Sunshine (pics)

In traditional Matt-style, I was spontaneous yesterday and jumped on a train for two hours and then a bus.  The weather was amazing, just liked I’d researched the day before.  Another incredible Queensland Winter’s day, so I was taking advantage of it!  I had another two days off after working my one shift in the middle, so I packed a few things in my small carry-bag thingy, which included a towel, a jacket, sunscreen, moisturiser, phone charger and headphones.  I think that’s all I was gunna need and planned my day out well I think.  The charger was in case I decided to stay over the night in a hotel somewhere, the jacket was incase the weather was colder than I expected.  It barely all fit in my little bag, but I made it.  I think a gay guy going on a day-trip is the equivalent of a female going on a two-week holiday =)  Every single thing must be packed in there.  Luckily I don’t wear makeup or need tampons etc 😛  Not yet anyway – haven’t thought about that sex change just yet 😛

So I hadn’t even left the train station when I had to keep telling myself, ‘Stop checking out that hot guy Matt!  Seriously!’ – the bastard decided to sit right over from where I was – typical straight guy wearing shorts waaaaay too short for him, in the middle of winter.  Of course, I angled my phone so I could get a photo of him.  I was shit-scared that the auto-flash was gunna go off and he’d wonder why I was photographing him, but thankfully there was enough light underground in central station =D


I just couldn’t stop checking out those thighs.  It was early Wednesday morning, so I assume he was probably on his way to some sort of touch-all-the-boys-up-and-call-it-a-scrum session.

Anyway he got on the train and I deliberately got on the train in the quiet carriage, one in front of his.  I knew if I didn’t that I was gunna be sneaking glances at him all the way on a two-hour train ride, depending on where he got off.  And boy did I want him to get off *ka-ching*.

Anyway, I’d put a few music videos onto my phone, so that I could watch them to music on the trip on the way down there.  I even tested that no-one else could hear by taking out my earphones and listening out for anything.  All was quiet.  For those who don’t know, Brisbane has ‘quiet carriages’ on it’s trains, being the first and last carriage of every 6-car train.  The driver put out an announcement over the speaker about not using musical devices in those carriages, so even though it was probably someone else, I got self-conscious and took mine out.  I dislike my headphones anyway.  The ones that came with this phone are also like earplugs.  When you put them in, you literally cannot hear a thing.  I walked home a few times trying them out and I can’t even hear the tyres of cars flying past me on the bitumen.  That would be asphalt for any yanks out there I believe.  I prefer that our word has the word ‘bitch’ in it =)

So yes, I remembered from last time that I had to catch the train to Landsborough station and then bus it on the 615 from there.  Okay, I lie, I double-checked and was reconfirmed that was correct =)  The bus stops at the Sunshine Coast University on the way through to Maroocydore.  I’d completely forgotten how amazing that university looked.  Uni’s must make so much money to be developed the way they are.  That’s the main thing that worries me about uni – the expensive course costs over three or so years!  Yikes!  My entire life savings aren’t even a third of what a lot of courses would cost me!  Oh well, like people say, I can’t keep working in a non-professional job my whole life can I?  I just know after working for 15 or so years that I’ll really miss the regular income.  Really.  Really.  Oh did I say really?

This photo was a comPLETE fail LOL.  I was trying to get a photo of the glasshouse mountains but of course a tree got in the way right after a huge gap of open space.  When the train is absolutely flying along, I missed my opportunity haha.

So here’s one I swiped from google-images haha

 

Anyway, bus is going along a road I recognise from when my mate and I were at the Havianna’s Thong Challenge, which was Mooloolaba – exactly where I wanted to be.  Someone else hit the button and I got off the bus too, I think a stop or two too early, as I had to walk a fair way to the beach.  Oh well, I don’t live there and my memory is shit so yeah.  Mooloolaba is one of my favourite beaches in Australia – right up there with Kings Beach in Perth. 

I found all the cafes and shops all lining the boardwalk.  I was annoyed however that every single food outlet seemed to only sell fish and chips and none of them sold chicken.  I love my chicken haha, but then I told myself ‘this is the ocean, of course there’s only gunna be fish’.  I ended up ordering this chicken burger from some chick with an attitude.  The burger and chips were disgusting, almost as bad as the girl’s attitude toward the sale.  The only good thing was the can of Sunkist, which luckily I consumed last.

I took some happy snaps with my phone, as one does 🙂  It was such a beautiful day!!  According to my phone, the temperature was a balmy 22 degrees.  The Gold Coast forecast was 21 degrees, so that extra degree (and the fact someone else got snipered down last week on the glitter-strip) contributed to my decision to go to the northern coast for once instead.

