Reality Shifting in Australia

I had an interesting experience in Australia a few weeks ago. Towards the end of my nearly 3 week trip, I was at the Gold Coast barely post summer (picture expansive beaches and warm water---I was in heaven!) There was only a few hours to spend there the afternoon I arrived before I was to do an evening talk, with personal sessions with clients scheduled the whole next day, then a very early departure back to the States the following day.

Crystena Maxwell (my local facilitator/scheduler, etc) and I had on swimsuits under our clothes to peel off later following  lunch. We parked in one of those  underground parking lots that connects to a mall in Broad Beach--an area of Gold Coast I had never visited.

Getting off of the escalator from the parking garage, we entered an inside mall area with a number of different stores. One grabbed my interest immediately because it was a gelato store (Italian ice cream for those who have been deprived of the pleasure!) It was named Il Gelato and looked like it offered a nice variety of flavors. I started to say to Crystena--"Oh, look, there's a gelato shop. We should get some later for desert", but she was up ahead of me, so I didn't say anything. We exited out onto the street where there was a much better choice for delicious restaurants. We picked a great one. While we were eating, I suggested going after swimming to the gelato place I had seen in the mall.

The schedule was getting tight, but we felt we had just enough time to get a gelato and head back to her home before the evening event. Back in the indoor mall area, I couldn't find the gelato place where I had seen it. I did notice two other ice cream stores (one an Australian and the other an American chain store) After wandering around a bit, I asked the Information Desk where the store was, and they said there was one a few blocks away! And she mentioned how delicious it was.

Well, I figured that they were misinformed (after all, I did see it with my own eyes, as plain as day!) Crystena and I looked some more, then asked another person. Same directions. And did I know how delicious it tasted?

We decided to quickly go the few blocks, even with the clock ticking, because I think that by that time we just had to see if a gelato store was even there! This was just too kooky...

We did indeed find the store, named Il Gelato, down the street where we never walked--even to go to the beach. I have never been to Broad Beach before, just Surfer's Paradise. And did I mention how particularly scrumptious the gelato tasted?

I had a realization as I was eating my Chocolate Hazelnut gelato that it was my inner child who had the hankering for the treat and shifted reality for me to see the store as it really looked superimposed on another inside the mall. She had not had her normal allotment of ice cream since leaving the States, and decided to go all out with the best ice cream of all--gelato!


©2004 Alijandra. May be reproduced in full with credit given.