It was magic

How was your weekend? Mine was such a happy one.

It started with a walk on Balmoral Beach with friends on Saturday morning. The beach isn’t far from my new apartment and we jagged a parking metre-free spot just a few blocks up the hill (saving us about $10 per hour).

It is the most glorious spot and was recently crowned one of the best beaches in Australia. Tourism Australia’s beach ambassador Brad Farmer named it as the No.10 stretch of sand on his Best Australian Beaches 2023 list.

Farmer described it as “simply majestic and is one of the world’s most beautiful city beaches”.

It gets my vote too. The water was crystal clear and the sand was white and powdery soft under our feet.

At the halfway mark we had a coffee at The Boathouse and were lucky enough to score a waterside table.

DD swung by at lunchtime and we headed into the CBD to my favourite yum cha joint – Palace Chinese Restaurant. It’s across the road from David Jones and is the only place I’ve been that serves duck dumplings. Mmmmmmm.

We gorged on dumplings, spring rolls and noodles, then DD headed off to do some gardening at his kids’ house prior to them going to a Red Hot Chilli Peppers gig.

I caught the bus home, grabbed my cossie and went to Freshwater Beach with the youngest for a dip. It’s one of her favourite beaches and it was lovely to cool off in the waves.

I let the youngest drive my new car home, which was a little nerve wracking because a) it’s my new car; and b) I haven’t been in a car with the youngest as the driver since one of her first attempts behind the wheel.

She hated the orange lemon so much that she refused to drive it, so all tuition has taken place in her dad’s car (that may be one of the only pluses of owning the orange lemon). She drove very well and I was hardly scared at all.

After a quick shower at home, I jumped in the car and picked my sister up for a night out. I’d been given free tickets to the Westpac Open Air Cinema at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, so we treated ourselves to $22 worth of on-street parking and scored a spot just out the front.

The tickets were a gift from Mr Yum, the table ordering service where you scan a code, which was a very relaxing way to choose our dinner.

We sipped bubbles and ate burgers as we watched the stunning sunset.

The Westpac Open Air Cinema, which pops up each summer, has been described as the world’s most beautiful cinema. It was pretty hard to argue with that as we gazed at the Sydney Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the glorious shades of the sky behind the skyscrapers.

The movie was Empire of Light, which I knew nothing about.

Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, its directed by Sam Mendes and features Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward and Colin Firth.

It’s not what you would describe as an uplifting film. Coleman plays a cinema worker having a desultory affair with her manager, played by Firth. She has mental-health issues and is numbed by antidepressants, but finds a spark in her life when she falls for a young black man who starts working in the cinema.

As you may suspect, things don’t end well.

There was also some pretty harrowing racial unrest stuff entwined with the mental health woes and I was close to sad tears a few times.

However, the performances were amazing and it was a thought-provoking experience.

I’d forgotten to lock my car – the orange lemon used to lock automatically – but fortunately it wasn’t stolen and we were home 10 minutes after the film ended.

Such a blissful day.

Sunday wasn’t too shabby either. A pump class, a spot of plant shopping, a swim at Bilgola Beach and a bowl of fettucine boscaiola with the boyf.

It isn’t often that I end a weekend feeling relaxed and revived, but that one really ticked the boxes.

I hope yours did too.

Song of the day: U2 “It’s a beautiful day”