Cockroaches and Fins

28 December 2018

Bugsy called out for me at 05:30 so I clambered into bed with her and she went straight back to sleep, once she’d nudged me to the edge of the bed! We woke up around 07:30 and lay in bed chatting until we got up half an hour later when Ian went off for his shower. 🥰

We’d invited Val over for breakfast with us for our final morning before we checked out, and she arrived just before 09:00, with fresh coffee for Ian which he very much appreciated.  We ate together, and while Ian and I finished packing up and loading the car, Val kindly entertained Cornelia who was keen to do some handwriting practice for a change.  With one last look at the wasps’ nest that we’d been monitoring since our arrival (outside the stairwell), and with hugs all round, we left for Kingscliff.

The journey should only have taken just over an hour, but due to the numerous crashes and consequent heavy traffic, it took nearly three hours.  Still, this gave Cornelia plenty of time to spot the Dreamworld tower, and a long chat ensued all about when we come back to see Rochelle… and if you’re reading this, Rochelle, Ian’s approved me and Cornelia coming out in a couple of years for three weeks.. so book us in!! 😉  But we have to go to Seaworld and ALL the other worlds there are too…! Cornelia was an absolute delight the whole journey, chatting away to us quite cheerfully and not getting at all impatient.

We finally arrived in Kingscliff, and were very excited to see our new house, which looked very large and modern.  But all that glitters is not gold.  It was filthy dirty.  There were about a dozen dead cockroaches on the floor in the open plan kitchen/dining/living area, and dirt all over the floor.  I opened the fridge to see how clean it was, and not only was it so filthy that I had to clean it before I could put our food in there, it was completely full apart from the top shelf.  I looked at some of the food stuff there, and there were various pots of cream and yoghurt whose use by dates were in SEPTEMBER.  On the positive side, Michelle had left a little basket with a bottle of bubbles and chocolates as a welcome gift.

We spent the first hour of our arrival cleaning.  This place will be a million times cleaner when we leave than it was when we arrived, that’s for sure!  In the meantime, we had said to Cornelia that she could watch some TV.  We switched it on, and whatever the last channel that was watched automatically came on.  Unfortunately, “I don’t give a f*** what you think, you bastard!” were the welcoming words that greeted Cornelia. Gah!!!  Thank goodness for the mute button and CBeebies coming to the rescue!

I cobbled together a late lunch of beans on toast, before we went out to explore the neighbourhood.  (We hadn’t realised that we are an hour ahead of Brisbane here.) Salt Village is a few hundred metres away, and is a pleasant little strip of shops and eateries, with a large green area and a park directly opposite.  Cornelia had a chocolate ice cream and then played in the park for half an hour before we went for supper at one of the local restaurants, Fins.  I had nipped home to change, and bring Ian a smart shirt (when we realised it wasn’t really a “straight from the beach” kinda place!) and in the meantime, Cornelia had made a lovely new friend, Lavina, who was staying with her grandparents (who have a holiday home here) for a few days.  We hoped to see them again tomorrow – same time, same place!

We had a very funny (or perhaps slightly stoned?!) waiter, Jesse, to start with at Fins.  He launched into a story about how much he hated English winters, and while he was living in London had woken up one day and said to his girlfriend “I can’t stand this, I’m going back home.  Do you want to come?”  She’d said no, and 36 hours later, he was back in Oz.  Once he’d finished that tale, we were able to order our drinks – a cherry vodka cocktail for me and Ian stayed safe with a beer.  Cornelia had her own menu that she could colour in, and ordered the fish dish for herself, while Ian had the Spice Garden fish and I tried the special – lobster and prawn linguine.  Cornelia wasn’t very happy with her food – it was served with a lemon sauce that covered it all, but I distracted her and shovelled the mouthfuls in for her, and before she knew it, she’d eaten most of the fish and the potatoes.

We were having such an enjoyable evening (it’s amazing what a cocktail and a glass of wine can do!) that we decided to stay and order dessert.  We’d seen others go by and they looked utterly delicious, so while Cornelia was over the moon that she’d have her second ice cream of the day, we were slightly disappointed with ours.  Ian had a five chocolate pud, that was just too cold to really hold the flavour, and I had an average pannacotta – the description of “Milk Pannacotta: fresh goats curd, cinnamon apples, Port wine, almond crumb” sounded much better than the reality.  But it gave me a chance to enjoy a dessert wine!

The bill was an eye-watering $250 (once we’d added a tip), so that’s the last time we’ll be eating out here!! It was worth it though, and for the second night in a row, I didn’t have to cook!

The penalty of a late night out in a restaurant was a very tired Bugsy, who needed to be carried home.  She wouldn’t go to Daddy, and was almost asleep in my arms by the time we arrived back at the apartment.  We brushed her teeth and she went straight to bed without any argument and was fast asleep within minutes.  So, maybe the answer to getting her to sleep early IS to eat out every night….!

I meant to update the blogs, but I was just slightly tipsy and spent the last two hours of the evening watching completely rubbish TV – some American show about million-dollar listings somewhere.  Pure trash TV.  Love it!