Long weekending, Oz style

Happy birthday Queeny, for yesterday!


I love the fact that us Australians (I became a permanent resident last week so feeling very Australian lately) celebrate the birthday of our lady, the Queen of England. Back in Blighty we don't even know when her birthday is, let alone give the entire country a day off, so if ever there's a reason to be a royalist, here it is!


So, hubby and I decided to cut loose from the big smoke that is Manly and head on up north to another idyllic Aussie beach - Seal Rocks.  Ahh tis the life Australia. Being a long weekend and all (not that that means much to me these days - hooray!) it was the perfect chance err... do nothing. That's right. You have to travel for 4 hours in a car to do nothing these days. 


And that's just what we did. 


Well if you consider two closely fought games of Scrabble (1 draw, one win to me!) a stroll up to the lighthouse, feeding the retreat's horses Mono and Gauntlet, befriending the kookaburras and eating too much cheese and home cooked curry - thank the lordy for Madhur Jaffrey, you can't go wrong. 


The weekend was perfect. As we crunched along the gravel roads to our hideaway,   the evening sun casting golden spears through the trees, I felt one of those rushy, tingly there's-nowhere-I'd-rather-be moments. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember how lucky I am to live in this beautiful, glorious, country.

Gauntlet and Mono, love apples (view from our balcony)

 Friendly kookaburra on the verandah

Seal rocks beach

Rainbow over Seal Rocks, view from the lighthouse