Captain the Mearas and pigging out at Freemason's

So where was I?

Ah yes, did I tell you that Gary owns horses? He's like a horse expert. On the road to Gary's parents' place, we stopped to see one of the horses he used to own - can't remember the name, but it was a flea-bitten gray (dunno why they call it that, it looked more like chocolate-flecked-white). There were also two brown horses in a paddock beside his parents' place named Mouse and Susie. But the one that took my breath away was Captain!

If you watched the Lord of the Rings, you'd know about Shadowfax, the Chief of the Mearas, a beautiful horse that Gandalf calls into service. Seeing Captain as he stood on a hill quite a distance away was like a scene out of a movie. An elegant vision in white (he's considered gray though) against a backdrop of green, observing us calmly as we approached the fence like a prince spotting a subject approaching. Gary and his parents call him and their voices ring out in the open air. He's uncertain at first, probably cuz he sees Asian people standing with his white owners (haha). Gary's stepmom goes to get him, and when she's attracted enough interest for him to follow her, she runs towards us, and Captain follows.

Captain's a real poser man. Maybe he wants to make it big in the film industry someday. He makes a great show of tossing his mane in the wind as he gallops down from the hill, and within seconds, he's in front of us. He gets fed a special treat - food pellets and thick, gooey molasses. Gary says that's why he's fat. He doesn't look that out of shape to me. Here's a couple of pics.


See the background in the first pic? Awesome huh? And here's a group pic with us walking to the stables. See the little doggies?


After we're done, we head out to this buffet place called Freemason's (or something like that but nothing to do with the not-so-secret society) and for AUD$16.90, it's eat all you can! The place is a real gem, having a real country feel to it. It's got a whole separate section for slot machines and other big, flashy, you-may-lose-that-quarter-and-then-some kinda games. They even have a little low ceilinged alcove for kids (if you can stand up inside without hitting ur head on the ceiling, ur a kid) who wanna have a go at the PS2 games that are there. There are TVs overhead showing some rugged 1970s country singer going at it, and there's even a small TV above the urinal in the men's room!

And the food! Oh my... Roast beef and roast pork with crackle if you'd like, a salad bar with great variety, baked/mashed potatoes, roasted pumpkins, spaghetti, chicken pot pie, mushroom soup (the real good kind where they chop in fresh mushrooms), apple crumble, chocolate mousse, bread pudding and custard, all the vanilla ice cream you want. Mm MM!

I'll stop here so I can at least say I've posted something. Nyahaha. Will continue with next post about how I met my three Australian-Filipino step-nephews!

Departure from Malaysia. Surfer's Paradise. Gympie.

Ya know, after procrastinating all this time ever since my Xanga was left out there in cyberspace to decompose (isn't there a joke out there about what a musician does when he dies? he de-composes? HA HA HA! ok ok that's a bad way to start) and since I've got pretty much all the free time I want (no PR yet, not allowed to work, so I'm forced to laze around in Australia not having to move a reluctant muscle for the sake of cash) , and since I've moved away from Malaysia, (which may or may not be a permanent thing depending on the outcome of my PR application) necessitating the need to keep my friends and family back home informed, I have finally mustered up sufficient self-motivation to start a blog! Hooray for me! And yay for all those parentheses. They always seem to pop up when I'm writing a blog post. I'll blame it on my inclination towards exposition. :P

So this blog is for all my friends and family who wanna keep tabs on me and my life outside of Malaysia. Should plans go awry and I'm back in Malaysia for Christmas, this blog will be thrown into some black hole in cyberspace, never to be seen again... Nah. I'll keep it open anyway. I see the appeal of having a blog. Having a place where it's all about you, with no one to interrupt your incessant, self-absorbed rambling, except in the form of comments which you could simply choose to ignore anyway. So yea, viva the birth of my blog!

Be forewarned, this current post will have no pictures of any sort. I'm guessing this blog will force me to take out my camera and snap away at every event I'm attending, but for now, cuz my camera's not functioning yet, this post will be all words. And since the old saying goes "a picture paints a thousand words", here's the equivalent of a few pics for ya. :)

So after the mother of all farewells at the airport where tears flowed, pictures were taken, difficult goodbyes were said (moving on to happier thoughts) we went down the escalator to board.

Now, the weight limit for the check-in bag is 25kg and we scraped past that with some bags being a few tenths of a kilo over without having to be charged. Whew. The thing was, each of us, me and my three siblings, mom, and Gary had like 3 carry-0ns each (backpack, laptop/violin/handbag and the actual carry-on) and i've always been worried in situations like this that airport staff will give us the eye and say "no, that's waaaay past ur limit" and we'd have to chuck something away. It was the same situation with me coming back from Hawaii, I was so worried the cabin crew would frown and ask me to leave something behind.

