The Birthday celebrations begin...
- marymoscrop1
- May 3
- 5 min read
As anyone that knows Emily will attest, she does not celebrate a birth DAY she celebrates a birth MONTH, and as we are officially in May, that month has started!
I didn't specifically time my trip to coincide with her birthday, I timed it so I knew I would be retired and free as a bird...it is just serendipity that I am here in May. I am thankful too that the weather is not too hot - it is hot by UK standards, just not melting hot which is the Ozzy standard for summer.
On Emily's second day in Oz she went to the local park and saw a group singing 'happy birthday' to a girl who just looked so happy, and she said to herself 'I'm gonna do that for my birthday'... so we did.
We will not be in Oz for her actual birthday, so that gave her the perfect excuse to have several celebrations - as if she needs an excuse!
We had picnic blankets, food, wine, beer, lots of cheese, bread crackers and a most wonderful salad with peaches - truly scrummy.
It was a lovely chilled out afternoon, with the obligatory 'Mud Cake' which is the birthday staple here.
I photo documented the demise of the cake as the sun beat down on us all - it started off with dinosaurs and lettering standing proud, but as the afternoon wore on, they slowly sank into the mud - it tasted yummy though!
Instead of many (29) candles on the cake, they opt for little candies here, which look like candles, but are edible. I didn't realise so I am happily sharing my wisdom with Lucy who pimped the cake and advised her to light one of the candles to then light all of the others - I really should wear my glasses more :)
About 15 of Emily's friends came to celebrate her, and from different friendship groups that she has made.
The park was busy with lots of groups, one chap slung a slack-line between two trees and started 'tightrope walking' (thank goodness it was low to the ground as his chums also wanted to try it - enough said ), there was frisbee throwing and one of our group brought skittles to play - not that it got competitive at all...
There were also lots of 'doggos' which is just Australian for 'dogs', and I was really bemused how everyone in the group always knew the name of the dog as it came to say hello - what a friendly bunch..... turns out that every dog has it's name printed on it's collar and/or harness, so they are not just super memory champions for dogs names, they could all just read....
As the sun went down and the cheese was eaten, it was decided that the party should continue at the house that Emily first lived in when she came to Oz, which is less than a minute from her current house (Newtown is the place to be after all! ) and is definitely a very sociable hub. More and more people arrived as Lacie cooked up a load of sausages etc on the BBQ (I know, such a cliche, but actually yum!)
and others created yet more delicious salads, bread, dips etc. I left the 'kids' to it and headed on the long (60 seconds) walk home for a fairly early night - I have no doubt that Em tracked my journey on her phone, but then I realised I had to wait up for her as I had the key!
I am regretting leaving so early as I missed the second of Em's cakes...
I went for a walk yesterday, and walked through Sydney University, which is literally 5 minutes walk away, so there is little wonder that this is such a creative, vibrant, quirky part of Sydney. I found my homeland, and I might pop in next week to see what is on offer
If you look on the right of the pic you will see one of the lime bikes I mentioned the other day - I tell you, they are everywhere! I have the image of a granny riding up to the 'Older Women's Network' with her knitting in the little basket in the front....if I do go there for a visit and I find the local firemen doing a photoshoot for their next calendar I will be well impressed! (apparently that is a thing here as they are all over my SM pages!)
Today being Sunday, Em was off work, so we took the ferry out to Manly, which is a 'seaside town' to buy bits and bobs for our beach trip. Em wanted a new bikini, but nowhere here sells them - the shops are full of woolly jumpers and warnings that Winter is coming.
We had a mooch about the shops and went down to the beach, which had signs everywhere saying 'beach closed' I think it was just that there were no lifeguards on duty, but the sea was rough - not an ideal day for swimming but the surfers and windsurfers were having fun.
What3words hotel.spare.sums
Emily did treat me to a famous Butter Boy Cookie (what3words booth.behind.talked) which was absolutely divine! I opted for salted caramel and pecan rather than the usual chocolate chip, and what a good choice it was - YUM!
Shopping over we came home, first by ferry which gave a great view of the SOH
then train from Circular Quay, which was packed, but no-one was getting on the trains! It turns out that it is a popular place for people to go and take pictures as it has a really great view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the backdrop - this was as close as I could get as there were so many 'serious photographers hogging all of the best platform space ...
I called in at the wine shop, SPON (what3words loyal.cliff.club)to buy some wine for the movie tonight and had quite an embarrassing encounter with the vintner who, although I was picking up an bottle of Australian wine, suggested I tried the new french wine they had got in...I said I am closer to France than you are mate, but the shop was so loud (people buy bottles of wine then open them and drink them there!) that he did not hear me - turns out I was wrong anyway, he was from Birmingham!
Now the hard part of the day begins as we try and chose what to watch on the big screen tonight! :)
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