Sunday was definitely NOT my day of rest!

A week ago, a group of friends of mine from Malaysia came to the Gold Coast cause they won a mooting competition. (If you’re snickering at the name – like most people do – let me tell you it’s organized by Bond University. There, that should give it some credibility.) Imagine that, an ALL EXPENSE PAID trip to the GOLD COAST.

So, being in Brisbane, it was logical and easy enough for us to come to an understanding that i would drag my butt out of bed on a Sunday morning (forgoing all sleep) to traipse to the city, grab another friend of ours who is from Malaysia as well, walk to Central Station, get on the train to Nerang, get OFF it just to get ON a bus, just to get lost in Surfer’s Paradise.

Sharlene and i were getting grumpy on the bus. As you can see…

Me and Sharl bored on the bus. Well, we WERE grumpy. Must be a good camera.

This time i am NOT exaggerating. But let me elaborate. It was meant to be a one and a half hour trip but because of all the bus and train changing, it took us twice the time to get there. While on the bus, we received a call from Ashweein (the friend we were supposed to meet) who said to call when we got there and we would all meet up in Condom Kingdom. It was not the most conventional meeting place but being grumpy and tired, Sharl and i didn’t think twice.

~Fast forward~

Voila! We FINALLY arrived at surfer’s paradise. I dutifully picked up my phone to call Ashweein to be greeted by ‘The number you have dialed is not in service. Please try again.’ So i did. Same response. (By the way, if the number is not even in service, why should i try again?) Sharl tried next. Same response. We repeated the process again. SAME RESPONSE. Now we had to revise our plan of action. We had to look for… you guessed it; CONDOM KINGDOM. (Thanks for that Ash!) Sharl and i, two innocent girls, weren’t about to parade around the city asking “Hi, could you please direct us to Condom Kingdom?“.

Somehow, by some miracle, i remembered going to the Gold Coast several years ago as a little girl and actually SEEING – NOT ENTERING – a huuuuge, ostentatious, flashing neon sign that bore entrance to a meticulously decorated shop. What it was decorated with i leave to your imagination. The other thing i remembered was it was near a beach.

Sharlene: Yeah, we’re in Surfer’s Paradise. A BEACH IS MANDATORY! (Well, she was thinking that.)

Luckily, Surfer’s Paradise is littered with maps for tourists so we hobbled along to one and narrowed our intended destination to a mall strip called Cavill Mall. It was by the beach. Somehow, even with the map we were at a loss so we finally resigned to ask the attendants of the Information Booths. We asked the dreaded question bound to ruin our reputations for all eternity. “Could you please direct us to Condom Kingdom?“

Guess what? It was JUST AROUND THE CORNER!! Anyways, during the course of that fustrating and highly traumatizing search for the shop (by the way, it wasn’t as flashy as i remembered. I should’ve taken a pic.) we still tried calling Ash, Cass and Yii Fang. We even tried calling Ms Donna (the teacher accommpanying them). No luck.

We were dismayed, desperate, and downright hungry. We temporarily abandoned hope and sought solace in Hungry Jack’s. (I wanted Subway but Sharl insisted on Hungry Jack’s. We should’ve listened to me because they gave only a little bit of fries but let’s not get into that conversation.)

I don't normally look like that. The sight of food was VERY comforting ok?

Sharl may look more sedate but i sensed the inner turmoil.

~ Fast forward : 2 hours later ~

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng! Finally! A call! From Ash! He calls wanting to know where we were while we fume about having to wander aimlessly for two hours.

Anyways, in the end, all is well because we met up with all of them outside… you guessed it CONDOM KINGDOM!

What happened next was typical of tourists in a foreign city: SIGHTSEEING AND SHOPPING! (Dad, please breathe. I don’t consider myself a tourists so i didnt spend money. Not a LOT anyways. We can still keep the house.)

Here is a collage, as best as what i can do with a computer and with wordpress which i am still unfamiliar with, of what we did next:

Cassandra greying and me going blonde!

This is us. We're posing with a big chair. It was that or the gold man. We had to pay the gold man to take the pic so we chose the chair. LOL.

I FOUND MAMMA MIA BOOTS! THEY HAD PLASTIC-Y PURPLE ONES TOO!

Anyways, the day HAD to end. So we all went our separate ways. Ash, Cass, Yii Fang and Ms Donna went off to something called the ‘Aqua Duck’. Please don’t ask because i have NO idea what it entails. Sharl and I went to retrace our steps back to the bus stop . At least now when we get lost we can ask more dignified directions. LOL. The adventure had ended…

OR SO WE THOUGHT.

Sharl and I took 5 long tedious hours to get back from Surfer’s Paradise. We were shuttled on and off buses frequently on the train trip back. Why? Apparently someone has walked onto the tracks and got hit by the train so they had to close that section of the rail. We weren’t on the train that hit the poor guy but we missed the train that left before us by 2 seconds. Scary huh?

On a more fortunate note, we managed to get on the absolute LAST bus of the day to go home from the city. Oh, it wasn’t that late – about 8.30pm – but here in Aussie, they take things sloooooooooow and easy. So we only have a handful of bus trips on Sundays.

So after that eventful day, i’m on the lookout for more adventures. Mid semester break is coming up soon so i might be in luck then! Tata for now.

Hello world!

As per my mother’s advice, I have decided to overcome my chronic laziness and start my own blog. Yes, you read that right – my mother asked me to start a blog. What can i say? She’s cool and with the times.

You know, i’ve always wondered why they call them ‘blogs‘. No offence but the word doesn’t exactly hold much appeal. But now, as i am older and wiser than i was yesterday, and have signed up for wordpress, i saw that ’blog‘ actually came from the words ‘web‘ and ‘log‘ put together. I don’t know about you but it was a little anticlimatic for me. Guess i expected something a little more interesting from that little word.

Anyways, this is sorta my informal introduction to the world. I’ve been given a voice over the internet - although i think my friends will tell you the last thing i need is to be more audible. So now you’ll be hearing a LOT more from me.

xxoo