Thankfully, cabin crews are nice folks and I think they turn a blind eye to these things. If we were trying to carry my sister's cello aboard, that'd have been a different story, but yea.

So we were sitting there in a waiting place when Gary took a look at the flight tickets and got a little disgruntled when he saw his ticket was 17A and my mom's ticket was 17C. Eventually it was explained that there are no B seats. Kinda strange. I bet the guy explaining it to Gary must have gotten questions like that a lot.

So, boarding time came, and we walked. Oh yes, we walked. Why is Air Asia cheaper? You walk. There's a fairly looong trek to the airplane and our hand-carry luggage ain't light. Boarding planes this way has always reminded me of presidents or celebrities boarding their private aircraft and waving glamorously at the cameras. Obviously this wasn't quite the same. Nevertheless, we managed to squeeze past the tight aisles, stow our stuff and park our butts down.

I tell ya, one day before I die, I wanna fly first class. Maybe there's a mistake and oh what? No seat for Tyler Chin? Sir wouldja like to fly first class? Uh huh! Then there'll be a leather reclining seat twice as wide as my butt's width that I can just sink into, with cabin staff feeding me grapes and sashimi, and I'll be sipping on ginger ale, and there'll be lotsa space to walk around, maybe a park in there, and a swimming pool... kinda like Wall-E... Oh what wondrous mysteries lie beyond the curtains leading to the First Class? Will a lowly bard like me ever know? Anyway, I digress.

Flight was pretty uneventful. It's passable entertainment since it always has a suspenseful beginning and end. Turbulence was minimal, and thank goodness none when I was taking a leak. The nasi lemak was definitely sub-standard, and crap, now I'm craving it as I type....

We arrived in Coolangatta Airport (yea, Australia has a whole lot of cool n strange sounding places) where there was another minor drama with my sister's check-in luggage going missing (later we found it was set aside cuz there was an "Expedite" label still stuck to the handle of her luggage). The immigration officer (and all other Australians) pronounced my name "Toilah", and it still sounds strange to me. One thing I noticed about the accent is that every final unaccented "er" syllable becomes "ah". Like river becomes "rivah", water = "wohtah" hahaha. After the initial kookiness, it does become quite endearing. Still, I don't think I'll be infected or people will really have a hard time understanding me back home!

The weather's pretty dang cool in Brisbane, irregardless of the sun shining down. We traveled by car, some uh... Kia model... with 3 plus 3 seats at the back... (my automobile vocab is very limited). Dunno what u call it but anyway, it's sweet cuz it fit ALL our luggage, even though the rear view mirror was rendered useless. Haha.

We went down to Surfers' Paradise, and despite the cool air, there was no lack of people frolicking on the beach, and half-naked chiseled men jogging down the sidewalk. I on the other hand put on this big comfy jacket and zipped up to the horror of my siblings who thought I was being a disgrace.

We also got the chance to stop by a beach, and memories of Hawaii came flooding back. Actually, a lot of Australia that's near the coast reminds me of Hawaii. Well, how different can beaches be? Unless ur comparing with Port Dickson then that's a different story. But the sun, the surf rolling in ready to consume unsuspecting swimmers, the warm unpolluted sand that just lets your feet sink in to the ankles... oh... just gorgeous (oh no, I sound like the Crocodile Hunter, bless him).

After ooh-ing and aah-ing for about an hour on the road, most of us save Gary were dozing in the car. Australia is a BIIIG place. I mean, it's land mass is as big as the US (excluding Alaska)! Flying between a state takes 2 hours, so that's like 16-17 hours of driving! Gaah!

We stopped over at this nice little rented house for a shower then went off to visit Gary's folks in Gympie (pronounced gim (not jim)-pee). Now I recently discovered that I'm equally in love with the countryside and the bustling city, and Gympie is the former.

Gary's parents live in a remade shed (dunno if that's right) which is really not as bad as it sounds cuz there's space for a whole kitchen and a comfortable bedroom atop of this hill that overlooks many many many acres of land.

Imagine lush green pastures, cool clear air, mountains framing the horizon, wooden fences, tilled earth sprouting fresh vegetables, bougainvillas to name a flower from the numerous others amidst macadamia trees abloom with vivid colors, a herd of cattle grazing peacefully, a crow cawing, a bush turkey scrambles across the field in search of food... paradise! Truly!

It's a place where the busy air of city life dissipates and all your senses feel... at ease.

Gary's parents are just adorable. They're exactly the kind of people you'd imagine would live in a place like this. Two souls just filled with wholesome goodness, living a simple life out there in quiet little Gympie. They have two cute lil terriers named Jemma and Monty, which they took in because they were mistreated pretty badly by the previous owner. One's more inquisitive while the other's more wary.

to be cont'd in next post... sleepy... ive been typing for more than an hour... haha...