Fifty-eight and counting...

Two years to go until the big Six O, and if all my birthdays are as much fun as yesterday, I will have nothing to complain about. We left Melbourne at 11 am in rain that was bucketing down, but after an hour’s driving, we had left the rain behind. We stopped in a small town on the way up to Bendigo, to visit some friends we hadn’t seen for a while, and had a quick bite to eat. We got to Bendigo just in time for the start of the Tattoo at 2 pm. There was a warm-up act on first, involving a comedian dressed up as an old man, ambling around the perimeter of the audience, shaking hands with people in the front rows. I wasn’t taking much notice of him as I was impatient for the pipes and drums to start, but when he came level with our row of seats, he caught my eye and beckoned to me. I looked at Ken and he shrugged, so I hopped down on to the stadium floor, and the man took my hand and started dancing to the music that was playing over the loudspeakers. He started out with a kind of waltz, which turned into a jitterbug, and as I used to dance a fair bit years ago, I was quite happy to go along with him. I was only there for a few minutes, but the audience were laughing and applauding, so I guess I must have done okay!

The Tattoo was great as usual, and when it ended at 5 pm, we headed off to find somewhere to have dinner. We went to the Bendigo R.S.L. first, as that had been recommended, but they were booked out for the night, so we drove into town and parked outside the first pub that had a vacant car spot nearby. It turned out to be an excellent choice; the food was delicious and even though the place was busy, we had a table for two in a nice secluded spot and it wasn’t noisy. We left there around 8 pm, and started for home. Ken took a wrong turn about half way home and we ended up on a back road with no street lighting, out in the middle of nowhere! So we huddled over the street directory and eventually figured out where we were. We passed the Melbourne Airport on the way home, and noticed a lot of cars parked off the side of the road, watching the planes come and go. Ken asked if I wanted to do that for a while and I said “Yeah, why not?” so we stayed for about half an hour and had two planes come in right overhead – gosh they are huge, and LOUD when they are so close!

So that was our day – different, but we had fun. I was very spoiled with cards and presents. As well as taking me out for the day and for dinner (we had agreed that was to be my birthday treat) Ken gave me a bottle of my favourite wine. His Mum gave me $50 to spend on eBay (!), Sharon and Pete gave me a book on Elvis and a cute cat shaped picture frame, and other friends gave me notepaper, chocolates, a vase, a glass platter, a hand embroidered apron and some Tattslotto tickets. Like I said, spoiled and happy!