Love and other bruises

Other than being stung all over my chest by a toxic caterpillar, my weekend was quite lovely.

Busy, slightly painful, but lovely.

The caterpillar dropped from a bush – I presume – and hit my face first before tumbling into my cleavage, leaving angry, red welts at every turn.

Unsightly.

Anyways, I had some new cortisone cream for my beleaguered ears, so I put some of that on it and soldiered on. Meanwhile, my daughter partied on. And she looks even worse for wear than I do.

Saturday kicked off with me tottering out of bed at 5.45am to drive her to a paintball party. The paintball party was a big hit, figuratively and literally. She’s absolutely covered in red welts and purple bruises from all the times she was shot, but says it was SOOOOOOO much fun.

After returning from paintball drop off, I took the dogs for a walk and frantically removed the caterpillar from my cleavage. Then I went for a walk with my local mum buddies. Then I drove to the Bay Walk to do a circuit of it with a former magazine colleague, who I also happened to share a nanny with 16 years ago.

Then I took the dog to the vet for his annual injection, grabbed a supermarket pizza for the eldest and drove up to DD’s for some R&R. I sipped a rose while he hung a triptych of Myall Lakes photographs above his bed that I took and had printed onto canvases.

They’d been resting on top of his bed head for a few months and he decided he’d better put some proprietary nails in the wall before I took the photos back like I did with the underwater swimmer photo I loaned him for his entry hall.

After having a beer with his neighbour Gav on the deck, DD surprised me with a visit to a new local bar called Sundial Tapas Restaurant. It’s an interesting concept – you put cash on a special plastic card and then check out a wall of wines that are kept in special fridges at optimum temperatures. You put the card in a slot above the wine you want, then select whether you want a taste, a standard glass or a large serve. A little nozzle pours it into your glass and off you go.

We tried a few of the wines on offer while nibbling on a ploughman’s platter. There was a very nice red with a flag on the label that was probably our favourite.

The decor felt a bit like your mum and dad had turned the family rumpus room into a public bar after you’d moved out, but the place was absolutely jumping, so it’s lucky we’d booked.

Then we went home to cuddle on the couch and watch lots of 80s Australian rock on YouTube while DD gently strummed his electric guitar. I always love that.

DD could have done without me waking him up at 6.30am the next morning because I wanted to watch the sun rise, but he blearily climbed out of bed and drove me to Avalon headland for a coffee. Then we shared a serve of avocado and tomato on toast at The Boathouse at Palm Beach, said hi to The Warrior at his famous sandhill workout session and did a quick twirl around Palm Beach Markets. We hardly every get a morning together and it felt so nice.

Then it was time for me to collect the youngest from her sleepover party, drop her friend to Warringah Mall, drop the youngest home, do the grocery shopping and put a slab of beef brisket in the oven to slow cook then turn into soft taco filling for dinner.

Busy, very busy.

Tired, very tired.

But I’m between work gigs from Good Friday, so I’ll get a chance to catch up on some rest then. Let me know if you hear about any jobs going.

How was your weekend?

Song of the day: Sting “Don’t stand so close to me”