Holly's Birthday Week - Food, Drinks, Meat and Waves

Holly’s birthday is quite the event. Being the only girl in her family she was spoilt rotten by her olds. As we are living thousands of kilometres away from her home land, the onus falls on me to continue the spoilt rotten tradition.

This year was no exception. The event started the weekend before the big day with a trip to Canberra. I know, not the most ‘happening’ place but it was quite the change from our sleepy mountain home. We had a great dinner at a restaurant in the civic centre, Cream. The tapas taster to start was epic. We then hit the closest drinking establishment and proceeded to let out all our mid-late twenties pent up binge drinking frustration by sipping numerous beers, mixers and cocktails.

On Sunday we went shopping and again let of some steam by dropping a few dollars. After shopping we hit the Kingston markets and I went a little crazy buying produce, bread, sauces and oils. Being Canberra, I didn’t take any photos.

For the actual birthday I gave Holly her presents before work. During the day I picked up a mud cake and some flowers as well. Holly had a friend, Clare, visiting from the UK and we all went out to a local restaurant in Jindabyne.

Holly, Clare and the mud cake




The weekend after her birthday we travelled to Gerroa on the NSW South Coast. Friends and family from Sydney made the trek down. It was also my good friend Claudia’s birthday so double boo yeah.

I got up early on the first day and scored some amazing waves. It was nice to be back in the water. The surf stayed good for the whole trip. I surfed a heap of different boards from the classic 1970’s McCoy to a borrowed 5’4” mini simmons.

Some of the waves around over the weekend:












The first night we had a million beers and a good laugh. There was robust debate over Kanye Wests’ first hit song. I still reckon it is Jesus Walks but who knows.

Saturday was another big day of surfing and hanging out. We had a nice time hiding from the Southerly winds at Boneyards.

Saturday night is a big night in Gerroa. It is the night of the weekly Gerroa Boat Fishermans Club meat raffle extravaganza. Over 30 meat trays are raffled off to a hungry crowd of carnivores. The meat raffle has become a bit of a tradition when we are in town. This weekend was no exception. It was especially exciting as we had two meat raffle virgins, Dane and Claudia.

Things started off well, my cousin Pat one the very first meat tray on offer.




From there it got very tense. The numbers kept on rolling and no meat trays were forthcoming. We were giving up hope. I was putting it down to one of the worst meat raffle efforts ever.

We were down to the major prizes, huge trays of meat. Then it happened…. my number came up! And then Fee’s came up next! Not such a bad haul after all.




From the meat raffle it was back to the house. Over the years our crew has developed a bit a of a habit of dress up parties. The trend started in London a few years ago. Now some of us are hitting our 30’s but we are still going.

The theme for this night was one piece. There was some amazing outfits. I had some trouble finding my old ski one piece and had to settle for head to toe stripes using old thermals and other random ski gear. We had an awesome night dancing and drinking the night away.

The crew



Me and Dilan



Holly, I think she has always wanted to be a ballerina



My sister Soph and I



Cousin Pat



Another birthday girl, Claud, “if you want then you better put a ring on it”



Good times




We had a cleanup on Sunday morning and then hit the water. The surf was good again and we had a great time at the local left hand reef. After the surf we packed up the car and hit the road back to the mountains. Another awesome weekend :) :) :).