The woman at the hotel checked me in, eventually, looking at me every now and then with dead fish eyes. It took awhile for her to even acknowledge my presence and then she would turn away every few seconds to attend to another customer rather than dealing with me.  I don't think I was being needy: it was supposed to be a hotel, and all I wanted was a room.  I wouldn't recommend her for the employee of the year awards - although having spent precisely 18 minutes in this hotel, I'm not sure they do any awards, in fact, I'm not sure that it is a hotel - maybe they are simply holding me hostage?  The fact that I was warned not to leave between 0400 and 0800 because "the doors will let you out but they won't let you in, and nobody will be here" was slightly ominous.  

There is a brown smear at head level on the wall beside the bed which could be from a murder scene, and the bath is green stained and peeling - yes, the plastic itself is peeling.  The extractor fan comes on with a godawful roar accompanied by a hideous rattle, but they did give me a complimentary breakfast box, which contains some UHT milk, a little vanilla muffin, some muesli and an "Up and Go Liquid Breakfast" which I don't actually classify as food, and will not pass my lips - has anyone actually read the list of ingredients?  Any liquid breakfast that has 29 ingredients including 5 numbers does not get to call itself a food, in my book.

I started the day nice and bright and early at 0600 with a small fluffy doglet plonking itself determinedly down on my sleeping belly.  My belly struggled on for a few minutes and then decided to wake up, along with the rest of me, at which point coffee was at the top of my agenda.  I have a long and prestigious list of Things to Do during my four days off such as Buy Ant Rid and Apply for a Passport all of which have differing levels of urgency - probably For Crying Out Loud Woman, Clean The Fridge!!! comes close to the top. 

Anyway, just to say I haven't actually done any of that yet.  Never never ever do today what you can put off 'til tomorrow.

Anyway (another anyway) I decided to head up the coast for some hiking and beaching and the little dog looked at me so beseechingly and I felt so bad to leave her, that she came too.  A glasshouse mountain was chosen that was appropriate for the Lily, and a beach was chosen for afterwards that was dog friendly, and we were all sorted.  

The first thing I wanted to do, of course, was show off (to people who had never met Lily) how absolutely marvellously wonderful my dog was.  What a treasure and a delight and if Carlsberg made dogs she would probably be the best dog in the world, yada yada yada. So about five steps into the hike, she gets bitten by an ant.  Yes, an ant, and dissolves into a little yelping whimpering shaking Ball of Shame.  And the proud mother of the Incredible Dog was reduced to picking her up and cuddling her and telling her it was all going to be ok until the sniffling ceased and the spoilt little brat from hell was ready to resume the hike.  

You're welcome.

And of course the last few metres of the hike she had to be carried because apparently caboodle legs are too short to scale rock walls, and on that stretch of the way down I simply put her into my backpack.

View from the top of (I believe) Tibrogargan and Beerwah.

Having un-climbed the hill again - I want to call it a mountain but it really wasn't much of a climb, although I huffed and puffed and almost died because I didn't really have breakfast although I DID try, I set off for Currimundi but it started raining so I decided to go home and give the beach another go another day.  I sensibly thought that it might be a good idea to get some of the List completed... ha.

I had barely got home when ops called me asking me if I could work... I'm working two full days to operate just one teency weency flight from Alice Springs to Coolangatta- empty.  First, I drove to Coolangatta - it took two hours, and I almost missed my JQ paxing flight to Melbourne because I only got my confirmation code 7 minutes before checkin closed - and now I am in Melbourne for the night at the above mentioned amazing hotel.

Tomorrow morning I hop on a flight - as a passenger again, and head to Alice Springs.  Then at some point i will find myself back in Coollie and can drive my car aaaaall the way back to Mango Hill.

What fun! 

Did I mention I have a List of Things That Must Be Done?