Just quickly, before I get into an account of my boys weekend to Queensland, here is the photo of baby Kiah I promised.

She's a cute one isn't she? I don't know, I wasn't really that clucky for babies until I had my own, but now I am lining up with all of the women for a cuddle.

The funny thing is, to my mind, William is still a tiny baby, but put him next to Kiah and he looks enourmous.


Anyway, on to the Queensland trip.

Andrew and I met at the airport, and I was dissapointed to discover that construction delays had preventing the new terminal from coming into operation. So we boarded our plane the good old Adelaide way across the tarmac. Maybe its just me, but I would have thought you would have waited until the new terminal was in operation before you started pulling the old one to pieces, but apparently not since the old terminal feels like a half finished renovation project at the moment.

Once we landed in Brisbane, we grabbed our hire car and after I remembered how to drive a manual, we headed for the Gold Coast. The fact it was pissing with rain didn't dampen our spirits. We got to our hotel, a "resort" on a place called Hope Island, which was just a mangrove swamp with houses on it. The hotel looked over a Marina which was quite nice.

This particular resort was built in 1991 (which means it was designed in the 80's) and it showed. It was every Gold Coast cliche all done in a neat package, the bad pastel decor, hordes of Japanese tourists in Hawaiin shirts and a cheesy bar with a god awful lounge singer. We dumped our stuff in the room and headed out for dinner.

We hit Surfers Paradise, and I've got to admit, I wasn't quite ready for the sheer number of hi-rise appartment blocks. I also always had this idea that there was a boulevard down the beach front where all of the cafes, restraunts and bars were, and have to admit I was slightly dissapointed that it wasn't the case.

Eventually we found the restaraunt strip, a couple of streets back from the beach, and had a pretty nice meal al-fresco whilst chatted and enjoyed the passing talent.

Saturday we checked out of the cheesy resort, and headed for a much better resort, Royal Pines. Very swish - championship golf course, 4 restaurants, swimming pool with a swim up bar, day spa - the whole caper. It is a bit of a golf Mecca - and is home of the ANZ ladies masters. I don't need to tell you then that we blew the whole day Saturday trying the course out.

If you ignore the fact that I lost (count 'em) 9 golf balls in water traps, and generally played a very average game, it was a great day all round. Andrew and I were paired up with a couple of old blokes from Canberra for the day who were good fun. Almost as much fun as blasting around in the GPS equipped golf buggy. The fact that I am so shit at golf makes the buggy driving all the more fun, because I got to drive between trees and up hills and throught the rough chasing my wayward balls.

Weather was that odd tropical mix of stinking hot and raining, and by the time we had finished we were ready for a swim in the pool and a drink at the swim up bar. However, in the time it took us to go back to the room and get our togs on, a cold change had blown in, the pool had emptied and the bar had closed. The spa was warm though....

Saturday night was a feast of eating and drinking, I pushed the ol' gut o meter right off the scale at the all you can eat seafood and all you can drink beer and wine buffet in the hotel.

Sundays activities were limited by the torrential rain, so we headed back for Brisbane and spent a good part of the day at the historic Breakfast Creek Hotel, eating some very fine steak, drinking brews and discussing Midnight Oil. The weather did fine up enough for us to go for a stroll around South Bank late in the afternoon, which was pleasant.

The weekend was rounded out by a bit of Sushi, and a visit to a couple of bars in Fortitude Valley.