She said yes!

We love showing people around the Northern Beaches and over the weekend we gave our Newie friends Darren and Kirsten the grand tour.

They’ve spent lots of time in Sydney CBD, but never really explored further up the coast than Manly.

DD kicked off with the elevated regional view from Collaroy Plateau, then we wended our way up the coast with a pit stop at The Joey in Palm Beach for an afternoon drink.

I asked the girl behind the bar for a glass of prosecco and a lager and she said “that will be $14”. I was so confused and thought she must have misunderstood my order, but apparently it was happy hour, hurrah!

The Joey is a lovely spot, overlooking Pittwater, but it’s had a hell of a year.

The owners spent something like $7 million on the renovation, then ran into trouble when they tried to extend their hours.

While more than 130 locals supported their plan to open until 11pm each night – up from the current 7am-4pm daily and 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays during daylight saving – seven angry locals objected.

They said it would be too noisy, despite the venue being 600 metres and an entire golf course away from them. (And the golf clubhouse with its bar and restaurant being nestled among residences.)

One of the objectors said a wedding held on March 9 at The Joey until 10pm “caused a serious amount of anxiety” to his family.

Killjoy.

Then we headed to Avalon Surf Club for dinner at Lovat on the Beach. Fortunately we’d made an early booking because I was super-keen to get home for the 50 Years of Countdown special.

We loved watching the step back in time, as Countdown was such a huge part of our youth.

The next morning we took Darren and Kirsten to the coffee van at Avalon headland, which is such a glorious way to start the day.

I was a bit obsessed with the little Bilbo lookalike snuggled up to his dad’s back on the grass (above). Naaawww.

Then we popped to Relish in North Avalon for brekkie before driving to one last lookout at Bilgola which happens to be where DD took me on our second date.

There were a few whales frolicking off the shore, score! I was eager to stay to enjoy the action, but a woman came up and asked us to leave because a man was about to arrive and propose to his girlfriend …

Oh! We reluctantly abandoned our whale watching and headed to the carpark, passing the man, woman and two kids. As we peered through the bushes, he went very slowly and carefully down on bended knee and it was only at that moment I realised he was a double amputee.

We’re pretty sure she said YES because there was lots of joyful hugging afterwards. So romantic!

And then we waved our friends goodbye and spent the rest of the day pottering around wishing our weekend was three days longer.

The dogs had the best time, they loved lazing around on DD’s desk …. and in his lap …