I had a lovely day – first of all I met Siobhan for breakfast in one of my favourite cafes in Bondi: Gertrude and Alice. Siobhan is my intrepid aunt who is on her Gap Year travelling the world, and arrived in Oz just in time to celebrate my birthday with me. She also blogs about her travels here. Gertrude and Alice is a lovely bookshop café which serves great coffee and bircher museli, ably setting us up for the day. I then showed Siobhan my much-traversed favourite clifftop walk from Bondi to Tamarama, which she loved, and she’s looking forward to coming back to Sydney in March with my cousin Sammie to show her the beauty of the coastline.
The sea was really rough this weekend so the spray from the crashing waves cooled us down in the summer heat. It’s amazing to hear Siobhan’s stories from her travels and see how much she’s changed already from her trip – I’ve been a huge fan of her idea to take a Gap Year from the inception of the idea, and I think her pluck to make it happen is paying off. After reading about some of her dicey experiences in Asia I’m quite relieved to be showing her a good old Sydney welcome though! The lifestyle here is certainly among the best in the world.
On my birthday my housemates and I were holding a Bondi Village Fête in our back garden, so we had a few things to do to prepare. Siobhan and I still managed to fit in a trip to the beach, but we shandied out of swimming in the sea due to the rough currents. Ruth had made bunting to suspend over the garden, and Christina made cupcakes and salads. I prepared some stuff for the barbie and put up the parasol and swingball in the back garden. We stole milk crates from around the neighbourhood (they’re always hanging about on grass verges in Bondi) and covered them with some cheap cushions. Genius. I also made a killer punch:
1 bottle champagne
1 bottle lemonade
1/2 bottle midori
1/2 bottle vodka
2 bottles breakfast juice
3 limes
Strawberries
Pineapple
It was v popular!
The party went on well into the wee hours, and it was a great vibe on a lovely warm summer evening (sorry I know I’m going on about the ‘summer’ thing but it’s such a novelty, see!) I love occasions like that where lots of different groups of people get to mingle, and it’s always best when people are chilled out and sociable, which they all were…
Despite a late night it was impossible to lie in this morning (parrots and kookaburras and sunshine streaming through the window make sure of that!) so I cooked a hangover breakfast and we finished cleaning the house.
Today we’ve been chilling out and I’m going to get an early night before a hectic week. Thanks to everyone for the lovely birthday messages, it’s great to feel your warm wishes from over the oceans. Reading over my blog post from my birthday last year, it's cheering to see how things have changed. I was new to the country then and hadn't really found my feet, but now I feel thoroughly settled here with a great social network and established lifestyle. I still miss everyone back home, but a whole itinerary of forthcoming visitors will help ease that feeling a little! I got some lovely presents, but more about those later, I'm feeling sleepy now so will go to bed.
cx
2 comments:
Happy Birthday M'honey!!! I stll feel Young Sweetie! Love Mum XxX
It was a great party Carmie, thanks for inviting me. You have some really nice friends!!.
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