Wednesday

I survived Dracula's Haunted House - and have the wristband to prove it! Of course, those who know me will know that I am not exaggerating when I say it took letting little H go first and both of us having torches that stayed on virtually all the way through, that made it possible. Who knew that it was going to be the day of the dark places - especially since the reason for going into Surfers Paradise today was to go to Infinity - a lights show. Luckily H had already been through this attraction with M so he knew his way around - the object is to make your way through Infinity by finding the doors that lead through to the next area - and without him there to lead the way through, I would probably still be there. I think we made it from start to finish in record time though (but not the five minutes that M suggested it would take) but it was still enough to take it in and marvel at what can be done with light and dark in different proportions. H doesn't seem to be afraid of the dark at all - which is just as well because in one area at Infinity it is dark and you step into the room - and the floor is all squishy and not quite where you expect it to be. And yes, those were laser sights on our backs and fronts and sides as we went through one area. Duck!!!!!

And then we went off to Dracula's Haunted House. This had not been on our agenda - well, not on mine at least, and I'm not quite sure how I came to say "yes" to going - but before I knew what was happening really the girls in ghoulish make-up at the counter were calling me "Mum" and assuring me it was scary and that if you chicken out they don't give cash refunds (but they will give merchandise!!). It's not everyone who can say they have crawled into Kevin Rudd's mouth, taken a tour of his digestive tract and then plopped out the other end! Would it have been more horrifying if it had been current Prime Minister Julie Gillard's instead? Again, H had been to the Haunted House before and he remembered all the best scary bits - especially the bits where they shoot air over you and make loud whooshing noises ... you knew it was coming because he would either tell me to cover my ears or he would be covering his. And it's not the world's worst attraction ... and it would probably be even more scary without the torches or if the batteries had run out before we reached the end. And, the electric chair in the entrance doesn't work!!! We weren't expecting it to work like a real electric chair but we were expecting it to do something!

Then we met M and S, had a cup of coffee at StarBucks (thanks to the young gentleman who gave me the receipt for over $10 so I could get two hours free parking even though I only bought $7.95 worth of coffee), and then made our way back to Latimers - stopping at Sushi Train Nerang (too crowded to get a table) and then at NoodleBox for dinner (takeaway).

Pearl was pleased when we arrived home and H fed her - mince and cookies - and maybe even a little bit of meat from his noodles. She would also not have said no to his popcorn - tonight was Movie Night again in M's room (no word yet on the television and progress in getting it fixed) and we all watched "Zohan" - very funny - before S and I left M, H and Pearl to it ... too many late nights make it very difficult to concentrate on detailed figurings at work!