Lennox Head/Byron Day 1 in Adventures in paradise

Sept. 4, 2023, 5 a.m.
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Public

I have done absolutely nothing today, literally.

I guess that’s what I’m meant to do on a mini vacay.

I caught the train down to the Gold Coast, but freaked out when the train got to Beeneligh and the electronic sign read ‘This train now runs express to Varsity Lakes.”
Fuck! I was meant to be getting off at Helensvale. So I had a split decision to male before the doors closed, do I get off here and go to the end of the line? I texted Brent, “Shit! This train runs express to Varsity.” He was cool though and said he’d just pick me up from there. Thank God. I figured it would be better to go there than Beenleigh, as it’s closer to where we were headed.

The drive down was nice. Brent played a bunch of songs he liked, as well as a few I’d heard before. Always new releases, often remixes he’s found already. I didn’t know Sophia-Grace and Rosie from Ellen had music out, or were even singers.
We drive through Byron, past where I was staying later on that night, and continued on to Lennox Head.

I can see why he likes it there. It’s much prettier than Byron, and less crowded. I remembered that I had been there before, because I saw the sign to Lake Ainsworth, which I remember going to with Peeta and his Sydney friends back in the day, after Tropical Fruits that year. Man, that seems like forever ago now.
We had initially decided to grab fish and chips and have it on the beach, but between having had seafood a few days ago, and not wanting to fight the seagulls, we ended up deciding on a new chicken place instead.
The guy serving the counter looked like he was about 12 years old and asked me what sides I wanted. He said I could choose three. I asked what sides there were. He said there was potato and pumpkin. We kind of stared at each other for a while. In the end I said, “I guess I’ll have the potato and the pumpkin.”
“You can choose one more.”
^Staring again^
“I guess I’ll have the pototo.”
LOL.
I guess the stoners start early down here.
Brent’s food came well before mine, even though he ordered after, and when mine came, the two pieces of potato were HUGE lol. The pumpkin was normal size. At least it was yummy, but man, all those starchy carbs had me feeling so full. Brent grabbed gelato but I declined, saying I couldn’t possibly lol.

Anyway, it was a lovely day. I took a few snappy’s with my sunglasses, which turned out okay. The transfer function on my sunnies hasn’t been working lately, so I was pretty sure I was going to lose all the photos as I had to factory-reset to get them to work properly, but I tried about 5 times and finally got them to transfer, which was good as I got a cute pic of some dogs there were in the back of a car, and I was upset that I was going to lose that piccie. Crisis averted.

Anyway, Brent was getting bored after bunch, driving around Byron, He drove up to the lighthouse (the most Eastern part of the Australian mainland) but it was so busy up there that we turned around and came back into town. I told him to just drop me off somewhere, and I’d just walk around until check-in, and he went on his way.
I was right about him flaking on staying, but at least the trip down here was still on.

I checked in and the lady on the desk was lovely. I can even help myself to towels and beach towels whenever I need without having to ask them. I think that’s cool.
I’m in a ground-floor apartment, and it’s nice enough, I quite like it. It looks out onto a garden that has some of those Birds Of Paradise flowers, so they often have Blue-Faced Honeyeaters flying among them, so I’m hearing their chirps quite often. It is SO cute!

Like I said, I have done fuck-all today. That’s mainly because I was feeling lazy, but also because it was raining when I woke up, and continued to do so until the afternoon. I only left to go for a quick walk to the beach (which has direct access from the hotel), but today’s photos are shit, as it was still too overcast. There were a bunch of dogs on the beach running around happily. I think everyone has a dog here. There were more dogs than people on the beach. One took a brief interest in me, but was more interested in chasing the ball into the surf.

The people here are friendly. Cars give me the right of way, which is nice. I’ve certainly been to places where they don’t (^cough^ Auckland ^cough^). The old Woolies is now a run-down shell of a building that has been moved next door into a really nice new building. It did need it, from what I remember last time I was here in 2017. Most people still don’t wear shoes walking around. That hasn’t changed. It doesn’t seem quite as hippy-ish as I remember, so that has been a surprise, but maybe everyone was staying in today because of the rain. I know I was. Definitely still cute guys here, that’s for sure, phoarrrr. But I haven’t opened Grindr lol. Brent did when we were in Lennox Head and had three chubby guys message him right away. I don’t expect any of the hot guys to be on there. I’m not really too fussed.
It was just nice to not do anything. There were a bunch of markets happening yesterday that I got to peruse a little, and that was definitely all Byron-y hippy-ish type stuff, like soaps and linen clothing and other brick-a-brack. I’m not used to seeing markets, as I work every weekend.

I booked a car for New Year’s eve, just trying to be prepared in case I go to Tropical Fruits this year, as tickets for that are on sale this Friday. I just hate that I don’t know if I will feel like going when it rolls around. It’s been a while since I’ve been to that, but it really would be the best time to go camping, and gay camping at that. If I try to book it later, they’ll be all gone as usual. I can cancel within 26 days or something.

I’m hoping tomorrow is a bit sunnier, so I can get some decent photos.