Sat Oct 9th 2010--- Time for a little "Sparkle"

Today the Marshall family said goodbye to Alice Springs which was quickly becoming a busy town as the town is hosting the Masters Games, a friendly athletic competition for those over 35 years of age.We flew to Brisbane cruising at 37,000 feet above on a Qantas 737.Here we were welcomed by a torrential downpour as we landed.The rain made for an interesting ordeal as we picked up our rental car and attempted to navigate our way to a family friend's (Jan Barkle aka "Sparkle") house who lives south of Brisbane in Tweed Heads.Now, many of you will know that I am a bit flustered when it comes to driving (well sitting passenger) in Australia… they just drive so fast and all the crazy roundabouts!(Matt, I bet you can just picture me bracing myself in the backseat!)

Moral of the story we made it safe and sound to Jans.When we found her lovely waterfront home we lugged all of our suitcases in, greeted 3 of the most wonderful and well-behaved dogs I have ever met and began settling in with a Moroccan stew and sangria.Nothing quite beats the joys of meeting up with friends when you are travelling.