Burleigh Heads in Adventures in paradise

Monday was a beach-trip with Brande’, which was a lovely day. Always love going to Burleigh when it’s not overly crowded. There were still a fair few people there, given that it’s school holidays, but we had plenty of space and Brande’ found a park all fine, so it worked out well. I’d gone into work that morning and had a busy but productive (always good) shift, and then went home and did a load of washing and it had about 5 minutes to go when Brande’ pulled up in the shopping complex up in the First Choice complex up the road (since there’s construction next door to me) so I just had to wait a bit, throw my shit in the dryer and take off. Except I could hear something in the dryer. God-damn it. I’d put yet another lip-balm through the wash cycle. It’s a bad habit I keep doing! I’ll take everything out of my pants pockets and leave the lip-balms in there. I can still use them afterward, but they get stuck in the containers and it’s so annoying. First-world problems huh?
So yeah anyway, it was nice to get driven down the coast rather than catch the train, tram and a bus to get to Burleigh (which I don’t really have an issue with, I gotta do what I gotta do without a car. I guess I could always hire one, but when I don’t have to, I tend not to. I’ll deal with members of the public. Generally I don’t have much trouble, although I’m always aware when the train gets to certain renowned suburbs, such as the one I was assaulted at a few years ago.
So yeah anyway, we got fish and chips and just sat on the beach. It was cloudy, but the sun came out every so often, which I was thankful for because it was actually quite chilly. I was thankful I’d brought my jacket with, but Brande’ hadn’t brought one, so I suggested he wrap one of his beach towels around himself, which seemed to work well.

This was a seagull that was doing tricks by hovering on the spot in the air in the hope to get one of our chips.

Brande and I took some pics of each other. Normally I’m trying to stretch for a stupid selfie lol.

So we were there for probably three or four hours, laughing so much. I was getting up him for telling me a fake storyline to what happens on Melrose Place, as he was trying to throw me off the scent to what really happens. And then he told me that the black chick had left the show, and I was like, “WHAT!?”
“Didn’t you notice she’s no longer in the opening credits?”
Me: “You mean we didn’t even get to see a wedding? She just LEFT?? I guess she left to go start her singing career.” That had Brande’ in stitches. (That actress has the same name as a famous white singer from the 90’s).

I was glad I still had time after work to still get some of the sun. The other option was to go on Wednesday (today) but the weather forecast said it was going to be even cloudier, which it definitely is here.
We grabbed gelato, had that, walked around a bit and then headed off to look for Ramen.
I was so damn tired that I nodded off in the car for a bit. Brande was nice and said he’d wake me when we arrived. Ergh, I hate sleeping in front of other people, especially sitting upright - I tend to drool LOL.
I think I was okay too. I’d woken up as we arrived at the Hyperdome. We parked and walked all the way to the other side, only to find the ramen place was closed, so we drove further toward back home to Mt. Gravatt, but that place was closed also, so we opted for “PappaRich”, which I’d never been to before. The owner of the business actually checked us in. Turns out he owns three businesses and Brande was saying he thought he recognized him from the shopping centre near his place. He was a very loud Indian guy (reminds me of someone!). He was pointing out items to me on the menu that weren’t spicy, and asked if I wanted a knife and fork. I replied matter-of-factly, “I’ll have chopsticks thanks.” Brande’ says that I can use chopsticks better than he can lol. I dunno, I just wing it. I ended up having two mains - a chicken dish and also a chicken curry roti. I don’t know how I managed to finish them both. Brande wanted a drink after and we got to “The Beach House” right on last-drinks. I just had a mocktail there.

Brande dropped me off at Vish’s house, which was nice and he continued on home. I hadn’t seen Vish and James in quite a few months. I remembered why now. Vish was his usual annoying money-obsessed self.
Turns out he and James are buying yet ANOTHER property - I assume with the two-years of super Vish was able to withdraw from his account ($10k last financial year, $10k this FY - it was a thing the government did to help with Covid, but I wasn’t eligible for it.) So he’s already tried to rope me into helping spend a few days painting. He’s like, “You’re my best friend, you’re suppose to help.”
I was like, “How’s it MY fault you decided to buy another house??” LOL. I mean, I’ll probably go help cos I’m not an asshole but Vish’s bargaining turned from 1 day into trying to get me to do 3. Fuck, I haven’t helped paint someone’s house since I was like 13.
But the most annoying thing was him turning to me and trying to convince ME to buy one. I was like, “Hey if you wanna drop 500k on a house, that’s on you, but I don’t like the idea of being that far in debt!”
In the end, he let it go and was like, “You’re not money-hungry like I am.”
Yes, no I’m not lol.
And I keep thinking about what my friend Steve says, how he’s so far into a mortgage and because he’s gay, it’s not like he’s got anyone to leave it to when it’s paid off, so he just wants to keep making the minimum payments instead. I dunno if I agree with that idea either, but it makes sense in a way lol.

Anyway, it was a big day. I was fucking exhausted when I finally got home. James kindly dropped me off. I think I passed out right away.