The Posh end of the shopping centre has been open for a little while now so I ventured in for a little look see this morning. I figured that with all the 'beautiful' folk here at the Goldie out pounding the pavement and working up a healthy glow doing the Marathon, there'd be hardly anyone there, I was right. It wasn't quite deserted but it was close.
Coffee and a toasted croissant saw me in good form for an explore.
All the swanky labels are either there, or 'coming soon', so if you want the latest in thousand dollar handies or some real sparkles for your ears, then maybe you want to pop in. And if you need to have a little sit down after flashing the black plastic then the relaxing areas are really lovely. I do hope that there is some sort of maintenance contract sorted though cos I wouldn't want to see it all fall into disrepair especially as it seemed most used by youngsters who had more interest in playing and slopping water from the fountain all about, than just taking a load off. I reckon the fountain which is very fine, will prove to be an excellent swimming hole for kids in the summer. Seriously I don't think I will be able to resist dipping a toe in, so there will be no stopping the kids.
The new David Jones is spacious and glittering and new and surprisingly empty of punters. Put it this way, if had planned on a big stealing fest, today would not have been the day, cos sales' folk outnumbered shoppers many times over. Yeh it was early, but still. It was a similar story in Myers and any other store I went into.
Now that might have been because everyone was out running, or it might be simply because locals are driving to Robina, where they can park all day for nothing. Yep there is no checking of the time to see if you are close to overstaying your welcome, you can just have a really good mooch around.
I knew I wasn't gonna be more than 3 hours cos I only wanted a look, but come serious shopping days, time just seems to slip by me and I have been known to be as long as it takes to gather up enough shopping bags as to make it impossible to walk any further, so requiring a trip to the car, and I have done this on a loop. But alas, this won't be happening at Pac Fair. Certainly not while I can drive to Robina and park up without running a hour glass.
I hate having to run to a schedule when I am doing a leisurely hunt for nothing in particular, and so I got a bit cross when I noticed that I kept checking the time just to make sure. I would have gone a bit nuts if I had run a few minutes over so checking happened.
I guess the truth is that parking is a growth industry. A decade or so ago, hospitals worked out that charging to park up was gonna generate huge returns, so they built parking garages in lieu of patient facilities and raked in the cash from visitors and patients alike. When they first brought in paid parking at the Wesley Hospital in Brisvegas, if you were a patient you could get your parking validated, but that has gone by the wayside, so now, if there's a car involved, there's money owing. But at least the car parks are generally well planned and easy to traverse. Not at Pac Fair. The Flyover entry to the car parking 'best for Woolies and the cinema' is all over the place like a mad woman's breakfast. You drive up to go down and then to get out you drive down again but there is no lane to turn off into Hooker Blv, so there is all sorts of argie bargie going on at the lights onto Sunset Blv. The exit signage is poor and don't be surprised to find yourself going the wrong way up a oneway lane cos the signage for that is pretty shit too.
See it's ridiculous isn't it? My morning of sight seeing which was lovely, is so tainted by the parking fiasco. That's the final impression I have of the place.
Robina here I come.
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