Love is like a sunset

It's funny how some people pull through for you. What started as a casual discussion on Sophie's Choice blossomed into an important relationship, in which I found the support I much needed, what with last Friday's shock announcement.

So I arrived at BNE, looking and feeling pretty tragic. It was nice to be in familiar company. KG was an angel and took good care of me, put up with my whinging, tears, sniffles and chills. During the next 3.5 days, we travelled 1,350 km together, though my trip was triple of that, with the 2 hour flights between Queensland and Victoria.

The hot tub in our room at Ambassador on Ruthven St. Seeing how I'd never really travelled inland before, KG's selection of Toowomba made an ideal choice. The town of 130,000 was surprisingly developed and likable.

The sunsets were amazing.

This is one of my favourites.

He made reservations at the infamous Weis Restaurant, which served a seafood buffet. I gamely tested everything, including bugs (as in, mantis prawns. Not actual bugs. Though apparently on an evolutionary scale, lobsters are a kind of bug), cold crab, a mini octopus, prawns, mussels with some kind of sweet topping and a variety of salads. I did enjoy the desserts the best though. Try their banana and chocolate tart.

We then drove about 50km inland and stopped by an unlit, deserted road. The wind was chilly and unfortunately, the moon not full, but abnormally bright. We laid some blankets and towels down and curled up under a tree. Moonlit landscape was romantic and dreamy. A curious herd of cows ran over to investigate the noise. Upon approach, they promptly scattered. Then reassembled. Then scattered. Then reassembled.

We then continued driving inland for another hour or two before heading home gratefully to the hot tub.

Moustached walls.

We drove and drove and drove. Sometimes I took over the wheel. The first time I drove KG's nice, new (though by now bug-spattered) Citroen was at 100kmph on a highway, acrobatically performed while swapping seats. On top of that, our physical differences (he's almost a foot taller than me) left the pedals far from reach. After a fair bit of panicking and unnecessary swerving, we managed to adjust the seat and acclimatise me to the controls (damn European cars with their blinkers and wipers reversed).

We stopped by this pond/ lake/ stagnant body of water In The Middle Of Somewhere (you can see I'm being very specific today) for a dip. Or rather I was dragged in physically. Suprisingly enough, we did not get swallowed by quicksand (Childhood Phobia No. 1) or the Swamp Thing, though we were accosted by the stench of manure.

We then drove on for a bit before deciding that a trip to St George might well drain us completely. After lunch at Westmar with its single petrol station, we decided to turn back. KG ever friendly, insisted we pop in to say hello, because "small town folks are really friendly". The counter was manned by the most dour-faced woman I'd seen in a while. So dour even KG's 100 watt smile (the man has charisma in spades. Like huge, hulking spades) couldn't shine through. Though we did discover that there is an actual magazine called Wild Boar (which we have taken upon to nickname Wild Bore) and Road Kill (caption: It doesn't get any fresher than this!) jerky. I would have taken a photo, had I not suspected we might end up as part of the next batch of Road Kill jerky if I did.

Look carefully in the middle. There was a rainbow and a red glow in the middle of the field - the sunset reflected off a patch of rain.

Thanks to my non-snap reflexes, KG had to double back for this one. Does anyone get the reference?

JD from Scrubs, anyone? AND, (of course I failed to capture this), there was a Doctor Creek just a few hundred yards further down.

My first bouquet from him.♥