Lorraine drove all the way up from Brisbane to spend the weekend with us, enduring a 4 hour traffic-congested ordeal on Friday night. It was great to see her again, the first time since November. She was kind enough to bring some spare bedding and paint for use in Deborah's redecorating efforts. Lorraine also brought four bottles of wine. We caught up on family news and heard about her trip to the States in December and January.
The weather here was less than ideal for her visit – warm and sporadically sunny but with rainstorms blowing through in rapid succession. On Saturday we took a walk along the waterfront path in Tin Can Bay and had lunch at the Marina. Sunday the weather was worse with only the briefest of respites from the frequent rain squalls. We nevertheless drove to Rainbow Beach, achieving only a quick look at the sand before making a mad dash back to the car as the rain began to pelt us once again. I drove Lorraine’s car to give her a break and also to get more practice on the left hand side. I did pretty well, almost assuring that I’ll have a hard time when we go home and I have to switch back to the right side. We won’t have a car for our last two weeks here so we took advantage of Lorraine’s wheels to get a few things at the hardware store and also to stock up on groceries. We also stopped at the bottle shop (liquor store) to get another six-pack of beer to hold us through our remaining days (for most Australians a six-pack would last about two hours). The sight of me, until recently a nondrinker, buying alcoholic beverages still causes Deborah to giggle with perverse pleasure.
Deborah and Lorraine
Mangroves
Paperbark Trees