Summertime celebrations

Paris Hilton would have been seriously outdone on the weekend! Last Saturday morning saw Louise and I unashamedly cramming into the boot of her little silver Ford, two suitcases for a two night stay at the Gold Coast. Yes, one suitcase each. However, to be fair I did have a wedding to attend on the second day.....and.....well....the rest I guess we can attribute to erratic weather patterns and global warming. Along with our two pieces of luggage there were also two reasons for our Thelma and Louise adventure (but with happy ending). #1 - Summerfield Dayze (an outdoor music festival with international Dj's) and #2 - the wedding of my friend Frances to her fabulous (but sadly English) partner Jon - the real reason for the timing of my visit home.

By lunchtime we were checking into the very relaxing and tropical surrounds of Seaworld Nara Resort. The lucky young porter who welcomed us struggled under the impressive weight of our luggage as he unloaded the car, but somehow managed to stagger inside and up to our room by walking at a sidewards angle and facing his head accordingly for balance. Lou and I revelled in this paid privilege and skipped up to our rooms past our hunchbacked porter (so we could open the door for him of course). Fast forward a quick change of clothes and a couple of champagne piccolos and we were setting off from our enviable location down the street towards the festival which takes place every year in a big park right next to the water. Sunny and breezy, with scatterings of eye candy - I was definitely home!

Sunday afternoon while Louise and her boyfriend (who came down for the day) made use of the Seaworld day passes I attended my friend Frances' wedding at a truly beautiful location, about half an hour inland from Surfers Paradise (Mudgeeraba for those playing at home). The last time I saw Fran was two months ago in Brighton (where she and Jon live) while I was on a London trip. She was so heavily pregnant I couldn't stop smiling at the amazing tight drum that was now her big smooth tummy. Thankfully Fran didn't mind my hands constantly skimming over her little baby's home, I was even lucky enough to feel the baby hickup! So the wedding was my first outter womb introduction to their son, Max, and given how beautiful his parents are it was of no surprise that he too was as cute as a button.

With my friends Fral and her partner Tali

Frances, Jon and their new addition, Max