Double celebration

Was it a long weekend in your neck of the woods?

I was very grateful to have Monday to recover after attending two birthday celebrations.

The first was a 60th birthday bash for my first boyfriend. I hadn’t seen him for a gazillion years – other than in my Facebook feed – but he invited some of our old gang along for the milestone event.

I fell in love with him at sweet 16 and we dated for six years. He was my year 12 formal date (below) … don’t we look cute?

We had some bulk fun times together before the heartbreak and it was great to catch up with some of our old posse.

Much of the night was spent reminiscing about our misspent youth … back when driver’s licences were paper with no photos on them, so you’d memorise someone’s birthdate and star sign to get into nightclubs …

Most underaged nights involved sneaking into a gay wine bar and nightclub called Gunfighter’s Rest, sipping cocktails steaming with dry ice and dancing to New Order and Erasure on the fluro, flashing dancefloor.

Ah, those were the days!

I don’t know whether it’s because I’m almost 60 myself and have lost perspective, but when I looked at my former teen friends at the party they did not match my idea of what 60 looks like.

To me they all looked and acted at least a decade younger.

The birthday boy was the most youthful of us all, probably because he has Scandinavian blood and is a triathlete.

This is him at the party with his lovely daughter …

I need to explain his shirt … he changed into various outfits throughout the night to reflect moments from his youth, including a high school sport shirt and a Scout shirt he hasn’t worn for 30 years.

I only belatedly realised it was a fancy dress party as I was throwing clothes into my overnight bag. I dug out my ’80s fancy dress costume and discovered I am a little too … voluptuous … for it at the moment. So I wore a khaki jacket in honour of the khaki bomber jacket he wore throughout high school while fighting to save the Franklin River.

Oh, and because the world is way too small, Michael’s eldest daughter has randomly become friends with my daughter. She used to date my daughter’s housemate and they both go to the same uni.

Far out!

I forget how they discovered the connection, but what are the chances?

(Then again, my life is filled with these sort of coincidences, like DD and I both being delivered by the same obstetrician – five years apart – at the Mater Hospital in Waratah.)

Anyways, my first boyfriend threw a very cool 60th birthday party. It was at a place called MOA & Co in the inner-Newcastle suburb of Carrington. By day it’s a cafe and farmer’s market.

The owners are friends with my ex and converted the venue into the ultimate party zone for the night.

The warehouse-style space has a coffee caravan in one corner that became a bar for the night, while a Mexican food truck was parked outside to feed the birthday guests. A DJ was playing 80s music and karaoke kicked in later in the night.

I arrived around 5.30pm and tottered wearily off at 10pm while the celebrations were still raging.

Anzac Day surge pricing meant a $20 Uber was $50 (outrageous), but there weren’t any other options for getting back to my sister’s place from the industrial estate at that time of night, so I gritted my teeth and paid the extravagant price.

I also figured I needed to be sensible and have an early night because I had a big Sunday ahead of me.

This is how it rolled …

I was up at 6.15am on Sunday morning for a post-sunrise coffee and promenade at Dixon Park Beach with my sister and her friend.

Then we headed home for scrambled eggs on toast and a shower before hitting the road to collect my mum at 9.30am for her 83th birthday surprise.

My sister had organised the most wonderful adventure for Mum. We drove to Nelson Bay public wharf and caught an 80-year-old ferry called MV Wallamba to Tea Gardens so we could cruise along the Myall River past where my grandparents lived on Moira Parade.

It was a spectacular day to be on the bay and river, with blissfully calm waters and gorgeous views of hundreds of pelicans lounging on sandbars along the way (forgive the blurry photo).

We had lunch at Tea Gardens Boatshed on the deck in the autumn sunshine. The water was sparkling, the Tyrrell’s chardonnay was on ice and we shared a leisurely lunch of oysters, soft shell crab burgers and prawn and crab spaghetti before catching the ferry back to Nelson Bay.

It was close to dark by the time I dropped Mum home and I was very not looking forward to the two-hour trip back to Sydney. But I made it through and arrived at DD’s to find he’d cooked an Indian feast for my dinner.

Monday was much more chill. Aside from being on duty for work, I lazed around, had an impromptu lunch with friends and went for an ocean swim to mark the last patrolled day of the season, before heading back to my place to prepare for another working week.

Oh, and shedding a tear over little Ellbie the Jack Russell, who was rescued from a ledge on the 13th floor of a Dee Why apartment block. She went missing on Friday and was spotted by a drone on Monday afternoon.

Bless the squad of firefighters that rescued her … I loved the roar that went up from the crowd when she was safely inside again, it was the ultimate feelgood moment.

Watch the rescue here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CxjTXvHEc/?mibextid=wwXIfr

How was your weekend?

Song of the day: Cool & the Gang “Celebration”