29 Sep, 11

We had a great holiday in Australia starting in Sydney, heading to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast and finally to Brisbane before heading home. Sydney was fantastic, lots of walking around, shopping, eating and generally having fun. The gold coast was great, 25 – 30 degrees most days and the apartment was brilliant. The relaxation began here. Excellent shop there called “That Shop” which saw a load of t-shirts and a great shirt coming home with me. Brisbane was confusing with a rental car and all those off-ramps. A great few days of heat, wandering around the CBD and a light show one evening. All-in-all exactly what we had planned and what we needed.

Back home for a few days and we headed down south to see parents, pick up the cat and finish up our holiday time … and that’s where things all went a bit bizarre. Had a night with my parents and then headed up to see C’s parents. About 15 minutes down the road the car started firing steam in all directions and overheated. No biggie, Dad was called for some water on the assumption we could keep going. While waiting I checked email, noticed alerts from the motion camera in our lounge and saw a burglar wandering around our house.

I freaked out a bit.

Called the police who were unable to send a car around as it was Friday and they were too busy dealing with, what we have subsequently learned they call “shit vs shit” events. Called a friend to check on the place and see if it could be secured before we got home. He closed a window, gave us some bad news about a bit of mess, talked to the neighbours and headed off. We had filled the car with water, travelled 2 minutes down the road before the car had given up. Called for a tow back to my parents place, borrowed their little car and headed on a very long drive back home. Got home about 9:30pm to find the burglar had been back four times that day – we had great photos of him from all angles – and pretty much cleaned out all the bits that make life fun.

Called the police to say we had photo evidence they might want to look at and proceeded to not sleep. Sent the photos and stolen items list to pawn shops and generally kept busy until the birds began to chirp and the sun came up again. A nice constable came over, looked at the photos and was generally confident about an arrest.

… and then the pawn shop called. The guy had been in to try and sell some of our stuff.

… and then the police called. The pawn shop had tipped the guy off before they got his details and he had done a runner. They even showed him the photos so he would know how he had been busted. I’m sure none of it was malicious and merely incompetent.

We are getting very good at insurance claims this year. It is amazing how 3 weeks of holiday can be wiped out in a single weekend. I am sure we will look back on this one day and have a bit of a laugh. At the moment it ain’t very funny.