Ocean Shores to Coolangatta

As today's mileage was low and it was Sunday, I hung about with the three charming Antipodeans, Frenchman and Fart Machine. At length we took a drive round the area and visited a French lady with three young daughters. Her house was one of the most amazing environments I have ever been in. She is a childminder and her home is a touchy-feely, child-centred temple to children. Everywhere you looked there were beautiful, soft, brightly coloured things; crafts, toys, models, flotsam and jetsam; a giant potpourri for little people to get their fingers busy and dirty. Sadly I had to leave all the pretty things, as I had to wend my way somewhere new once again. Sighs, goodbyes, pedals, sweat.

Today's pedaling was effortless, through quiet resort after quiet resort (the whole of this part of coast is one big, sandy beach) with the wind at my tail and the sea sparkling to the right. My sense of time has completely deserted me, what with flying to the other side of the planet, British clocks losing an hour, Australian clocks gaining an hour (as of last night), I can't adjust the time on my mileometer (which was wrong anyway) or my mobile phone and I don't have a watch. All this, along with my appalling memory, made me forget about the concert which tonight's Warm Showerers had invited me to. I could have arrived in plenty of time if only I'd remembered. I received a message to say they had left without me, but I could wait in their house. Uh oh! More annoyed hosts? I crossed into Queensland and everything changed; ahead of me lay the Gold Coast with its high-rises and neon signs. Den den den...

So, I missed out on some Ozzy culture - a classical concert. I'd written on the itinerary "arrive before 5", but I arrived at 6, the house was empty, the door was open and I twiddled my thumbs for three hours. It was good to have a bit of down time, with two scruffy little dogs for company (Jet and Fluffy) who took it in turns to press against me and keep watch - as I relaxed with eyes closed. Airie (short for Adrianus) and Linda were lovely people and seemed to live such an idyllic life, that I wanted to move in with them and spend the rest of my days in a non-sexual menage a trois. Still relatively young, they are retired and spend their time cycling, kayaking and doing other active stuff. They showed me photos from their bike tours across the States, through Eurpoe, Russia and Japan. So many fascinating places to go... Sigh... I had the basement all to myself, and upstairs there were fantastic views across the Gold Coast (which runs from here to Brisbane). It turns out Queensland is in a different time zone, yet because they don't bother with daylight saving, for the following six months clocks are sychroniised with New South Wales. I don't even know what the month, date, day, let alone the time.