Sunny Gold Coast

 First of all, Happy Father's day!

My dad is my role model, he is so inspiring. He can be scary at times, especially when I don't get a maths problem right, but I still love him no matter what! Some of my friends think he's funny, which I think my whole family can agree on. Once, at my piano lesson, he started practising his golf swings outside, and my piano teacher and I could see. She found it very amusing!Anyway, I wouldn't have gone across the world at such a young age if I didn't have him.

So, this morning, I made him breakfast! Soft boiled egg, banana waffles with ice cream and maple syrup, his normal white coffee, an orange and kiwi fruit.

I've been to the Gold Coast, about three times. One; when I was still living in Malaysia (I think 5 years old?), two; when my family drove up to Sydney and then from there, Gold Coast , which I absolutely do not recommend, because
1. The countryside here is so boring and dull (unlike Europe). All you see is dead grass and cows.
2. Every town seems to be the same (unlike the U.S), not to mention, it is COSTLY.
3. The number of hours it takes to get there, is ridiculous! From Melb to Sydney is 9 hours, then from Sydney to the Gold Coast is TWELVE HOURS.

The third time I visited with my whole fam (except for my oldest sister), was last year in July.

Gold Coast in Queensland is the perfect place for a relaxing beach holiday (I have yet to visit Hawaii though hehe) , the weather is always sunny. Queensland in general is really tropical. That's where our mangoes and bananas come from. However, in 2010-2011, there were terrible floods, which led to almost a year of limited supply of bananas, which meant sky-rocketed prices. If you were the kid who brought a banana to school earlier last year, everyone would go "You're so rich!"

We stayed at an apartment in Coolangatta. From the beach in Coolangatta, you can see the otherside, which is Surfer's Paradise. It's about 25 km away. For the week, we ate, slept, visited family friends, cook (my mum made minestrone soup and pancakes during our time there!) and shopped at a factory outlet which strangely reminded me of Desert hills.

 I especially like the night life in Gold Coast. In Surfer's Paradise, everything is lit up, and you get this relaxed vibe. 

Yii-May ran the Gold Coast marathon (42 km woahhh), and so did her two other running buddies, so we met up with all of them and their families and had teppanyaki. The chef was just chopping away at a very fast rate. I had beef which was quite nice (but does not look that appealing in the picture)

Every family who visits the Gold Coast, typically goes to the theme parks. I went with my family to Dreamworld. I learnt something new about myself there; I can never go on any ride that goes upside down. Yii-May and I were crazy enough to go on 'The claw'.

The picture says enough. After the ride, I felt like vomiting (but I didn't) and like I was going to faint.

We also saw some pretty cool tigers! I also patted a kangaroo, saw koalas, emus, crocodiles and snakes. 

I thought this was pretty funny. I went on the ride and you get pretty wet, so you can dry yourself in the 'body dryer' at 4 bucks! Theme parks likes to rip people off. 

Of course I ate like a pig during my time there....

. We dined at some classy Italian restaurant with my parents' friends. They've known them for a long time, we've all met a couple of times before. I had gnocchi, an Italian kind of 'dumpling' that has potato, cheese and all kinds of stuff. It tasted quite good, but it's not my favourite thing to eat. I feel a bit sick after eating too much of it.

Salmon encrusted with something which I do not know of and gnocchi with lots and lots and lots of cheese.

Dad and his friend

. We drove up to Mount Tamborine and had an extremely lovely meal at a German restaurant. I had the pot pie, fries and salad and it was delightful. My dad got his usual beer. He would probably never go to Germany or go to a German restaurant without drinking beer in a tall glass. 

Top left: Pork knuckles, sauerkraut, sausage and some other pork, on the bottom, pot pie with chips and salad. 

 . Dinner at George's Paragon. My favourite meal perhaps? I had calamari and chips and the calamari was so crispy, yet light. It didn't give you that heavy feeling, you normally get after eating something fried. The rest of my family had half a lobster, but I didn't take a good picture of it.

It was a pleasant week. Bumming around, now that's fun!