Fünf Monate Kängurus und Kiwis

Hi folks! This chapter will be in English this time, because I want "my" family here in Australia to be able to read it. The reason for this is that we spent the last weekend - or rather the Sunday and the Monday together in Surfers Paradise. Here it is a long weekend as the Queen has her 80th bithday today and so it's "Queen's Birthday" - sounds logical, doesn't it. I've chosen the title "Like the Simpsons", because our friends from Springfield always get things they don't deserve and so did we, one entire weekend long, but let's go back to the beginning.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Ok, perhaps a bit too much back in time (please Maria and Frank, don't feel offended).
All right. A few weeks ago we made plans for the long week end and Mike suggested going to a Rock Festval in Coolongatta and going on up to the Surfers Paradise later. As he found a room for four persons which was very cheap we all agreed. If you've followed this report closely (I hope so) you know that the family I'm staying with consists of four people and then there is of course me. Five people and a room for four!?!? So I was told not to worry too much: They wanted to try to smuggle me into the hotel and arrange the beds so that we all fitted... Ok, most people who read this know me and so they can imagine that I had kind of a bad feeling about this, but anyway.
So what we did was go to the Rock Festival first. It was really good: Music from the 50th and 60th and an incredible number of old cars - oldtimers so to speak. Having been there for about two ours we kept on going further north to Surfers Paradise. There I was dropped off a few hundred meters away from the hotel (though I reckon Mike would have loved to drop me off a few kilometers away from the hotel) and told that Sandra's gonna call me once they are in the room.
As I didn't want to wait standing stupidly on the road I went to the beach. There I was waiting, and waiting and waiting. Then half an hour later I got the call and so I went to the hotel. Arriving there I got to know the reason for the delay. There had been a problem with the room and so - because of the inconvenience to us - we got a new one. Did I say room? It actually was a suite. I'm not kidding. We really got a suite for the price of a room. But there was a problem.

As there were only double beds Mike went to the reception and told that the two kids can - in no way - sleep in one bed, because they would start fighting at night. This was of course not true so I got an extra bed from the hotel - they brought it into our room while I was hiding in the wardrobe.
Having solved this problem we went along the marvelous beach and to town to look for somwhere to eat dinner. Having done this we went back to the hotel and after a drink at the hotel bar (voucher of course) the day was over.
The next morning started like the last had ended - we got something for free though we didn't deserve it. The booking for the room included breakfast, but only for four people. So normally it would have been 18 Dollars for me - not in this hotel: What we basically did was just walk by the woman who was supposed to seat us, saying our room number and sat down anywhere. It worked, she didn't realise that we were five people and the breakfast was only paid for four. One reason for this may be the fact, that Mike told her how great she did her job whenever she passed our table - she had no time to say anything else, but "Thank you" all the time.
So after this free breakfast we decided to go to town and the beach again and spent the rest of our time - even though we had already checked out and were probably not supposed to be there anymore - in the sauna, the spa and the pool, but who cared on this weekend. We had already had that much for free.
So the final act was to go home and I had to be the driver. That worked almost well, but Mike's commands from the passenger's seat were a bit confusing. Anyway, we are at home now and it was a great weekend - probably even the best I've had so far!