Kate - having breakfast in Brisbane

Andy and I had actually already planned a trip to Brisbane to see Dirty Dancing the Musical at the theatre there, so it dropped on perfectly that mum, dad and Kate would fly into Brisbane while we were there too, and we could then drive all the way back to our house with them.
The day before we set off on our first ever big road trip to Brisbane, I had the day off work and meticulously cleaned the house from top to bottom (well, as it’s only one level I guess side to side is more appropriate?!). It was the kind of obsessive cleaning that you do before your parents or friends arrive at your house, I even cleaned the skirting boards!
We then set off on the big journey, firstly to Mackay to drop our beloved son Ben off at the kennels. It was late by the time we got there as Andy was working that day. By the time we left the kennels and grabbed a nutritious KFC meal to keep us going it was nearly 9pm. We decided we would drive as far as we could and then crash in a motel for a few hours before setting off again the next day.
The Bruce Highway is a long road, mainly single carriageway and mainly very straight and featureless (more so when it is pitch black at night!!). It is one of the great drives of Australia, winding up the Coral Sea coast from Brisbane to Cairns for 1700km! It gives you access to all the towns and cities on the east coast of Australia, as well as a whole host of attractions and changing scenery along the way.
We managed to make it to Rockhampton, the main city between Mackay and Brisbane, and got 6 hours sleep there before heading off again the next morning. The drive wasn’t as bad as you might imagine, we just drive until we are feeling tired and then swap, and stop to get food and drinks now and again. We probably only passed about 5-10 vehicles in the 3 hours it took to get to Rockhampton, but as we got nearer to the Sunshine coast and Brisbane the volume of traffic increased a lot. We eventually got to Brisbane at around 4pm on the Friday (17th) afternoon after driving for just about 14 hours! We were staying at the same hotel we first stayed in when we arrived in Australia, The Carlton Crest, and I had booked mum, dad and Kate in there too. They were due to arrive into Brisbane at around 10.30pm, just as our show finished, so it was hard to concentrate on the fact we were going to the theatre because of their imminent arrival.

Dirty Dancing

We had excellent seats for Dirty Dancing, as I had booked it the minute the tickets went on sale, being a huge fan of the film! It is a new musical and Australia is the first place they have shown it, but I have just seen it advertised for England so get your tickets booked girls!! The show was really fantastic, very different to the classic musical in that the lead characters didn’t actually sing anything, and neither did a lot of the other characters. It was mainly a live band on stage performing a song in the background or it was the original song being played. The only scenery was a mechanical arm in the middle of the stage which raised/lowered/tilted as necessary and film was used at the top of the stage to illustrate where the set was or what particular actors were doing (i.e. footage showing vegetables being served from silver service was shown when Robbie the waiter was pretending to do the same thing on stage). A lot of the visual/acting scenes were so well choreographed that the actors were moving in synch with what was happening on the screen. All the actors/actresses were spot on both in looks and their acting, and the film script was almost followed word for word. The person who played Baby was actually Libby from Neighbours (Kym Valentine) and she was very impressive and believable. Josef Brown played Johnny, Josef is a former Australian ballet star, as well as being very good looking with a body to die for! Hence he got lots of screams of delight as he removed his top and at some points I really don’t know how the leading pair managed to stay focused as the audience shouted and screamed with delight and encouragement as their love story evolved. We had a great night and the audience were on their feet applauding the cast at the end!

At last… the time had come to meet up with my family!!
We switched the mobile phone on as we got out of the theatre, and got a text message from Kate “Plane filled with smoke so we had to re-land back in Sydney”. My heart sank, but then Andy started laughing and said that it would all be a big joke and they would be waiting somewhere to surprise us! I really didn’t know what to think, but I said to Andy that knowing my luck it would be true! We got back to the hotel and snuck round the side entrance hoping to play them at their own game, but they weren’t there. I asked at reception, and they hadn’t checked in yet – aargh, how can this be happening?!! I phoned Virgin who confirmed that some smoke had filled the cabin, but they had successfully taken off from Sydney again and were on their way to Brisbane. We then thought that we would surprise them by driving to the airport to pick them up, so off we dashed having no clue of where the airport was! Just as we had parked up, the phone rang and it was Kate saying they were just about to get their luggage and get a taxi to the hotel. We ran from the car to get to arrivals before they left and stood in the doorway and scanned everyone waiting at the luggage conveyor, and there they were!!! I stood next to mum without her knowing and said “I think that’s yours” as she looked at a suitcase, then she turned and realised it was me!! It was so wonderful seeing them at last and knowing that we had 3 weeks of fun and adventure ahead of us!!