A Sparkles birthday ...

Just back a from a long weekend with the girls to help celebrate my birthday, their birthdays and Bo's braces being removed.
I'm not big on birthdays at all - I get very shy when the attention focus is on me, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable time.
We stayed at Miss Sparkles' cottage at Hardys Bay on the Central Coast as discovered the delights of the area - and ducted air con (!)
Highlights included a windswept wander on the beach at Copacabana with Sammy and Elvis,
hot chips and gravy on the waterfront at Terregal, dinner at the Fat Goose at Hardys Bay and zero phone and internet reception.
It was wonderful :-)

Great grazing ...

I was treated to dinner out by David, Sonia and Rich last night by way of an early celebration of my birthday next week.
We picked Rubyos in Newtown as it is a personal favourite.
Classed as an 'Australian Grazing Menu', Rubyos is pretty much tapas without the Spanish twist.
We had a superb six plates (lesson learned from our last visit for Sonia's birthday, where we could face the seventh and eighth plates ordered) and stunning desserts - complete with celebratory sparklers in mine - and I was thoroughly spoiled.
A cracker of a night.

Follow the yellow brick road ...

Sammy and I went to a TV show taping of 'An Audince with the Wicked cast' today. Wicked the musical opens in Melbourne at the very end of June and is set to be the hottest musical theatre ticket in Australia.
Almost like a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, Wicked follows the fortunes of two young witches and their quest for right over wrong.
It's been a Broadway and West End smash, and the Aussie show will open with Anthony Callea and Rob Mills in two key roles.
That aside (!) the show looks to be a corker, and a bloody great excuse to head down to Victoria.