Gold Coast trip in Adventures in paradise

I’ve got an hour until my late 12pm checkout (woohoo) so why not write an entry?

It’s been great. These 4 days away have been so worth it, and yeah this hotel is amazing, and huge. I’ve had at least 7 or 8 spas since I got here last Saturday. But now it’s Wednesday and it’s time to say goodbye.

I went down to the beach a couple of times and went to Pacific Fair yesterday. I hadn’t seen it since they’ve done it up and it’s a hell of a lot more impressive than it used to be (which wasn’t hard I guess). I ended up buying a heap of the camping stuff I needed whilst I was there, which I now have to lug back home to Brisbane, but it won’t be that hard.

The light rail here is a bit confusing at the moment because they are in a testing phase of opening the last part of the line, so the trains read ‘Helensvale’ rather than where they actually stop at the uni, but there are signs at each station warning people. Too bad if you’re already on the tram though because there are no warnings whatsoever on those. Luckily that hasn’t affected me, and the line should be working by the time I’m probably back on the Gold Coast, which will probably be for the Commonwealth Games.

I made a bit of a mini-blog, as I do when I’m somewhere. It’s shit, as usual lol.

Anyhoo, here are some photos I took

This was me on the tram on the way here

The hotel leads out to the shops, convenient.

A hotel view

They have reindeer (I’d never seen one before!) with sleighs down at the beach lol

There was a rainbow lorikeet chirping away outside my bedroom (I’m on level 29). I snapped a few vids of it when it let me get close, which was cute.

One of my spas

Peter came down on Sunday. He was hungover lol.

Peter asked me why I didn’t invite Vish and James down and I said it was because they’d just argue the whole time and that’s the last thing I want on a relaxing holiday. There is a sofa bed in the hotel room though (like I said, it’s pretty big) so there is room for up to 4 people if required. The hotel has everything - gym (but I didn’t bring shoes, DOH), three pools (two indoor, one lagoon outdoor), resident spa (on top of the room spas), steam room, sauna, a games room (which is actually pretty cool) and a cinema that holds up to 15 people.
This is a wild throw from when I’ll be camping on the ground in the middle of nowhere in a few weeks time. I’m still SO nervous about that and not sure why I’m even doing it, but hey, I’ll get by. I just have to plan my days well so that I’m not stuck in a hot tent all day long. I’m thinking beach? Hopefully it’s not like last year where there were bluebottles everywhere.

Andrew might be back from the UK when i arrive home. He’s thinking of doing a 2 day trip down to Byron next week and has invited me along. I can do it as long as I’m back by the Thursday for work.

I’m seeing a movie called “Beach Rats” tonight back in Brisbane. It’s a fundraiser for the Queer Film Festival next year, and it looks pretty cool. Then on Saturday I am taking off work because I have my family Christmas party. So I have to go pick up the hire car, drive out to Pittsworth, then come back to Brisbane in time to see another LBGT movie (“Call Me By Your Name” - which I just heard was nominated for a few Golden Globes, so that’s pretty cool!) and then after that I have my work Christmas party, which will either be absolute shit or pretty decent, especially if the hot straight guys do themselves up and give me something to look at :P
I’m stupidly working on Sunday though, so I’d imagine any customer who tries to ask me for help then is in for a surprise.

Apparently I had my RBF (Resting-Bitch-Face) on yesterday as I was walking through a shopping mall here, because I noticed a Red-Cross stand. They were looking for blood donors for their Christmas drive I guess, but whenever I see the Red Cross, I get annoyed because they don’t accept ‘gay blood’ (too risky, apparently, even though all blood is tested). So I’ve always just seen them as discriminatory. So I guess I had a scowl on my face when one of the guys says to me, “Dropped your smile!” - except all I heard was ‘Dropped your…‘ so of course I look behind and feel my pockets, and there was nothing there on the ground. Then I realised what he said, and I felt awkward and kept walking.
I’m so fucking awkward. Then I felt really pissed off that he had said that to me. Like, fuck, let me have a God-damn resting bitch face haha. And then I thought about why I did - it was because I saw the Red Cross stand and became, rightfully, annoyed. I’m unsure if that law changed. I heard that it did but I don’t think it was here for some reason.
I think the same whenever I think of the Salvation Army. My gym has been collecting gifts to give to the Salvation Army for their Christmas appeal, but I know for a fact that the Salvo’s HATE gay people. So whenever I walk into the gym and see the signs, I’m like, “FUCK THAT!” I know they are generally a good cause, but the fact they have this fucked-up hatred toward people like me is enough to make an unfortunate kid miss out. They did this to themselves as far as I’m concerned. I’ll give to a cause who gives a shit.
I’ve thought about becoming one of those side-sweep soccer-mum’s who wants to speak to the manager and writing my gym an email explaining why I won’t support their chosen charity but then I’m like, “Meh, not worth it.”

Anyway, thanks Goldy! I’ll be back I’m sure.

Funnily enough, my book ‘adventures in paradise’ really suits this entry, as I am in Surfer’s Paradise.