A 28th birthday with flying photos

Since me and Will don't get our annual overseas trip together this year, we decided that we needed something to make up for it. I booked a room for the two of us at the Novotel at Brighton with our own private balcony with a view of the beach. This was part of Will's birthday celebration and we thought we should live it up!! It cost a bit, but it was well worth it! Since Brighton is only about 10mins drive from Kogarah, we figured we can both drink our asses off and just cab it back to the hotel at the end of the night.

King bed

The view from our balcony

We dumped our bags and headed out to grab a Souvalaki Pita roll just like we use to do in Mykonos to line our stomachs. I mean, we had already been drinking for about an hour!


And drinking means insaneness, and insaneness means we needed to do a mail drop.....

What's that in his hands?

The same thing we had scattered all over the hotel:


Want a closer look?

Oh yeahhhhhhhh! Its like my 2007 B'day all over again!

Kaan dropped by to help pose with the photos

We catch a cab to Chelsea's restaurant in Kogarah. We walk up to the reception where we get stopped by security and told to wait for the manager. Next thing you know, about 4 people are running up and down the stairs like it was a code red alert. Gees, what did we do?? About 5mins later, the manager comes running down to let us into the restaurant. A heap of mezze was already on the table when we arrived, so I could dig right on in.

Hummus, babaganoush, labna, fetta, bean salad etc

Spicy chicken wings - Which tasted surprisingly asian?

And...spring rolls?

My drink...

Their drink...

Which was coke with our smuggled in vodka! Kaan gave me alcohol poisoning from all the vodka he was serving me! Between the 3 of us, we finished 1.5L of vodka!! Things started to get a bit out of control after that, which was a bit strange as only the 3 of us were drinking??

I think it was still alive.....?

Next thing you know, we had photos flying through the air!

That's one disgusted look

I had everyone on the table go: ?What was going on? What's happening? What's this??". It was like I was surrounded by 20 Karen Walkers. Luckily I got saved when the birthday cake came out!

We had to make a minor correction

Eating from the new plate

The plate

Some time during the night, a belly dancer came out and it was all downhill from there onwards...

Still "soberish"

Smashed, drunk, fairly sober

We basically got kicked out of the restaurant at 2am, except we couldn't get a cab. We asked the owners to call us a cab, and instead of calling the taxi company, they called a friend to see if they could drive us. Damn, this is sounding a lot like that time in Pammukale where we got stranded? Except we didn't have our 30kg suitcases with us. We eventually flag down a taxi, even though I almost had to throw myself onto the road to get it.

We get back to the hotel where I go to the toilet to get changed for bed. I come out 5mins later and Will is completely passed out.

The morning after was NOT pretty...

We had 2 shots of coffee to cure ourselves

Hidden big breakfast

I grabbed myself a big breakfast which had bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and toast. Except you can't see any of it as its covered by the eggs and toast.

Tomato, eggs and toast

Day 5 - Back to Sydney

We had agreed the night before that we were going to show up in the shared breakfast hall in our bathrobes. So here I was, standing in my Cow PJs with the bathrobe on when Will walks out of the bathroom fully dressed. I chuck a tantrum saying he needs his bathrobe as well since we agreed on it.

We walk out in our bathrobe when Will has another change of heart. We decided that he should check out what people are wearing so we're not the only morons in our PJs. He gives me his robe before he walks to the dining hall and comes running back screaming everyone is fully dressed. We trip back into our room where he screams at me "WTH WERE U THINKING?!?!". ME? It was a Will and Grace decision, yet I get the blame??

We get dressed into our normal clothes and head back out for breakfast. This was a lovely country breakfast where you get slices of fresh country bread, cereals, fresh fruit salad etc. When we sat down, the waitress immediately came over to offer us freshly brewed tea and coffee. We ordered a pot of coffee to share and hit the food.

Vegemite on country grain toast

Fresh fruit

As I was waiting for my toast to cook, one of the woman on the table next to us walks to the toaster to put toast in, only to see our toast there. She sits back down to wait her turn. Because she was busying talking, another girl put her toast into the toaster when we took our toast out. When she found out, she stood there GLARING at the other girl, ready to stab her with a butter knife. Someone get her some toast already!!!

Ontop of the cereals, bread and fruit, they also offer a full english breakfast made to order. After we finished our toast, the waitress asks if we would like our hot breakfast now. Of course we did! We have a hangover woman!

GIMME MY BREAKFAST!

Will's

My breakfast with the lot

Perfect runny poached eggs

After breakfast, we head back to pack our stuff. I realised I had left our cheese and olives in the fridge in the dining room and ran back out to grab it. As I walk into the dining room, I see 2 guys wrestling the toaster with a pair of metal tongs to get their toast out. The waitress comes running out to offer to turn the toaster off. They turn around and go "No, we're alright thanks." and continue to jam the tongs into the toaster??????

I grab my stuff and run back so I didn't have to be a witness to the accident waiting to happen. We pack our stuff into the car and took a step back to see how much we've accumulated in the 5 days:

The backseat

The backseat from the other view

The boot

We jump into the car to head back into Sydney. Within 10mins of driving, Will screams "MAGGIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Without another word said, he winds down the window and I take a photo. As I said, perfect partnership.


And no, I won't bother explaining as no one would really understand. Just accept that this was a big deal for us ;)

Another 5mins down the road, I spot a sign that says "award winning cupcakes". Before I could say another word, Will parks the car to let me out. Now that's being on the same level. I walk in and ummed and ahhed for ages before picking out some cupcakes to take home:

SMJ is happy with her cupcakes!

Clockwise: Double choc, Hummingbird, Lemon cream and Bailey's cupcake

Will starts screaming that we've been in the car for less than 20mins and I've made another purchase. I spotted a heap of other signs that point to fetes and markets along the way, but we both decided to give it a miss. That is until we saw the markets in Linden

Without even discussing, Will knew that we had to stop. We find parking and run towards the market. Within seconds of arriving, our camera goes off non-stop. We did laps around the market just taking photos until I found a really nice Jam place where I bought some Jam for research.







We eventually get tired and leave. The whole way back to Sydney, we're looking for a car wash to clean the dead bugs off the car.


Maybe it was the car wash, or the drive, but we were hungry again and hit KFC. This has got to be one of the worst KFC experiences I've been to. I think their air conditioning was broken, as it was about 35degrees in the restaurant. I was sweating just lining up, and going to their toilet to wash my hands, they ONLY had hot water. And I mean HOT WATER. The food was still good....


Will drops me off at home and helps me unload all my crap:

2/3 of my stuff

Some of the goodies I got

The crap Will shoved into my bags

I had a fantastic time on my trip away, which was quite surprising for me. I'm not much of a traveller within Australia, let alone within NSW. I'm sooooooo glad Will asked me along, I can't wait for the next road trip! I guess any holiday can be fantastic with the right people. Especially when Will and Grace goes on holidays! That beats any other holiday out there!