Grabbing a Bite at Wahlburgers Byron Bay After a Day at the Writers Festival?🍔📕

I crossed the Queensland/New South Wales border for the first time since the Covid lockdowns to spend the day (Saturday August 10th) at the Byron Writers Festival and on the way back from Bangalow I ducked in to grab a burger and beer at Wahlburgers in Byron Bay, since there still isn't one in Brisbane despite all the hype years ago in the local press about building one on Brisbane's north side.

2020: Fortress Queensland?

Artworks at the 2024 Byron Writers Festival?📕🎭🎨🖌

The Art of Writing Crime talk at
 the BWF, August 10th, 2024

A burger business with star power
 is about to hit Australia

Burgers, Missing Loved Ones, Holidays, Movies ... and Would You Like Minimum Fries or Hot Chips with That?

I'm pretty sure the last time I was down here this was a Mexican restaurant where this Wahlburgers now is, which I wrote about in this old post -

Using Your PGS ... or Maybe Even Your Internal Dash Cam?

Oddly enough, the last time I was down in Byron was to watch a movie in the Palace Cinemas on this same level of the shopping centre that Wahlburgers is on, and then to duck up to Bangalow for a play that night, which I wrote about in this old post -

What Will Children's Day Look Like in 2040?

Magic Mushrooms and a Night in 'Dreamland'?

The Bangalow Hall on the right

Oddly enough, the hall I saw the play in was in the Bangalow Showgrounds and part of the 2024 Byron Writers Festival, not that I caught any talks in that hall on the day I attended the BWF. 

I got to Wahlburgers right around sunset and took my seat on the balcony overlooking the tattoo shop I got a tattoo from years ago -

Where I got my new old tattoo.
The cinema is right across the road from it

The tattoo looks nowhere as good as
that now and is barely readable

Life Support?

That bright white light on the hill is the lighthouse

One thing that surprised me as I was sitting on the balcony looking over the roof of the tattoo parlour and out to sea was that I could see the lighthouse that marks the spot from where I threw my old wedding ring into the ocean 10 years ago now -

Love on the Rocks ... A Fool's Journey?

Featuring some truly iconic
Aussie locations?

Kylie Minogue Stars in the New Tourism Australia Ad which Features the Cape Byron Lighthouse?

"Ship of Fools" World Party

Pity I wasn't down there on Friday for the start of the Byron Writers Festival;-)

The Catholics Invented the Mc Donalds Filet-O-Fish for Friday’s?

Or down there on Sunday for the finish of the Byron Writers Festival;-)

Exorcism, The Supernatural ... and the Wahlbergs?

Mark Walhberg is on the Gold Coast filming a movie called 'Balls Up' now, so I was kind of hoping he might have been over the border having a burger at his restaurant that night.

Maybe I should have gone to 'The Farm'?

The Farm?

Fig Tree Restaurant Byron Bay Australia

Or maybe I should have dined at the new 'Fig Tree' restaurant, since I haven't dined there since it burned down pre-Covid -

Where's the November Rain When You Really Need it?

DESPICABLE ME 4 - Sweet Child O' Mine?👼🎬

OK, sorry for keeping this post in progress for so long, but I had planned to finish reading William and Sarah's 2011 book 'Worse Things Happen at Sea', which William had signed for me on the 10th at Bangalow within 24 hours of starting this post, but I only finished reading it today (August 27th).

This book crossed paths with me in the Op Shop I work in part time a few weeks before I was going to the Byron Writers Festival and I had only read half of the book the day William signed it for me.
I had tried to read it all before the festival, but "if you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans", as they say, don't they?

I remember feeling a bit guilty when William was signing the book, and he said something like, "it's a good book isn't it, it's one of my favourites", and I just nodded and said "yeah" ... and thought to myself but I'm only halfway through it, because I'm not the original owner of this book and I've only had it a few weeks ... and you should see the books I have in my "to read" pile.    

But timing is everything when it comes to reading books and life, as I told William how our brothers have certain things in common, and this morning I had to take my brother to the hospital to get a blood test, and as we were walking from the hospital to the carpark, a sign caught my eye as I was looking at the helicopter landing pad and it read 'LOOK BOTH WAYS', which is the name of Sarah's movie that I love so much that I would frame it and hang it on my wall if it was a painting.

And I still hadn't finished the book when I took that picture, so I didn't know at that point that the last chapter of the book ends with William walking a dog around a local footy oval with him watching a helicopter taking some random bloke off to hospital.

It certainly is a small and synchy world ... and I'm sure if William ever reads this post that he will get that pun from our conversation about our brothers;-)

But that's not all ... in fact there is probably enough for another post, so stay tuned for that one, maybe ... because Sarah writes near the end of the book when she realizes that she doesn't have long to live that life is not about being happy all of the time.

Putting a Lens on Happiness? 🙋😁😼😆😊😎

'Worse Things Happen at Sea'

That kid rolling in the surf is in the 'Happiness' booklet

'Worse Things Happen at Sea' is what we usually try to convince ourselves of while our feet seem firmly planted on the land, I think;-)

Oh, and if this book was a painting, I would frame it and put it on my wall, too.

Cronulla Sharks chairman Steve Mace
has recounted the horrifying standoff

"Mate, My Hobby is Being Alive" William McInnes

Jung, Starbucks, Signs and Symbols? 📕🥤⚓♒🦉