Brenton’s birthday present to me was to go away for the weekend, to Mt Tambouriiiiine.
I had one client Friday morning and we drove down in the afternoon. Well, I did, since Brenton had had surgery on his hand the day prior and was in an enormous cast and on all kinds of pain meds.
The first night we went to Clancy’s Irish Bar & Restaurant but were half an hour late for getting horrifically lost while using crazy artistically drawn maps. They were really busy but still had our table, yay! I had sausages and mash with onion gravy and peas. I can’t remember what Brenton had because mine was so fantastic. The staff were very abrupt though, and Brenton and I debated whether it was because they were so busy or because they hated tourists encroaching on their adorable town. I know from experience that locals of adorable towns hate tourists, despite the money they bring, for turning their adorable towns into junk shops, because the only place tourists spend money is junk shops. Since the whole reason we went to this restaurant was because we’d heard it was a great place for locals, well…
We went home and drank a bottle of wine and took pain meds. We had no TV in our room and no internet, so we chatted while I drew in my sketchbook a picture of a maiden with her head in the lap of a unicorn. We talked about open relationships and how, while I believe wholeheartedly in them and know they can work for me, it isn’t a requisite that I be in one.. something that had been bothering him a bit. I am happy with Brenton and only, though, so is okay.
The next day we had breakfast in bed brought us by the owner of the establishment (so good and why don’t I have this every day I deserve it), and then went out adventuring. We visited Heritage Wines, Witches Falls winery, the distillery, the brewery and cheese making factory, the fudge shop and some other shoppes.
The people at the Tambourine Mountain Distillery were rude as ever. I hate going there. The woman was like “Only 6 tastings between you! Oh what, you’re sharing? That’s not how I said to do it!” Their signs are also rude, they’re all “No parking!” and “No tours!” and “No access!” and “What are you even doing here? Get out!” but I love their liqueurs so much 🙁
The next day, while on Gallery Walk, these touts gave us scratchies; “At the least you’ll get a free dinner.” I took them to be polite but they wanted us to scratch them then and there. When the guy who gave them to us saw it he seemed shocked, “Oh, my god. you just won me a $50 bonus, you got the big prize!” Uh, okay, Mr Scammy McScammerson. The big prize was one of $2000, a holiday, or an LCD TV. We had to give them a $20 deposit which we’d get back after watching a 90 minute presentation.
Whatever, we did it. The presentation was some sales-people trying to convince us that timeshare holidaying is the best thing ever. We said no, and still got our prize, which was the holiday. So sometime in the next year Brenton and I will be going to Phuket.
I am love Thailand 😀
In conclusion, a pretty great birthday present.