OK, lets see if we can finish this off today (while Jack is napping!) 

Thursday night a large contingent of Incentive Trip folk headed to the Noosa Surf Club for Karaoke Night.  They must have been stoked to see an instant audience arrive and I think about 90% of the performances for the evening were from our group. 

Here's Harry and Vicki kicking off the karaoke - ing!

Nikki, Claire and someone soon dubbed 'The Upstager'

Aaron (who heads up the Australian operations) and the Upstager again!

Jayne and Gareth Mercer along with Marelle and Dave Taylor ...

A fun night with lots of singing and laughing.

Claire and I enjoyed room service breakfast on the balcony the next morning.  Aaah - this is the life!  And no dishes to wash afterwards ...

What else did I get up to while I was away??  My novel and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch and a glass or two of wine at a sidewalk tapas bar, and I was tempted by the chocolate shop we walked past each day.

The Incentive Trip earners dropped by the prize wheel each day to have a spin.

Here's one lot of prizes Claire won - yep that's Build A Brad, Corduroy Buttons and Fresh Cut Notes - nice!  And there were lolly jars to raid while catching up with others in the hospitality lounge area.

After all the eating I'd been doing I thought I'd better squeeze in a bit of a walk round the coastline!

Need a bit of waves crashing soundtrack for these ones!

Before it was time to get back to the feasting again!   Saturday night was the final group dinner so we all got dolled up ....

That's Claire and I getting a quick photo before we jumped onto the bus ....

... and we all tried to guess where we were heading to.  We knew it was something to do with a 'Step Back In Time."  I'd found a brochure for a castle in the area and was sure that was our destination.  Others were guessing a silent movie theatre nearby.  Turned out we were all wrong.   The bus stopped and we looked out the window to see ......

... this line of gorgeous vintage cars!  Lots of oohing and aahing and cameras flashing everywhere! 

Off the first convoy of us headed to the nearby Plantation Homestead.   Now my camera struggled a bit to capture any of the magic of this but check out the driveway with white bags with tealights in them lining the way.

The tables were all set beautifully in the grounds.  Just gorgeous with roses, candles, mmmmm

There were even 4 telescopes set up with a very knowledgeable gentleman to tell us what we were looking at.  I love star gazing and spent a bit of time over there looking at the moon, Jupiter, and a bunch of stars.

Makeesha managed a peek despite being on crutches ...

I enjoyed exploring the house too - its an upmarket B and B.

They had portaloos but even these were extra special with music, heating, a carpet to step down onto!

After a yummy dinner it was time to head back to the Sheraton again.  Claire and I popped by Marelle's room and learnt a few card tricks!  Thanks Harry - very entertaining!

Edited to add:  Ha ha - I've just been looking over all the photos I've shared and noticing the percentage that are of food!  No wonder I came back a few kilos heavier than I left!

And the next day it was time to cram all our stuff back into our bags and head back home again.   A quick photo with the two girls who made all the trip arrangements and added those magic touches that made it just the most memorable event.

Then it was off to the airport.  Shouldn't be putting an ad for the airline in here really - they ran out of most food before they got to us at the back of the plane (so instead of sandwiches and cheese/crackers for lunch I had a Mars Bar and Pringles!  Not the best before a bumpy old descent into Melbourne!)

I was very happy to see my 3 special people at the airport and got a quick start on catching up on those snuggles I'd missed.   (And a raspberry from Jack too!)

Got back home to a lovely batch of baked brownies and a welcome back mum sign - aaawwwww!

So once again a HUGE thank you to Claire for inviting me along on such a fabulous trip as her guest, and a big big big thanks to John and the kids for rearranging things to enable me to head off for 5 days.

Next year's trip is to Hamilton Island!  Perhaps John might be coming along as my guest to that one!  We'll have to see!  (Mum, dad - what are you doing in October 2010!?)

And that's it for me now for today.  Back to your regular scheduled cards and creations posts very soon. 

Cheers, Relaxed and Refreshed Sue