When I cancelled my trip with Michael to climbed Hannel Spur and staying around home I was not sure I was doing the right thing, but I was so lucky to have had the opportunity to share the weekend with many friends and had the most wonderful time!
Friday provided for an excellent start to the weekend. Thanks to Sue and Wil for inviting me to their joined birthday party at Falls Creek. I had an amazing time there, great company, food, music and lots of dancing. Special thanks to Yvonne for sharing her drinks with me (didn’t realise bottle shops around here would be closed on Good Friday!); to Tina for the huge tray of vegan and GF delicious food from Elephant Thai; and to Fran and Tim, neighbours of Wil and Steve, for allowing me to stay overnight on their driveway with my van. That worked perfectly !!
Saturday started early with a drive to Mollymook to get with Sue and do the Conjola to Narrawalee beach walk that we had been trying to do for a whole year. The walk was spectacular and the weather helped big time. We had to walk over the creek with water up to our chests to finish the walk but we were so happy to have done it !! Sue cooked a delicious breakfast to celebrate it.
I had to run after to get to Nowra to pick up Ian, and then head to Margie and Peter for the afternoon and evening of tennis and pizza. What a great night !! Tennis was so much fun, and partnering with Yvonne was the perfect strategy. Yvonne is great tennis player !! She has a killer serve that allowed us to win a few matches. I think we ended in the finals but had to abdicate as Yvonne had left when we were going to play it, and I had to run again. Margie’s pizzas were delicious !!! Peter had harvest his sweet potatoes and I cooked a couple on the burning fire as back at home. We served them as dessert with tons of butter, salt and pepper and they came out good. Peter’s green thumb is amazing, everything he plants there grows to gigantic proportions!
I had been invited to stay overnight at Margie and Peter’s place but decided to run to the showground minutes before they shut the gates (9pm) for an early night and an even earlier morning on Easter Sunday. I was out of the showground and on the road by 5am (new time) and head to Collingwood Beach to see the sunrise. After a couple of photos there I went to Greenfield Beach to see the sunrise there and have a swim. Beautiful !!!! I stayed on the beach for a while to take it all in. Then, quick drive to get coffee at Albert’n Miso and then drove to Hyams Beach 7:30am to get a good parking spot in the waterfront. I am here writing this message.
Sunday turned out to be another great day. I was able to catch up with Tracey, Andrew (Margie’s brother) and their family at Chinaman Beach. The weather was just perfect, hot with a cool summer breeze, not a cloud in the sky, and the water was crystal clear and with almost no waves. There was plenty people at the beach but it was not crowded, however Hyams Beach parking was chaos.
After that, I had a wonderful Easter Lunch with the Gonzalez and their extended family at Erowal Bay. Everything was so delicious: two types of raviolis, Sicilian meatballs (fratelli?), hard boiled eggs wrapped in prosciutto and encased on a a thin slice of meat (braciole), and many more beautiful dishes. Ended the meal with lots of chocolates and port. Yummo!
From the Gonzalez’s place, drove directly to Alex and Laura’s place in North Nowra to join Guillermo’s Bucks Night BBQ. We ate a delicious BBQ including beef, spicy sausages, blood sausage, coleslaw, salad and bread. All while drinking beer and wine, to get Guille “in the mood” and ready for a big night at the Nowra Postman Tavern. I apologised to Guille and the gang, but gave the tavern a miss and made it back to the Nowra Showground to end the day. I was very tired, and needed the rest.
I am not sure what Monday will bring yet. At this point I only have a dinner with the Margie and Peter, Adrienne, and a few mates to start the detail plan of our trip to Narrabri in the winter.
Happy Easter !!!