Canoes, editing and the best brownies ever...

Well I am currently recouping after celebrating Danielle's birthday on Wednesday (Feb 7).

It was a harcore day of fun and I hope we gave her an awesome 21st. The last few weeks, her sister and I had been emailing back and forth and planning her surprise arrival from New Zealand.

Jen arrived on Tuesday afternoon and I dragged Danielle off to the outside bar at Sydney Opera House under the pretext of buying her a cocktail. I was massively nervous trying to look for her sister while keeping up conversation and trying to prevent any kind of suspicion entering her mind.

Then thankfully I Jen striding towards us. I turned to Danielle as casually as possible and mid-sentence said: "That girl looks really familiar..." D did a double take and then burst into tears. After the hugs and questions, we drank bubbly in the sunshine sat next to the Opera House and with the harbour bridge in sight and filled Danielle in on plans for her birthday.

The next morning D woke up bright and early at 7.30am, despite her insistence she needed as much sleep as possible. So we headed for the Honolulu Grill, where Steve records one of his podcasts In Latte Veritas (click here for an episode of The Rules podcast - one of three featuring Yours Truly). During our slap-up breakfast and large coffees, I gave Danielle part 1 of her present - a magazine I had designed and printed for her.

I made up a 12 page magazine with stories and photographs from her friends and family - and I really enjoyed designing it despite the fact that time was really not on my side. D and I spend all our time together - at work, at home, going out... so it was pretty hard to make up excuses for being at work - especially on a Saturday.



Her friends and family wrote some of the most amazing things about her - which is a reflection of the fun-loving, happy person she is - but it also made me reflect that we don't realise what our nearest and dearest actually think of us until an occasion like this - or upon someone's death...

So when merry later on in the day, I resolved to tell people EXACTLY what I thought of them - cue many overemotional displays of hugging and love. Luckily, I didn't bump into anyone I disliked...

After breakfast, D opened her presents and she and Jen went for a massage. It was then time to hop on a bus to Spit for an hour of kayaking around Middle Harbour. It was absolutely stunning canoeing across this part of the harbour - Danielle and I sharing a two-man kayak, Jen speeding off in hers.

Our friends thought it rather hilarious that I had my mobile with me on the trip and that when they called (to sort out plans for the evening), I was sat in a canoe chatting to them.

Then it was delicious fish and chips from a shop next to the kayaking place before rushing home to get glammed up. We sped to catch a ferry to the city and Minus 5 bar.

The temperature of the bar is actually -15C so we had to get kitted up in huge jackets with furry hoods, gloves and Ugg boots. Inside, the bar is quite small with everything made of ice - chairs (covered in animal skins), tables, sculptures, chandeliers...

We spent quite a lot of time fondling them and getting our 'free' cocktail - a wonderfully alcoholic concoction involving peach schnapps and most probably vodka and mango juice. Jen seemed to be suffering from hypothermia as she kept telling us how hot she was and pulling her jacket off, while I shivered inside my hood and looked a lot like Kenny.

It was certainly an experience - the alcohol hits you pretty quickly at those temperatures. After we finished our drinks we attempted to eat out ice glasses and caused havoc trying to break them into chunks and smashing mine all over the floor to the disgust of the barmaid.

Minus 5 only allow you to stay in the bar for half an hour (employees can only work for two hours at a time in the cold zone), when a pager around your neck begins to beep and you have to leave. Good job really - I was freezing me wotsits off.

So we warmed up with some more cocktails downstairs in the Lenin bar with John and Steve - the barman accidentally making me the world's most alcoholic raspberry and champagne mojito. Tasty.



Then it was back to the ranch to properly beautify and meet our friends and supposedly make faijitas. We never got around to that and instead drank wine and champagne, lit a sparkler or two and D opened some more presents from our friends. Obviously it was then time to meet the crew at the hostel where we drank and danced and I told everyone how they touched everyone's lives in positive ways (eek!) and then on to the Steyne. Danielle even got up to sing Counting Crows at karaoke - with a little help from the rest of us.

Then at 2.30am we went for our swim in the sea (Danielle had even bought special pants for the occasion...). Jen decided to head for the worst rip on the beach and be oblivious to our shouts to come back into shallower water, whereupon a random naked aussie chick called Fiona decided to demonstrate how strong the current was by sitting me down in the sand at the water's edge as the waves washed in and out. There was half a beach in my underwear after that.

So this has been the main focus of my week - prepping D's magazine and events and keeping everyone informed. That and eating Thai food, fun afterwork drinks (where we told our bosses rather emphatically that we aren't paid enough - well we aren't!) followed by an RnB night out, dvds, an afternoon of drinking and catching up in the sun and work...

We finish up at Fairfax two weeks today (Friday) and next week will be training temps to take our place (ha ha ha!). Think they will genuinely miss us here - our stupidity and jokes rather than our actual work though...

Oh but how could I forget our 'criminal' fun recently...?!! Last week one of the lads mentionned a friend of his from the hostel would be kipping on the floor for a few days. "His name's Sonny, do you know him?" Nope never heard of him.

However, the following day, the whole of Manly was due to hear about him. On the front of the Manly Daily newspaper was a large article on how two British backpackers had been fleeced by a guy called Sonny after staying in his apartment. They said he'd taken all their money...

I was reading this on the ferry on the way to work and nudged Danielle - surely this couldn't be the same guy? But yes, of course, anyone knowing our little wheeler dealer Max would know this is EXACTLY the kind of person he would attract...

So when I got home after work I was not that surprised to find a group of lads sat watching dvds and for Max to announce that Sonny was a criminal and had I seen the Manly Daily?

Sonny was mortified and said he had been to see the police and straightened it out - something about a misunderstanding and borrowed money...

However all the girls felt uncomfortable with him staying - especially when many of the lads we knew said they wouldn't trust him. It erupted that night when he refused to leave the flat in case he was recognised, the lads left and we girls were stuck with the dilemma of staying in to make sure this unknown didn't make off with our 'valuables' or going out and having fun... we chose the latter of course but it pushed our Swedish lovelies over the edge - they moved out the following day.

But sad as we are, my life has been perked up immeasurably by the discovery of the world's best brownies. Downstairs at Darling Park there is a coffee shop. It sells moist, crumbly, nutty and wonderful wonderful brownies. I said I was travelling to widen the waistband... I am succeeding very very well, thanks for asking...