Saturday

It was time for our monthly breakfast with S (at Crave as usual). Today was "birthday day" because M, S and I are all Pisces so we exchanged cards and gifts. It was good to catch up but we may need to think about moving venues because Crave is just getting busier and busier on a Saturday morning. We know why that is ... it's just so good - and it's usually okay because we have time to settle in for a nice leisurely breakfast but it might be something of a challenge if we were in a hurry.

Sa is well and has been promoted at work and she seems much happier for it. It's not without its challenges though - there are some hangover supporters from the person who was in the role before S moved into it, but she seems to be dealing with that. She has an idea for improving their "hit" rate which she's working on and it's great to see her so passionate about what she's doing.

Post-breakfast (wait, that's just reminded me of the Post Cafe in Marrickville where we had many a good breakfast too), we had been thinking of a visit to Budds Beach to read the papers by the water, but we decided to do some shopping at Pacific Fair instead. I am in search of a new stylus for the iPad - I tried one someone had at work yesterday and it just slid across the screen - rather than the pushing I have to do with my others (don't ask how many ... I showed someone a selection - not all mind - of them today and they were fairly stunned at that - and I was glad at the time that I hadn't dug out the others). It was good that we had some time to spare so it meant there was time for a decent mall crawl and to "do" stuff: When I dropped in to Australian Geographic I noticed that their demonstration perpetual motion machine (Newton's Cradle with five balls suspended in a metal frame) was all tangled - so I fixed that - and, surprisingly, had more luck, much more quickly, than I usually have with my headphones (hmmm, I wonder where my doovers for keeping them tidy are?) I did find my stylus - the person selling them (three varieties) was kind enough to let me try them in-store (or, more accurately at their booth in the middle of the main thoroughfare) and one of them was a clear winner - especially since one of them didn't work at all! I'd been trying them out in my 7Notes Premium HD app and she was interested enough to ask for the details. An app which will turn handwriting to text can do that. Hmmm ... my dream job would be to go around cafes and coffee shops or even sitting in any public places eg libraries, using my iPhone and iPad to attract business for Apple (they would have me on retainer and pay me a modest commission for each "sale'" - K sent me).

Then it was off to The Big House where Suzanne had a bit of a play on the machines while I worked on the Christmas letter and drank compliment arg hot Chocdate in Bite as we waited to meet M for a coffee, before S and I set off to dinner. It was a good drive down the Coast, past Burleigh where we have stayed a number of times on holiday over the years. But nothing cmpares to driving along the beachfront at Currumbin and looking up the Coast to Surfers and down the Coast to Coolangatta. It's just magic on a moonlit and cloudless night especially when you can see the moon's reflection stretching out over the Ocean.

Dinner was at The Beach Shack - tapas. I'd been meaning to bring S down for some time - since I discovered it open the night M's plane had been delayed on the way back to the Gold Coast, and further delayed by way of Brisbane which resulted in passengers being bussed back to the Coast. Dinner was good although we were surprised by the size of the serves - we had always thought tapas meant "small" but there was nothing small about these dishes - all of which were incredibly tasty: thai beef salad in cucumber, bread with trio of dips, pork spare ribs and spring rolls. Yummmm or as people say on FaceBook these days "nom nom nom".