It started off with having a sleep in (excluding the extremely early hour my dog woke me up for his breakfast), followed by lazing around in my pyjamas for a few hours. That was a win already – any day that starts like that you know it’s going to be a good one. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and a mate of ours, James, popped his head in. “Came over for a cold one!” he yelled.

An hour later we decided to head down to the local tavern for a bite to eat for lunch and have a couple of drinks. Unfortunately being the driver, I opted for the non-alcoholic beverage of diet coke, but I’m tough. I could handle it. The boys downed a few bourbons, and James having the excellent contacts that he does, got the first few rounds for free. Turned out he used to be the manager’s boss, and she had always been sweet on him. Another tactic to woo him over I guess (James is a pilot and determined to be single for another few years yet).

Also to the boys’ advantage was the backyard cricket match running live across the road from the tavern. It included girls in bikinis running, and for my viewing pleasure, men without shirts on. Unfortunately, none of these men carried a six pack on their stomachs; they each had at least a carton. Hence I turned my attention back to the tennis playing on one of the numerous tv’s scattered around the room. Much more appealing eye candy there.

After a while, we finished up and decided we would grab the dogs and head down the river for a swim. We switched from our little Suzuki hatch into our Suzuki 4wd, put the dogs in the back and headed to North Shore. We had packed a cooler bag full of drinks for ourselves, so first order of business after we’d arrived and set up was to get drinks. I served the boys their boubons, then made myself a fruit tingle.

A very wet Turbo on Australia Day

Unfortunately, Turbo is not well enough trained to know not to run away when we take him off the lead. Thus, he had to stay on the lead today while we were playing in the water. Generally it was fine, the only problem was when other dogs came along and he wanted to run off and play. He’d pull on the lead, get in trouble, then cry….that whole routine was repeated several times during the day. Other times it was great! We would say the magic words “do you want to go for a swim” then we’d walk into the water and he’d run in after us and start paddling in. James’ dog, Hunter, a great big doberman, was there as well but he’s much more obedient than Turbo. James had brought a ball for Hunter to play with, and took to throwing it out into the river. Hunter would then race in and swim out to the ball, grab it with his mouth, and swim back again. After a while Turbo had picked up on the game, and we were able to let go of the lead while he swam in after the ball, then came back. It was great while it lasted!

Overall we spent about 3 hours down at the river, during which time I’m pleased to say I didn’t get burnt. I had put on the good ol’ 30+ though, so it’s not really surprising. Around 6′ish we packed the dogs back into the vitara and headed home. We had timed it perfectly, to hear the last few songs in the Triple J’s Hottest 100, which we’d tuned into several times during the day (alas we didn’t have a radio to bring with us onto the beach). Along the way home the boys insisted on going via Mooloolaba, obviously to check out the “talent” aka women. They had a bit of drink in them at this stage, and tried to tell me they just wanted to see “the scene”, which was really just a thinly veiled attempt at trying to convince me otherwise. We ended up driving down the spit, at which point John Farnham’s “You’re the Voice” came onto the stereo. Mat immediately turned it up to an insane level, and they hung out the windows singing at the top of their lungs. Being the driver, I should have been more stern on them, but really it was just hilarious to see. There was a large number of people at Mooloolaba Spit at the time, and I’m fairly positive almost every single one of them turned to look at our car. I hope we brought a smile to someone’s face at least.

I dropped the boys off at James’ place (along with Hunter) for a swim in the pool while I came home to shower. I bathed Turbo as well to get rid of all the sand scattered amongst his hair, threw in some clothes for Mat and rejoined the boys. More drinking ensued (mostly for the boys, only one more drink for me being the good sensible non-drinking-driving girl that I am), along with a trip to McDonald’s for dinner. We’d left dinner until 9.30pm, and everything was shut at the time except for Mickey D’s…so that was on order. Got home at ate, then Mat and I decided it was time to depart and return home. After all, we had to work the following day!

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable day, and I think it really summed up the Australian way of life. We’d managed to tick every box for Aussie priorities. Having a drink, hanging out with mates, going to the beach, and cricket. What more could you ask for?!

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