Friday, 12 April

What a busy day today - and it's not over yet because we still have to go to Mouse's for dinner.

S and M had already gone by the time my alarm sounded this morning; S had an early dental appointment and M had her usual Friday gig (including breakfast with a colleague).

After the dentist, I picked up S from Broadbeach and we made our way to see my aunt and her family who are holidaying on the Gold Coast. They have been down here from Toowoomba since last weekend but have been fairly busy with the rest of the family. They had a unit at a resort up the north end of the Coast - across the road from the beach - a really nice location - with a pool and a BBO area - and a great kid's playground across the road from the resort. Their unit was also equipped with a spa - complete with child-proof fence. We had a lovely visit with them, catching up on the family news (we have missed a few births along the way) and their foray into common ancestry ... who knew we were related to King Richard III (whose remains were recently found under a car park) or that one of our forebears had been transported to Australia as a convict ... which is what they did with highwaymen back then. It will be interesting to see their research when they've put it all together.

Then, after lunch with them, we pushed on to Pacific Fair for coffee with M, Mouse, Az, Mi and Em. I don't often get to do that so it was a nice change. Then, S and I went home - so she could have a nap before we were back in the car and on our way to Mouse's for dinner. It was wonderful - and a surprise when Fl and Mi turned up a bit later in the evening. They had been out and about and had said they would drop in if they were able - which they did.

During dinner, I received a call from my cousin. During our visit with them, we had suggested they stop in at Pacific Fair to do some shopping there - and while they were my cousin had bought an instant scratchie ticket and won $25,000! Fantastic! The amazing thing was - as S pointed out on our way home, that when we missed their initial call yesterday we were trying to work out why they were ringing (as one does). We had gone from "something's wrong in Toowoomba", to "they're on the Coast and they want to get together" to ... "they're ringing us to tell us they've won $100,000". Well, as it turns out, we were a quarter right. Good for them! A very nice end to a great day!