Upon arrival at the Mariot hotel, we were greeted by great tan coloured fans which other than merely moving the air around it, showed just how grand this hotel was. We regrouped at the entrance to the restaurant in front of a rock pool shooting water from a fountain, to be served by a waiter in a suit whom showed us around. For the first time in my life, I was introduced to the foods that I would be eating and shown to their locality. There were wood-fire pizzas which were made on the spot and the local seafood which comprised of the prawns, bugs and oysters were the freshest I’ve ever seen. The oysters were much creamier than imaginable and the cooked foods were delicious. They had panned fried snapper with hollandaise sauce, oven grilled moreton bay bugs with cracked pepper and tomato and onion chutney. There were more oysters which were oven baked with bacon, lamb cutlets with pepper gravy and bar-b-que chicken which was hand carved by a chef. Assorted breads, salads and cheeses were offered similar to other buffets however the quality of the foods seemed much more superior.
So in we dug, and dug in we did, no time wasted. The food was beautiful to say the least but the company was what made the party. The retelling of stories with the regulars to catch the non-regulars up heard many sounds of laughter and joy. It’s always good seeing everyone at once, it reminds me of the young school days where we’d all see each other everyday, all together, all at once. We laughed when the waitress fulfilled Vinhs need for oranges and were amazed at how much Ross could actually eat.
After an exhausting couple of hours and a delightful couple of dessert plates later, satisfied, we all waddled away to figure what the next plan of action was to be. A suggestion here and a drive there lead us to a new jetty built just off of the broad water car park. It was beautiful and coupled with such a beautiful day, there wasn’t much more that could make me happier. Quangie who fulfilled his attempt earlier to trick me by actually bringing a fishing rod, hit the plastics hard on the jetty while we all sat admiring the day in end. Bondy with his amazing camera took some equally amazing photos. In usual fishing fashion, we caught jack all however it was good fun seeing the Koreans fillet undersized bream and throwing them out in hope for something massive. With the sun setting to leave a hue of red and orange colours swirling in the sky, it was time to end one wonderful day and head for home. We stopped by sunnybank for some late dinner dessert and for those who stayed; we decided that the night was still young. It was about 8 o’clock and after a quick game of starcraft and hon, we decided the next best thing to do was hit Redcliffe for a quick fish.
A dismal cold quiet night turned into an awesome one when Ricky pulled up a massive 52 centimeter flathead on servo prawns. The head on this thing was huge and such a great effort on his behalf to pull the thing from a bridge that high. When the orange and red colours of the sky started to appear again, beneath the darkness, and despite the fact that a new day was about to begin, we decided to end the epic day that was. After filling our stomachs with pre-breakfast maccas, we headed home to Brisbane to our long awaiting beds, for a sleep which could run as late into the day as wanted.
Long weekends are the best! Cont.
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