"An Around-the-World-Ticket for Two, Please."

My Birthday!

Posted by Sarah O'Neill , Monday, 21 March 2011 22:01

So, on Monday I went for my relaxing massage which was a birthday pressie from Ben! He had asked around at work and found a lovely place called Eden, which was a lady's house where she works from home. It was in Uralla, about 20 minutes from Armidale, so I set off with directions! I found it OK, and it was a gorgeous home right in the middle of nowhere, the last 10 minutes of driving had been down a gravel track! Margaret was lovely and invited me in and offered me a drink. The house was stunning, with huge windows on one side looking out across the landscape. The 'Body Bliss' massage was just that, bliss! She even threw some hots stones into it all which was a new experience for me! It lasted well over and hour and was heavenly! Feeling very relaxed I headed back to pick Ben up from work and had a very laid back evening feeling blissed out!

On Tuesday morning Ben bought me a cup of tea in bed for my actual birthday! I have never been out of the country for my birthday so that was a new experience! Ben had to go to work, so I found myself on my own, which was also a new experience for a birthday! I made the most of it and had a pamper day following on from yesterday! I had a lovely jacuzzi bath and painted my nails on my feet and hands. I read my book outside in the sunshine, which was also a new thing for it to be hot and sunny for my birthday, so I made the most of that! Went and got a movie of my choice for the evening, we were supposed to go to the cinema, but as there are only 2 screens here, there was Nothing on we wanted to see, so a DVD it was. I also managed to find my favourite bottle of Aussie wine which I haven't seen since we were in QLD! I picked up Ben and we had a lovely evening! He cooked dinner, my request of calamari and chips, with chip buttees obviously! A lovely glass of wine and a movie with popcorn!

On Wednesday I went to the Post Office to see if a parcel my Mum had sent had arrived. We wanted our rough guide to NZ which Ben bought in England and couldn't bring as he already had bought 3 books with him! So we looked around in shops here, but it was crazy expensive! Thought it might be cheaper for Mum to post ours out, and found out she could send it care of a post office branch here. Originally we thought the best bet would be to send it to the Gold Coast branch as we knew we'd be heading there, even if it wasn't until April. However, once we knew we'd be in Armidale for 3-4 weeks we rang up to find out if if could be sent across to the Armidale post office. They said it would only take 2-3 days and just be $5.50, however, the book had not arrived on the Gold Coast after 2 weeks. I rang every few days, and it turned up the day after I wrote and told Mum it was lost in the post and they told me to start a postal investigation! So we arranged for it to be posted over to Armidale! So, back to the day after my birthday, I decided after I had dropped Ben off at work to check the post office to see if it had arrived, but was not really expecting it to have, however, it had! I opened it on the way back to the car, and there were two birthday cards inside too! Funnily they had written on them that although it will be super early, don't open it until 15th etc, which was really funny, as Mum had clearly got confused, as we weren't ever supposed to pick up the parcel until April. However, it all worked out perfectly, as I got the birthday cards the day after my birthday, and technically it was still my birthday in the UK! It was so nice to get something from home! Mum and Dad, and Grandma had also put some birthday money in my bank account which was a lovely surprise!

I worked again on Wednesday and Thursday during the day which is all good for the bank balance! At the weekend we got up and had bacon sarnies, which is becoming a regular weekend treat! We then went into town for the Armidale Autumn Festival. There was a parade which reminded me so much of being at the Okehampton Carnival!!! There were lots of floats full of children representing their schools or groups, and also lots of Pipe bands. The Pipe bands were amazing, all dressed up in their smart outfits, and the music was just awesome. It's not really a style of music I'd say I like that much, but hearing the band right next to you was amazing! I enjoyed waving at all the kids, and Ben was totally embarrassed by me! It started to rain towards the end of the parade, so we sheltered under the brolly, and then headed straight to the shops when it had finished. We spent the rest of the weekend chilling out, watching TV and movies, and organising and planning the next couple of months. We have pretty much sorted out time in NZ, Fiji and Hawaii now which is great!