Life – Page 70 – Life is a Journey

Celebrations

Posted on September 7, 2008October 14, 2026 by Libby Withnall

Well, it’s been a fun weekend in our neck of the woods.

On Saturday night we celebrated my good friend, Kay’s, 40th birthday. It was a very enjoyable night – dinner out at a restaurant. Don’t you just love her cake? Can’t see it? Look again. That’s not a bag on the table, that’s the cake. How cute is that? She sat and looked at it for about 5mins not wanting to cut it. Not that I can blame her. I don’t think I would have cut it. Luckily it tasted as good as it look so it worth cutting up.

Today we celebrated Father’s Day. The girls made Kevin his very first breakfast in bed. Not sure he enjoyed the whole experience – not with everyone (dogs included) piled on the bed with him. But he was a good sport.

Later we drove over to Berrima (about an hour away), with Mum & Dad meeting us there. We went to the Court House Museum – which gave us the history of the town and was rather interesting.

After that we did a bit of shopping. Amy was quite excited to find a tea shop and bought some green mint tea. We had a yummy lunch at a cafe.

I got this photo with my Dad, who wasn’t feeling very well (poor thing).

When we got home we had a spa and spent the rest of afternoon watching TV, reading and playing on our laptops. I think Kevin enjoyed his Fathers Day. And I hope my Dad did too (even if his present didn’t arrive in time 🙁 )

Spectacular

Posted on August 31, 2008October 18, 2026 by Libby Withnall

That’s the one word I can use to describe both Dralion and Billy Elliot.

We started our escape by driving to Sydney. Bondi Beach to be exact, where we stayed on Friday night. We had a lovely room overlooking the beach.

After Kevin did a bit of work – it is a work day after all – we drove over to Fox Studios where Dralion is playing. We had a wander around the shops, eventually stopping at Gloria Jeans for a hot chocolate.

At 4.30pm it was show time.

This is the forth cirque du soliel show that we’ve seen and we were still blown away. They take acts that you’ve seen before and totally transform them. The trampoline act (where the performers almost walked up the wall was amazing) and the hoop diving was unbelievable. One thing I know is that after seeing people perform like this you’ll never need to go to animal circus again.

After the show we had a hot corn cob and bought some pasta to take back to our hotel room.

We spent the night watching music videos (there was NOTHING on TV and we didn’t feel like paying $17 to watch a movie we could rent for $3) and eating dinner in bed.

On Saturday morning, with no little puppy to wake us up, we managed to sleep in till about 6.30am. We lazed around for awhile, had some cheese on a roll for breakfast, played on the laptop and later went for a walk over to the beach.

We got a cup of tea and a friand and sat and people watched. Such a busy place – even in Winter.

After an hour we headed back to our room, checked out of the hotel and drove into the city. We parked our car next to theatre and walked, first to Haigh’s chocolates, then to a coffee shop Kevin wanted to visit, then to Borders. We had some lunch in a food court and on the way back to the theatre bought a new printer. How’s that for an impluse purchase. This is a little one for me to print photos – a Cannon Selphy ES2 – it’s sooo cute!!!

It was rather cold so I got a tea at Gloria Jeans before the show. We were seated much closer to the stage than the last time we saw Billy Elliot – which was really great for me as I could actually see people’s faces. The show was just as fantastic as last time and I’m so glad we got to see it again.

We left Sydney and arrived home around 6pm, after picking up some Chinese to have for dinner. It was nice to see the kids and dogs again. We finished up our day watching The Water Horse with the girls.

We’re escaping

Posted on August 29, 2008October 18, 2026 by Libby Withnall

Kevin and I are escaping for 2 days and 1 night. We’re staying at the Swiss Grand in Bondi (where I don’t think I’ve been since I was a teenager) and going to see Cirque Du Soleil – Dralion this afternon and then Billy Elliot (yes, again – my birthday present from Mum) tomorrow afternoon.

Kevin has a work meeting this morning and I have a few things I want to get done (including going to the gym if I have time), before our planned time to leave at 11am.

Entertaining friends

Posted on August 19, 2008October 16, 2026 by Libby Withnall

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know that I love to entertain at home. We seem to go through phases of doing lots, then not anything for a while. Winter is a quieter time and this year it was extra quiet with us being away for 3 weeks. But we had friends last Sunday and some other friends coming this Sunday. And there a few more friends I need to organise a day with. We will soon be starting our busy time. We have Christy’s birthday in Sept, our Halloween Party in Oct, then Christmas Eve (with friends), Christmas Day (with family) and New Years Eve/Day (with friends). That’s on top of the normal entertaining we like to do.

A lot of people are surprised by how much entertaining we do and how effortless it seems. But I really don’t find it too hard and I think part of the reason is that I don’t get stressed about it. I plan out what I’m serving/making and write a to-do for the few days before the event to make everything run smoothly. I like everything ready when guests arrive and don’t want to running around madly on the day. In the case of last Sunday we were out all day Sat so we had a BBQ and a couple of side dishes. I usually make my own nibbles and desert but due to lack of time didn’t do that this time. Normally I clean the house the day before with the wedding on, Mum & Dad were kind enough to come and help tidy and clean in the morning.

A part of entertaining I particularly enjoy is setting a nice table. With most of our friends having young children we tend to eat outdoors if possible. Having 5 adults and 6 children on Sunday I set a special kids table. The girls usually help to do this.

All the food was ready before the guests arrived.

I lit some candles and even had time to sit down for about half an hour before they arrived. When our guests arrived (2 girls that I grew up with and their families) we welcomed them inside and I put some spring rolls in the oven to cook. Later Kevin cooked the organic meat on the BBQ and I heated up some side dishes.

We had a great afternoon. Amy had organised some activities for the kids.

And I had a lovely time catching up with old friends. I have known these wonderful ladies (who are sisters) since I was 3 years old. They lived behind us growing up and our parents used to pass us over the fence to each others homes. Later we had a gate cut in the fence. It’s impossible for me to think of my childhood with out thinking of them and I’m so very glad we’ve not lost contact (even if we don’t see each other that often these days). Michelle & Terri thanks so much for coming to visit us.