Messing up the gift

I don’t have many photos from my weekend, but I will talk you through the highlights.

It was freaking hot in Sydney on Friday, so I started work early at DD’s place, then ducked out in the late arvo for a quick beach swim before driving up to Newcastle.

I wanted to stay at my sister’s place so I could be there on her birthday morning. Traffic was a bit nightmarish on the freeway, making my ETA impossible to predict, so my sister grabbed a blast from my past – takeaway from Don Beppino’s in Merewether – for our dinner.

I swung past the bottle shop near her place for some Mumm Champagne to accompany it and we were set!

Don Beppino’s vodka pasta is sooooooo good. As is Mumm Champagne. Excellent combo.

Afterwards, we watched a new Christmas movie called Oh. What. Fun starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Denis Leary.

It was soooooo bad. And it reminded me that all the women in Hollywood who’ve had their faces renovated look like they are fashioned from flesh-coloured plasticine that’s been over sculpted.

I’m not a fan. They look so generic and it takes so much effort for them to smile or show any facial expressions.

(That said, I really dislike all my own lines and wrinkles so maybe it’s jealousy talking.)

The Christmas movie did have a relatable message about how hardworking mothers get taken for granted, but the script was not great.

Anyways, as we were getting ready for bed my sister informed me she was getting up at 5.45am for a birthday beach walk.

While I wake up at 5.45am or earlier most days I am not normally upright until about an hour later, so it was a bit of a shock to the system.

But it was a gorgeous morning and the promenade was packed with people at 6am.

Gorgeous part of the world.

After coffee and a walk I went for a quick dip in the surf and then we swung past Woolies to get some smoked salmon for our brekkie.

As we sipped Mimosas I handed my sister her birthday gift and it was only as she reached across with a silver bracelet around her wrist that I realised I had made a terrible error … I had bought her a gold bracelet … she doesn’t wear gold!

Arrrrrrrggggh.

The upside was that I LOVE the bracelet and am keeping it – it has all these lovely little seed pearls and crystals dangling from it.

I immediately hustled her into the car and took her to the Olive Tree Market in Civic Park for a replacement gift.

She chose Christmas earrings and a silver necklace with a cowrie shell. Crisis avoided.

We visited my dad in the nursing home after that, then had lunch at a bowlo beside the lake with my mum before I jumped in the car and made my way down the freeway to Sydney.

An entree-sized bowl of pasta with DD at our favourite Italian place followed before I left him to watch the cricket and crashed out in bed.

We read the Sunday papers and had brekkie at his favourite cafe, then it was time to head home as I’d promised the eldest a belated birthday dinner at a nearby Mexican joint … with a bonus cocktail …