45th Wedding Anniversary

 On the 25th March 1978 I said "I Do" to the man that I have loved for forty-five years. I was just twenty years old and Philip twenty-two when we were joined in holy matrimony.  It seems so young now but we were absolutely ready for married life.  We grew together and with the addition of our boys, Kurt in 1979 and Marc in 1982 our family was complete.

Living on a cattle station in the Gulf for almost all our married life enabled us to give our boys the best possible upbringing.  The boys had a lot of freedom to make mistakes and learn from them - some very painful mistakes! We were never "hover" parents.

So what advice would I give to the twenty year old me now. I would tell her that her babies will be perfect but not to put too much pressure on herself to be the perfect mother.  I would also tell her to laugh a lot more because there will certainly be plenty in her world to make her smile. I would tell her that she is going to experience the highest highs and lowest lows but will always be loved. And lastly I would tell her to breathe in this moment, reflect on the last moment, and await the next moment.

And what advice would I give to couples.  It's simple really.  Never stop talking to each other and never forget to love each other.

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary at Nautilus Restaurant in Port Douglas.  We have been coming to this restaurant almost all our married life and it is still our all time favourite restaurant.  Now, they specialise in a five course degustation menu.  Our five courses were:

Mojito and Green Ant cured Kingfish with cucumber pearls

Duck Three Ways - Consommé, Spring Rolls, Wontons

Grilled Moreton Bay Bug

Whole Crispy Skinned Coral Trout 

Belgian Chocolate Slice

Cheese Platter

Every single course was absolutely to die for.  

The restaurant itself is open air and it is always hard to believe that it is situated right in the centre of Port Douglas.  The ambience of this restaurant is beyond compare with its beautiful high back chairs that give diners privacy while they eat.  The staff are attentive and cheerful that is always welcome.  We arrive around 30 minutes before our booking so that we can have pre-dinner aperitif's in the dedicated lounge area.  It really was a wonderful night and the perfect way to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

International Women's Day Mission Beach

 My bestie and her daughter, who happens to also be my god-daughter, meet at Mission Beach this weekend for a girlie weekend and an early 40th birthday get-together for my god-daughter. We booked into Castaways Resort at Mission Beach for Friday and Saturday nights and as luck would have it, the International Women's Day Brunch was also being held at the resort on Saturday.

My friends travelled north from Townsville and I drove south from Palm Cove and we all arrived around the same time on Friday.  After all the love and hugs we settled into our two bedroom apartment with sundowners and quickly caught up on each others news. We had made dinner reservations at Buko Restaurant for 6.30pm and it seemed no time at all before we headed downstairs for our delicious meal - Grilled Mackerel & Salad for me. We didn't stay up late as we had all had quite an early start to our day and were all feeling a little weary - probably from excitement also!

Next morning we had planned on walking along the beach before our Brunch but it was so incredibly hot and humid that we decided, by unanimous decision, to stay in the room under air-conditioning.  More talk-fest until it was time to start readying ourselves for the Brunch.  As we only had one shower and one mirror it was a bit of a juggle to shower and dress but we somehow managed to all be out of the door by 11.00am.

All the tables in Buko Restaurant were beautifully decorated for the International Women's Day Brunch and we were quickly shown to our table.  Apart from being International Women's Day, the brunch was held to raise money for Breast Cancer. Two young girls moved around the tables selling raffle tickets that were being drawn randomly for the numerous donated prizes.  I was lucky enough to win a "Kitchen Pack" that consisted of Utensiles, Teatowels, timer, and a cute little saucepan.  I gave the saucepan to Nikki though because it was not an induction saucepan.

The three course meal was delicious.  First course was three small plates of Pumpkin Mouse Cake, Beef wrapped Asparagus, and Cucumber topped with a prawn salsa.  Main was Roast Pork Belly with a fennel and orange salad and purple potatoes.  Dessert was a chocolate meringue concoction.  

The drinks (included) flowed freely with a choice of either Prosecco or Rosé.  The only downside to this lovely meal was that it was so incredibly hot and humid with barely a breath of wind to cool us down and I'm afraid there was nothing the organisers could have done about that!

All through the meal, music was playing in the background. The female performer had a glorious voice and strummed her guitar to the beat of the music.  The lunch finished at around 3.00pm but we left a little before that as we were all keen to get back to air-conditioning!

Last night was spent very quietly, chatting away over a platter of yummy finger food prepared by my friend Lynn, before all turning in around 9.30pm.  

We said our goodbyes this morning and we don't really know when we will all catch up again.  Philip and I will be heading away on holidays at the end of April and will probably not return until March next year, so it will be at least twelve months.