This was my original photo just to give an idea of how nice the day was.

Not a cloud to be seen.
 
I thought about making an entry then and there, but I quickly phased that idea out.  It could wait til I got home.  I wasn’t even gunna check-in, but decided why the hell not.  I’ll be a loser.  I used to be excited about checking into places but now it just seems like I feel like a try-hard when I do.  It has worked out in the past though, like when I checked in at the Myer Centre a few weeks back, my friend Dean saw it and I got to catch up with him for the first time in ages, and got to see photos of his boyfriend.  Damn that boy scored well with this one.

Anyway, I decided it was time to tan, so I went down to the sand, which was quite cool to the touch.  Amazing difference between beaches in the summer and the winter here – in summer you just about burn the shit out of the soles of your feet even walking on the sand.  This time it was beautiful however.  No wind either.  I lay out my towel, used my bag as a pillow, took off my shirt, lathered myself in so much fucking sunscreen that if someone jumped on me they would’ve slid right off, and put my shirt over my eyes and let the sun do it’s work.  I made sure I got every spot on me with the sunscreen as i know I have a tendency to miss a spot and I’ll sting like a bitch for a few days afterwards every time I have a shower, so I made sure I didn’t this time.

It was nice.  It was peaceful.  It was relaxing just laying there.  I hadn’t slept from working the night before so just closed my eyes.  I didn’t sleep though, as much as I wanted to.  I think I was too excited I was even there.  Like a little kid who is pushing 30 haha.  It’s just what the beach does to me, especially in such beautiful weather.  There were a couple of hot guys there.  Everyone had a tan.  Everyone except me of course, the white albino I am =)  Even the young guys seemed to have muscled bodies on them.  Is that all coast people do?  Tan and gym all day long?  Do any of them work?  I suppose the beach only had a few people on it.  A couple of young kids were brave enough to go in the water.  I was almost tempted to.  But I was more focused on relaxing like a sloth.

I probably laid there for about an hour, maybe a bit more, then I wandered around the shops.  I had a tough time deciding if I wanted to stay there or not.  Mooloolaba even had a Mantra hotel!  It had three in fact.  So I did a quick search on my phone and found the cheapest one was asking $185 for a night.  Hmm, little steep, but I was willing to pay it.  I was just so tired. 

I found it strange that Mooloolaba had two of my gym’s, quite close to one another.  Upon walking past the one closer to the surf, I realised it was the national head office.  Well whatddaya know?  It is a bit misleading with the ’24 hour gym’ sign out the front, as i was looking for the entrance, but saw it was all coded.  I decided to go to the gym whilst I was there (another use for the towel) so I went back to the first one, walked, and on the second try at swiping, I let myself in.  There were quite a few people in there, my eyes drawn directly to the hottest guy there, who was working out with a blonde-haired mate.  Also attractive, but I was more focused on the brunette one working out his arms on the pull-ropes or whatever you call em. 
I found the changerooms, but didn’t need to change.  I just put on some moisturiser as I figured it couldn’t hurt from the sun exposure.  God I’m a princess when I wanna be! =)  I walked out with my bag, directly past the hot guy, avoiding eye contact.  I only did one exercise.  I had already gone to the gym after work earlier in the day.  But that was like twelve hours ago – it felt like forever.  I only did the chest press, and kept glancing at the mirror at the hottie working out.  I felt like his mate kept spotting me looking though, so I stopped after a while and just concentrated on pushing out the sets.  Their weights were a bit different to the pin ones at my gym, but I think I figured out the weight I needed okay.
I then went back to the changeroom and took the opportunity to use their showers.  Boy the shower was good!  I realised I had no sunburn (yay) and washed all the sand off of me properly so I felt clean again.  Just used the same towel to dry off.  As I left the shower all refreshed and hair in a complete fucking mess, I felt immediately as though two sets of eyes were on me from the hottie and hottie’s mate.  I made a quick exit.  I was glad to have checked out the gym, and more confident that my card does indeed work Australia-wide.

I ended up catching the bus again, further into Maroochydore.  I wanted to go to the movies.  Yep.  I know I could’ve easily caught a bus back home to do that, but I wanted to.  I went to Sunshine Plaza, a place I haven’t been to in absolutely years.  We used to always go there as a family when I was little.  A lot of it is still the same, but a lot has changed as well.  Including the $16.50 ticket price for the movie.  A cute guy served me and an even cuter guy ripped my ticket stub 🙂  Gave him a nice smile on the way in.  It just amazes me how cute some guys are sometimes.  Like to the point where it surprises me and I wasn’t expecting someone to be so easy on the eyes.
I saw Bridesmaids, on the advice of my housemate and the ex-housemate.  I thought it has it’s really funny moments, but I didn’t find it amazing.  Guess I’m hard to please with movies lately.  I saw Bad Teacher earlier in the week and was kinda ‘meh’ about it as well.  I’ve still yet to see Harry Potter and don’t know if I will.  Maybe.  I have next Monday off.

