Queensland Holiday - Day 1 - Thursday 24 April 08

Up early (for me before 5am) and got ourselves out of the door just after 7am. The train, which I thought was the 7:36am, came about 7:20am. I thought they were half-hourly from the Mountains but perhaps they are a bit more frequent during the morning rush hours? Either that or a whole lot of people would have missed their train.
Arrived safely at the airport and checked in. Jamie, despite having packed half a dozen books in his bag, bought another at the airport, plus a monster block of Rocky Road - a hideous marshmallow, chocolate and nougat concoction which I caught him devouring solo later!
We were met at Maroochydore airport by the courtesy bus driver and a five minute drive had us at the Grand Mercure North Shore Twin Waters Resort. As we checked in Ian discovered he'd lost his wallet. He thought he may have left it at the counter of a little newsagent stall at Sydney airport just before we got on our flight. All we could do was book in and try and get on to Sydney airport and the banks ASAP.
When we got to our apartment, Ishbel took one look at the foldaway bed standing near the doorway, tried unsuccessfully to stake a claim to one of the beds in the twin bedroom, and started a 15 minute tantrum. Meanwhile, we are trying to call the airport and the banks.
I got on to Lost Property at Sydney - they had the wallet, bank cards, etc. but (not surprisingly) not the cash in it. That was a relief because Ian had called St George and they couldn't cancel his credit card without also cancelling mine which would have left us without access to any money all long weekend. As it is, unless I can find internet access and transfer some money, we have no cash because the money in the savings account will cover only the mortgage.
The apartment is very nice. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large central living/dining/kitchen.
The two bedrooms and the living room all open with large sliding doors on to a large patio.
The apartment is for sale - for a mere $529K - no way!!
Joanne and her four children and Janet and her son are just upstairs in a very nice three bedroomed apartment. They have been here since Tuesday.
There are several pools at this resort and it lies on one side of a lagoon on the other side of which is another resort with another pool and bikes, canoes and catamarans. It also has a Kids Club that we can use. We had initially tried to book in there but that resort is a more conventional hotel and Joanne and Janet would have had to book three rooms to get everyone in. Taking a walk round there earlier, I think we got the better deal. Joanne took Ian, Ishbel and I round the lagoon to show us around while Jamie went off with Chris to sail on the lagoon and Rob hung out with Claire - those two go around joined by one ear piece of an MP3 player each! During the afternoon, Janet and I went to get food while Ian and Ishbel went to the pool - freezing by all accounts - I may not need to get out of my jeans at this rate! The kids eat constantly and Janet and I filled two trolleys for just a couple of days. Eeek! After a chaotic dinner of spag bol and salad (I thought we'd over-catered but they polished almost all of it), Ishbel and I retired. Ian wasn't too long in joining us and the boys were back about 10pm, crashing and banging the doors.

We are here on holiday with our friend, Joanne and her four children - Claire, Chris, Alex and Bill and Joanne's friend, Janet and her son, Adam.