Well, it’s Sunday again, and it’s our last full day in Byron. Tanja and I were discussing the differences between our two trips to Byron. We decided the previous trip had been more back-to-nature, whereas this trip was far more practical. We (and by we I mean Tanja) slept late until 11:30 (I woke up around 8:30 an passed the time reading comics on my laptop). We headed into town for lunch, remarking upon the few schoolies we saw, most of whom were sleeping off the previous night. We had salt-and-pepper squid, and got some chocolate-covered goji berries from an organic store. Not sure what the big deal with those is, they tasted like raisins. We bought some pendants at a bead store: I got a little tiki guy, and Tanja got a polished wood piece. We walked up the beach to Belongil, where we stayed last trip and stared enviously at the houses there. We also saw a little kid of about 8 stomp out sulkily with his skateboard to tool around on the street clearly thinking his parents were mental for taking him out of his urban paradise to this wind-swept beach place. Walking back we were paced by a tiny Silky Terrier, who kept running up to sniff us, but wouldn’t hold still to be petted.
On the way back to the room, we saw a young guy sunbathing on the tiny roof next to the balcony of his third floor hotel room. I was nearly stopped in my tracks imagining all the things that could go wrong as he stood up.
We’ve settled in on the hotel balcony for the late afternoon, nibbling on pistachios and Lindt chocolate and working our way through the last of the beer in the fridge.
As for holiday books, I’m out. I’ve been prodigious in my reading. I‘ve read:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Beer: A Gauge for Enthusiasts by Greg Duncan Powell
Cuisine De Moi by Ben Canaider (writing as Gavin Canardeaux, an imaginary celebrity chef)
Nearly all of the latest issue of The Word magazine.
This is not counting the comics I’ve read via the laptop, which include:
The last 9 issues of Invincible
The entire Iron Man Armour Wars epic
The entire Marvel Zombies catalogue
Half of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (but to be fair, it’s 190-odd pages)
This evening we plan to give the Orient Express another shot. Then tomorrow morning back to Sydney via El-Jet-Plane-o.
**later**
Okay, Orient Express was amazing. We had prawn and pork wontons and sang choi bow. Mains were crispy duck in plum & mandarin sauce and a yellowfin tuna and Atlantic salmon sashimi plate. Everything was fragrant and lovely and the waiter was friendly and knowledgeable, plus we got a bit of a show when a yobbo and his blonde missus swanned up to the table next to us and, not liking the price point of the mains, ordered the entire left side of the menu. Then had to ask the waitress what a wonton was (she even used her hard-of-thinking voice, “woooon taaaaaaa-oon).
On the way back here, we got more glimpses of the Northern Reticulated Australian Schoolie. While both genders are vocal, it is the female of the species which is more distinct, often shouting the same name of someone either down the street or right next to them for hours on end. The male seems to only vocalise during courtship displays with other males, with such distinctive calls as “Give us a farkin hug, ya!” and “Dan’t touch moiy! Dan’t!” ringing about the forest. Even our local little country pub had been taken over. The locals themselves had fled, leaving only a seething mass of teenagers, and an 80-person line for the door. I think we’e timed our exodus from Byron perfectly.
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