After the movie it was dark when I got out of the cinema.  I ended up walking from Maroochydore to Alexandra Headland.  I love Alexandra Headland, especially that part of the highway that comes around following the coastline and you get the glimpse of the ocean from up high.  It is such a stunning view.  Unfortunately as I didn’t get one of my own (doh) this is the best I could find, but it’s nowhere near as good as it is from the highway in my opinion.

 


There were heaps of ‘Vacancy’ signs up at a lot of apartments lining the highway, and I even wandered into one, defeated that I was gunna fork over money and stay the night.  I always saved well, I could splurge in a big comfy bed for the night.  I went into one called ‘Breakfree’ I think it was.  I was there for a while before anyone served me, then a lady saw me and asked if she could help.  I suddenly had an outside view of myself.  As though I was the lady talking to me and I saw exactly how tired I must have looked in her eyes, with my eyes falling out of my head as I’d been awake since 7pm the previous night and it was now 24 hours later.  I just asked if they had a room overnight.  The lady completely lied to me and said they were all full up, and I just said, ‘that’s okay, I was just wondering what your prices were anyway.’ – she gave me a tariff form and I saw that the price was over $200 on low tariff season AND a minimum two night stay.  I thought straight away, ‘well fuck you bitches’ and I thanked them and walked out the door.  If your not even going to offer overnight stays for your guests then you can LOSE my business as far as I’m concerned.  I don’t need two nights – I’ll find elsewhere that’ll happily accept my $150 plus I’m willing to pay.  Just annoys me! – The fact they have a ‘Vacancy’ sign out the front of the building, and then make up some bullshit to me.  I haven’t even stayed there yet and it’s enough to make me never want to return.

You can sell me the world with a smile and a genuine attitude.
 
In the end, I opted to head home.  I had made an entire day of it and I was happy with my perfect day.  I wasn’t gunna let something trivial stand in my way.  I caught the bus with a heap of other young people, all seemingly headed to the uni, and then I changed buses at the uni to the one that would take me back to the train station.

By this point I was very glad I had thought to take my jacket with me.  The temperature had plummeted about what felt like 15 degrees.  I was only in shorts, but I was still thankful for my warm jacket.  I was shivering waiting for that train.  It was 7:40pm and the next train arrived at 8:03pm.  Okay, I can do that.  There were a few other people waiting, including a kiwi guy and his girlfriend who decided to have a huge domestic right there on the platform.  So typical of Brisbane/Gold Coast/Sunny Coast train stations – people always seem to fight at them.  Maybe it’s because it’s a public place and I just see people more, but it gets kinda tiresome seeing the dregs of society swearing their arses off at each other.  It was typical domestic situation – arsehole Maory New Zealander with knocked-up girlfriend screaming at him, and her in tears sobbing away.

Four trains went past, two the other direction and a cargo train and a ‘Special’ train in the right direction, but by 8:10pm, I was adamant that my train wasn’t showing up.  Great.  This other guy kept peering out into the darkness wondering where our train was also.  Talk about annoying – it was freezing and our train hadn’t shown up.  There was one more service, at 8:45pm.  The final service.  The Nambour line really is lame with train services – they all seem to stop at Caboolture and don’t do much further.  Anyway, luckily the final service train DID show up.  I don’t think I’d been so happy to see a train in all my life.  I made a makeshift bed up on three sideways seats using my bag as a pillow and kept my feet on the ground so i wouldn’t get in trouble.  Me and the other guy were the only two in the carriage.  I saw someone else in the carriage behind, as they kept the doors open

I must’ve fell asleep.  i was worried about my neck hurting as it certainly didn’t replicate my warm bed at home, but sleep won over.  I was awoken by an annoucement at Petrie that the service was express until Northgate.  SAWEET!  I realised by the time the train pulled into central station, that because it was express, it got me there at pretty much the same time the earlier service that didn’t show up would’ve gotten me there.

So I had a great day trip out, and felt like I didn’t waste me day off, like I have today.  I pretty much slept right through until the afternoon the next day, and have just finished Queer As Folk since.  I need to get season 5 yet, even though I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere.  Back to work tomorrow night (or tonight rather now that it’s past midnight).  I’ve got the weekend shifts – yay go me.  Hopefully they’ll go fast so I can enjoy my next days off and go on another spontaneous adventure somewhere =)