My darling husband has been a little less than enthusiastic about the approach of his 40th birthday. The past few months has taken its toll on both of us & we haven't been in a particularly celebratory mood. When a big milestone birthday comes along, it's hard to be away from family. And we've also just moved away from the wonderful friends we made in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
So we haven't made any friends yet in Canberra. So we're a million miles away from our friends and family. "Oh suck it up you ninnies!" I hear you say. So that's exactly what we did! :-) Following our friend Lilly's description of her 40th, we began calling it Scott's 20/20 - 20 years of youth & 20 years of experience! In the few weeks leading up to Scott's birthday, while busy unpacking the apartment, I started getting all of you to send me messages for his card. Thanks again to all of you who sent messages - it really made you all seem so much closer on the day!
Instead of putting all his pressies out weeks and weeks in advance to drive him nuts, I only put them out a week in advance. I was determined not to cave in and let him open ANY presents early this year! But in that last week, the pile started off small and slowly grew as gifts arrived from the four corners for him - I even printed & wrapped his gift vouchers!
By the morning of his birthday, he was sufficiently excited & I set him loose on the pile of pressies!
The growing pile of pressies.
The Card.
Some of the messages were printed so beautifully with decorations that I printed & stuck them in as is. The rest I wrote out in differing coloured pens. I even tried to change the handwriting in some.
Scott reading his card before opening any of his pressies. I swear that this was the best of his gifts!
(I'm happy to let on that, as I write this a couple of months after his birthday, he still picks this card up every couple of weeks & to read your awesome messages!)
Okay, okay... enough with the card now - time to get on with ripping open the shiny paper!!!
Opening his pressie from his mother-in-law - Meerkat Manor DVDs - a show my Dad had raved about!
Opening some shaving pamper stuff
Spoilt rotten!!!! Scott with all his loot - a new electric shaver, assorted shaving pamper products, a portable speaker for his iPod, Meerkat Manor DVDs, a book on Canberra's best sights, a book on Canberra's best bush, park & city walks and some great vouchers for both Kindle and Red Balloon experiences.
Birthday Boy!!!! Ready to head off to work.
And home after work with a glass of celebratory Chandon Vintage.
And I made him a nice thick fillet steak with a peppery mushroom sauce - no fancy stuff - just steak! Okay, and a wedge of avocado for added colour & a token towards a healthy, balanced meal. LOL! And another glass of that bubbly of course!
A birthday celebration just wouldn't be the same without a chocolate birthday cake....
But I had one more trick up my sleeve.... One last little pressie. I went to the local craft shop and got one of those cool wood & glass deep frame thingies & got to work with some glue, shells & glitter glue pen.
This is the result - a clue to his big surprise present! Figured it out?
The clues... Aside from the obvious, the guy in the picture below all those surfboards is Jack Johnson and the stunning pic below that is of the Narrabeen beach pool on the Northern beaches of Sydney.
My brother, Doug, works for a company who manages holiday parks all over Australia. With his invaluable assistance, I managed to get a nights' accommodation in a very really cool villa in their Narrabeen park - The Sydney Lakeside Holiday Park. Narrabeen is just a couple of suburbs south of our old haunt, Mona Vale. And at the beginning of the school holidays too - thanks Doug!!!
We were up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning (after a bit too much beer the afternoon before @ Scott's company Xmas party - see previous blog). We stopped about halfway at a greasy spoon for brekkie & coffee. Toasted sarmie & coffee consumed, we hit the road again.
And here's where there's a break in the pics - I mean who takes pics of ordinary things like shopping at IKEA? Yes, I'm stooopid! And terribly neglectful of my many fans who'd just love to see photos of AMAZING IKEA! So sorry peeps! Anyhoo, we headed straight through to the Homebush IKEA on our way into Sydney. I'd been searching for 2 small desks for our PCs to go into the spare room. Yes, you've already seen the pics of the finished product in the A New Home blog - just accept that I have mastered time travel! True to my usual AR form, I had done all my homework on the IKEA website beforehand. I had the measurements of each of the boxes, measured up the car to make sure everything would fit. I even checked the stock holding online before we set out on Saturday morning so knew that they had the desks we wanted, in the colour we wanted. Yes, I left nothing to chance!
Everything ran to my careful planning & we even found our car easily this time! (see here for where we lost Scott's old work van, Betsy, at IKEA)
Northern Beaches here we come!!!
We checked into our villa, hit Mona Vale for some sushi lunch & then mozied on through to the city for some great live music.
A wonderful sign at the entrance to The Domain.
We FINALLY found our way to where the concert was.... Yip, I'm not perfect ALL the time! I had a plan for everything. Except how to actually find The Domain. I just assumed that if we headed in the direction of the botanical gardens, it'd be pretty obvious. Hrm..... and what happens when you assume....?
What a stunning venue!
Getting more and more crowded by the minute!
As the sun set....
... the bats took flight...
... more people arrived...
... and the music began!!!
A compilation of some of the music Jack played throughout the evening. It was an absolutely amazing show! 3rd behind Billy Joel and Jason Mraz. And a bonus of Ash Grunwald playing his quirky blues too. What a blast!!! And the finale with everyone having so much fun. *sigh* Just awesome!
Walking back thru the city, we got a great view of the bridge where they'd put up a huge revolving red "O" on the bridge in honour of Oprah's visit that week.
Back to the holiday park in the wee hours and all the holiday lights were shining bright.
Very festive!
Sunday morning we packed all our IKEA boxes again and took off early. We'd decided to take the coast road home.
The lounge/kitchen in our villa.
Villa 38 - home for the night.
A definite spot to camp next time we want to spend a weekend in Sydney - it's right next to the Narrabeen lake and across the road from the beach. Perfect!
Just after the Sea Cliff Bridge, we happened upon this absolute gem of a hotel - The Scarborough Hotel - for breakfast.
The view from the balcony we had breakfast on. Spectacular!
And the breakfast was delicious too!
Yummy!
Back home & the desk building commences!
Me fighting with the Allen key again while assembling our new IKEA office chairs. I just found out that it's also known as a hex key. Now THAT explains EVERYTHING!!!
I've taught Scott well! I caught him organising all the screws, nuts 'n bolts before he even began assembling the first desk! I'm beaming with pride!!!
Busted being organised!
Another fabulous adventure! Thanks for having a birthday Scott - I can't wait for the next one to plan another surprise!
1 comment:
Thanks for such an awesome birthday Mands.. Another year, another adventure to start it.I am glad that you mentioned me reading my card, as I do this quite regularly. My day was very special, spent with Friends and Family, even though they werent actually there, it felt like they were.
I Love you Mands!
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