervous over it than I otherwise would be simply because I lost so much time when I was sick.

View from our balcony- still cold though!

Speaking of being sick- or not being sick now, thankfully!- I stopped having bleeding and spotting within 24-48 hours of having my Implanon out... No bleeding for the first time in 2 months! I had a pain-free day on Wednesday, but for some reason I had pain again yesterday... I'm hoping that's the last time, because I don't want to contemplate the possibility that something other than my Implanon was causing me trouble. Frankly, I wouldn't know where to start and neither would the doctors.

Oh, and Four Seasons Naked Condoms don't live up to their tagline of feeling like you're wearing nothing at all... I didn't really have high hopes, but yeah... colour me disappointed. Just as plasticky and nasty as any other condom I've tried. Next we're going to try the Ansell Lifestyles ultra-thin, but I'm not holding my breath for those to be any better.

We arranged for me to check out late from Calypso Plaza at 12pm, at a cost of $35, so I don't have to sit around the place Gam is doing his training at for 6 hours until he finishes. He'll meet me at 12.30pm or so for lunch and then I'll only have to wait 3 hours for him to get done. On Wednesday I occupied myself for 4 hours reading 'Nation', the new Terry Pratchett book we bought the other day, but I'd finished it by the time he got home, so I'll have to buy some trashy magazines, or maybe something from the second-hand bookshop if I have time before Gam's lunch break is over. I think Gam doesn't want to have Kiymali pizza for lunch for a third day in a row (he thinks I'm deranged because I would have had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could!), so I'm going to have a kebab from the same place (Adana's Palace) and Gam will get a pie (pepper steak, probably) from the Coolangatta pie shop down the road. I love a good kebab- I hope it's as good as their pizza!

After Gam finishes his training we're planning to head north- to Bundall, I think- to catch up with some more of his workmates (including the two from last night) who are having wine and cheese somewhere. I have no idea where to pick up a good cheese in Coolangatta, but hopefully I can find something. Then we'll head home to our beloved Feifei, who is probably worrying that we've left him forever! We once left him at home for 10 days with heaps of food and water and litter (and the managers popping in to check on him from time to time), and when we got back he followed us everywhere and purred for 24 hours straight- I'm not sure if he kept purring even while he was asleep or if he just didn't sleep for 24 hours, but he was soooo clingy when we got back. I think I can look forward to lots of nice Fei-cuddles :) Keith Richards will probably just be pissed that I haven't brought him any vegetabless for 3 days...

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We didn't wind up going to meet Gam's workmates. Gam picked me up at 12:30pm after I'd checked out of the hotel and I went to hang out in the car and read while he spent the afternoon at work/training. By the time he was finished for the day we were both exhausted (I don't know what my excuse was, but it's just as well Gam wasn't the one falling asleep in the car on the way home, seeing as he was driving!).

We had gone to breakfast at Farley's (after having gone there for dinner the previous evening) because we had an 'entertainment book' voucher to use there that we'd forgotten to use at dinner. I think it must be pretty hard to get a decent coffee in Coolangatta- Farley's did us an iced latte just as we requested (bringing the ice over on the side!) but the quality of the coffee was pretty disappointing. Better than The Ginger Jar, though- way better. Gam had bacon, egg and hash brown, while I had banana bread. Both were pretty decent.

For lunch I had a kebab from Adana's Palace- it was a step down after the sheer fabulousness of their pizza, but as kebabs go it was absolutely top-notch. The bread they used for the wrap was pretty special- I don't know if they make it in-house, but it was kind of fluffy and chewy (sort of like their pizza base but without the oven-crispness). The texture seemed to stop it from going soggy through to the outside from the tomato, lettuce and sauces. I had hot chilli and hummus- it could have done with a bit more of both, I suppose, but the hummus was of good quality- not that questionable runny stuff that even good kebab shops often use. And did I mention it was absolutely MASSIVE? Yum... It took me probably an hour to eat it (I am a really slow eater, but still- it was probably about 2 meals' worth of food for me!). If we lived close to Adana's Palace I think I would eat there every day and not get tired of it. I don't think the Gold Coast has a lot to recommend it, to be honest, but Adana's Palace is so good that Gam has promised to make a detour and stop there on our way back from Kempsey next time we visit.

When we got home, Feifei seemed more subdued than I'd expected. The reason for this became clear when he hopped into his litter box and stayed there for ages... and did nothing... the poor little bugger was constipated! He gave a little miaow of distress and shot us one of those "Help me! Why don't you do something?!" looks. I'd fed him some grass after we got home, and Gam let him outside for a run around. It couldn't have been due to something he'd eaten, because he never really eats anything except for biscuits and water (and grass), so I figured it must have been from lack of exercise. When he came back in he was much cheerier and spent the evening giving me cuddles :)