I arrived in Brisbane at 6am, claimed my luggage and a seat at the airport, and went to sleep for another couple of hours, on the grounds that nothing and no one was awake, including me. 8am, and I felt up to catching the train into the city. Discovered that there was nowhere at Roma St Station to buy breakfast, so grabbed a taxi to the campervan hire company.

Oh Goddess. They gave me a choice of two 'family-friendly' vans. (The un-family-friendly vans included slogans such as 'If you loved me, you'd swallow that' and 'Virgins wanted, no experience needed'. That's why I booked a tame one.) My options were a black van covered in skulls. Niiice.

And:


Yes, they offered me a Ringo Starr van. (Those of you who have read The Tockleys will appreciate the synchronicity of me setting out to research the second Tockleys novel in a Beatles van.)



With lyrics from "I am the Walrus" on the back.


Here's the inside, already messy from where I've tested out the comfort of the bed by catching up on some missed sleep this afternoon. It passed.


There are furry handcuffs, instead of furry dice, hanging from the rear vision mirror.


They even put a Lennon quote on the dash.

I then got lost. And unlost. And lost again. I phoned Cath, who I was supposed to be meeting when she finished work, some distance away. She was frantically busy, so she handed the phone to a workmate, who gave me clear and concise directions on how to get onto the motorway.

I then headed in the wrong direction, had to get off the motorway, thread through the suburb, then get back on again.

Then there was a toll! OMG, Brisbane has tolls! I was not prepared for that. I'd read up on Sydney's highway robbery practices, but hadn't filled a bag with gold coins yet. The bored-looking woman at the tollgate took my "help, I'm a tourist" plea with bland good humour, relieved me of my cash and let Ringo and I through. (If you were wondering, Perth doesn't charge people for the privilege of driving around, figuring that once they've insured, registered and fuelled their car, they've done their bit.)

Anyway, I found Cath's work, and some food, then followed her home to the Gold Coast. Ringo is lodged in her garage, where I'll be sleeping tonight. We've been out for dinner, and have talked ourselves hoarse.

Tomorrow is Gold Coast Big Day Out.