Wednesday

We had a wonderful visit with Wa over the last couple of days. We had seen him in Toowoomba last weekend but it's just not the same! He arrived on Monday in time for us to take him to lunch down at the Broadwater. Then back at Jannie, we helped him with his latest project - he is about to set off in his Van on a trip around Australia. He's not sure how long he'll be on the road - maybe 3 months, maybe 3 years. He's mostly kitted out but he was after a PLB - aka a Personal Locator Beacon  - an emergency location device which is good to within a few metres. Hopefully he'll never need it but as he said, he'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. l couldn't help thinking about the ending of Dante's Peak where the Mayor, her children and the wonderful Pierce Brosnan are found thanks to such a beacon - yes, it was way bigger and didn't need to be in line of sight of a satellite (remember it was in the mine with them) but it's basically the same! Do you know how hard it is to find a PLB that's recommended, at a reasonable price, and in stock? Well, it wasn't easy but after several phone calls and internet searches we finally managed to locate one at Anaconda at Logan (no stores on the Coast had stock) - and even better Wa found their Club price which had it at a more reasonable $300 rather than the advertised $400. Hurrah!

We went up to collect it on Tuesday morning - and, yes, I admit I had forgotten the navigation module on Ravi is not to be trusted - but when it directed us, quite confidently, to some back street and then announced we had arrived, I remembered. We did find Anaconda soon after - it had not taken us too far out of our way thank goodness. 

After Logan, we were back on the Coast at Harvey Norman looking for some SSD storage on special -again made a little easier thanks to the internet. But we weren't finished yet: next stop Pelican feeding at Charis Seafoods - and had it not been raining and had we been able to secure a spot undercover, we may have stayed there - but we couldn't, so we didn't - and set off to Paradise Point - via the Downtown Deli to pick up sandwiches for a picnic. Sooz had ham and salad while Wa and I ordered from the menu - an "Old School" and a "Cattleman". 

Our reason for going to Paradise Point was to see how much it had changed: Wa hasn't been back there since we moved to Sydney 45 years ago. There have been a few changes over the years - with land being reclaimed for housing developments and bridges being built. When we lived there, there was only the one island, with one house on it - and the owners accessed it via seaplane (I had forgotten that) or they drove across in their car that converted into a boat. 

The house where we used to live is still there but it has been seriously remodelled. We didn't recognize it on the first drive-by. 

Back at Jannie, there was more computer work as Wa registered his PLB, and I transcribed some reports while Nigey bounced between all of us so no-one felt left out. 

I am even more in awe of the (not-so-now) new pizza place under the Aqua Building: Cara Mia. We had pasta, salad and garlic breads from there last night. Yum, yum and yum again. As I told Wa, one of the things I like about them is the more than 5 colour-coded pizza cutters so there can be no allergen/other contaminations.  We're working on them to install a coffee machine too!