Saturday

We were outside the Harvey Norman Store at 8:45am but this was just a bit early because the store wasn't due to open for another fifteen miunutes so rather than loitering out the front, M took us for a drive to show off Bond University which is just near there; I admit I had briefly forgotten that she had gone there when she was learning Chinese (or was it Mandarin?)

Then we were back at the store at 9 and saw the metal grille raised, but we didn't run right in to see Damian - we took an extra moment to ring a camera store in Brisbane that M knows so we could do a cost comparison. They were closed though and the recorded message directed us to their website - where the TZ-20 wasn't ... and then we went in to see Damian. He had put aside the two cameras, and we did play with a demonstration model, and we did decide to buy. So 45 minutes later we were done - and took ourselves off to Burleigh for breakfast (nice) and a parking fine (not so nice).

Then the busy bit of the day started - the drive to Brisbane to go to the Buddha Birthday Festival for lunch (and more present buying for M) before we walked across to the Queensland Museum to see the 3:30pm session of The Mummy. It was incredible - including the 20 minute film we watched as part of but before we went into the exhibition proper. It was almost too much to comprehend that glass was all that separated us from a real Egyptian Mummy (why did they call them Mummies?) - and, my personal favourite - the oil tablet which was over 5000 years old and on which had been engraved/etched the recipes for seven different types of anointing oils. What happened whenn someone made a mistake when scratching out the heiroglyph ... did they have to start all over again?

Then, with no Mummy merchandise or memorabilia between us (except the attractive Mummy-eyes cardboard 3D glasses with which we watched the 3D pre-tour show), we made our way back to Buddha's Birthday and found ourselves in the SunCorp Piazza - which was adorned with three very large Buddhas, and shrine accoutrements - where we took a seat and waited for the 6:30 Lion Dancers ... and watched a young man practising for his "magic act". I wonder if he knew how big an affair Buddha's Birthday celebrations are? We hadn't, otherwise we would have expected, and not been surprised, by the appearance of Qld Premier Campbell Newman and a group of other "dignitaries" or the very elaborate entertainment by school children, martial arts students and Asian dancers - who formed an honour guard of sorts for a group of chanting Buddhist Nuns who officially opened the proceedings. We snuck out at a convenient point of the opening ceremonies to trek back to the car, pick up A and take her to dinner at the Pineapple Hotel (famous for its steaks) before meeting S (who had been down to Melbourne for the day to visit her mother who is not well), having a catch-up with her, and then making our way back to the Gold Cooast . . . and home at the end of what seemed like a very long day.