Laura set the standard, with a lot of 'secret plannings' for Bets b'day weekend, in order to account for all missing family and friends! Due to our new found love of sushi, we had a group outing with Lauren and Gemma to the Ivy (a ridiculously swanky club here) where they have a really cool sushi train restaurant as well. There was a lot of looking and smelling the different dishes to try and figure out what the ingredients were and some were swiftly put back on the conveyor belt!! The dumplings were the favourite, but it was deeelish and we left feeling sushi-stuffed!! This was followed by cheers with bubbly at the Opera bar looking at the harbour bridge and Gemma and Laura saying 'WHEN have you ever had your birthday...." followed by....in australia/looking at the harbour bridge/next to the opera house etc!!

The rest of the weekend was a mixed bag of joyful activities, including a sunny day spent at the Surry Hills festival listening to music and chomping down on tasty foods with Hannah and (her sister) Olivia and the evening was spent at Mags and Ross's warehouse/caravan park of a house. This can't really be explained, but think at least 5 caravans inside a warehouse with Ross sleeping in a harry potter style room under the stairs and Mags in the loft with a ladder for a staircase. It's mental, but somehow for them, it works. We had a hilarious eve drinking, dancing and general tomfoolery with all the random articles they have accumulated (ahem...stolen) around the place, including kermit the frog!!! The move onto the nightclub/bar wasn't quite so successful, when we found ourselves in a slightly terrifying, hardcore gay bar!!!!

On the actual day, (which was a Monday) Bets awoke to find balloons all over the flat, including next to her on the pillow, and hundreds of post it notes hidden in every possible hiding place, including the one later found in her lunch box!!! Sadly to say, the day was spent at work as usual (we are responsible adults now of course) but they did provide a $50 birthday cake, which gave Coops food envy!! A very exciting evening was to come, when Coops met her date from work for an amazing 'love supreme' pizza and present time!!! Then Coops had to hail a taxi while Bets covered her ears as the destination was given to the driver....it was only as we started to pull up outside the Opera House that Bets worked out where we were going! At the top of the stairs, Coops revealed the big birthday surprise was...going to see Madame Butterfly, the ballet!!! AMAZING. It was definitely a birthday never to be forgotten and we both left wanting to be ballet dancers. The night wasn't over though, as then Coops sat Bets down for a singsong and a birthday cupcake looking out over the harbour - deelightful!!!

The next day, we very excitedly had a holiday to go on!!!! We packed up a ridiculously large amount of stuff and met each other at the check in desks of Sydney domestic airport!!! We were going to Noosa - where we had been kindly invited to the beachside wedding of Alain and Kerry!

Noosa is a gorgeous holiday spot in Queesland and we were delighted to find that it was still super warm up there! Day one was spent being boys for the day on Alain's stag do!!! This involved a hilarious surf lesson with all the guys and needless to say lots of messing around, but it was much fun and we both managed to "catch a few waves man!!!!" whilst swallowing copious amounts of sea water and exposing far too much of ourselves as we clambered over those damn boards!!! Despite being provided with the 'rashy' vests (to protect you from rub-bage from the board) Coops' delicate thighs definitely suffered the brunt of her exercions and returned home with red raw scabbiness!!! Bleurrrghh!!

The evening was where it all really kicked off. It started with a nice sophisticated dinner, as Alain insisted it was going to be low key evening. But he was soon told to man up and strap on a pair - "its your bloody stag do!!!" This resulted in a lot of abuse written on his 'STAG' t-shirt and soon followed with tequila shots that we may have provided him (just as someone goes, "whatever you do, don't get him tequila!") The rest is a blur of very silly antics....including the decision to draw on peoples faces instead of just the boring t-shirt, and Coops unfortunately ending up with an expletive all over her back, jaegerbombs, running man on the dance floor, be-friending the dj, Letty getting lost for at least an hour, people falling asleep on club sofas and sadly at the end of the night there may have been some puking! We can only blame ourselves for trying to be boys and get the stag wasted (we succeeded) but also took ourselves down in the mean time!!!

Day two: Hangover from hell circa October 2010, Isla Mujeres. We made it out of bed to venture to the local chicken shop at around 7pm. It was a dark day for both of us.

The rest of the trip was spent with days on the beach and enjoying lush coastal rainforest walks. The town is really cute and we kept bumping into our new found wedding friends for iced coffees, breakfasts and lunches! Spiffing. We also ventured to the nearby ridonculously huge Eumundi markets!

The big day soon rolled around and we were excited to get ourselves spruced up. But, just as we were leaving, it started to spit with rain!! At the spot on the beach, guests like us huddled under the trees to try and stay dry and there was a bit of frantic decision making going on whether to change to the indoor venue!! But Kerry was determined and someone was obviously smiling down on them because, just as she arrived, the rain stopped and stayed off for the whole of the lovely, intimate ceremony! It was gorgeous and the pictures will definitely look even better with the stormy clouds in the distance! We then all made our way down the beach to the bistro overlooking the water for lots of delicious canapes, free-flowing champagne and pimms and a deelish 3 course meal! And the piece de resistance was a cheese wedding cake - think 3 tiers of the finest australian brie, blue cheese and one hard cheese! Bets nearly jizzed in her pants and got cheese drunk! Speeches were funny, company was great and dancing was hilarious (including a really weird version of bohemian rhapsody!!)

We love Noosa and hope Alain and Kerry have many a happy year together. Looking forward to Melbs times!!

Just the other weekend (yes people we're up to date) it was the little ones turn for an Australian birthday too! The birthday weekend commenced with drinks and a yummy meal at the winery (again) with Emma.

Coops was then woken at 7am on the actual day with Bets dancing to Stevie Wonders' Happy birthday in her pjs and hoodie and balloons flailing around in her hands....for the entire 3:50 mins of the song! The big reveal came when an orange spaceship (campervan) named Max, covered in balloons, sat in the carpark that our flat overlooks! After a lot of unexpected confusion "what...I don't understand!?!?" Bets spelt out to Coops that she had hired the campervan for a road trip around New South Wales!!

Setting off out of Sydney, with Coops donning her birthday tiara and eating the chocolates sent by special delivery from Wenners, Bets had to swiftly cut the balloons off the aerial whilst leaning out the window when stopped at traffic lights (yes, she was the one driving!) We headed South and quickly made our way out of the city, stopping for a picnic lunch (Bets had secretly packed a lot of foodly goods for the weekend) sat overlooking a beautiful lake within the Royal National Park.

Then the day was spent with lots of nice views looking out over the sea (we tried but didn't spot any whales!) and stopped off in cute bays and some pretty little spots (like Garie beach!) We arrived into our home for the night - the National Park at Jervis Bay - just as it was dark and we started to feel a little concerned that we would essentially be in the middle of nowhere! We quickly changed pre-dinner into some sexy (NOT) warm attire so that we didn't freeze our balls off but then just as we ventured out, we were greeted by a guy from the nearby roaring fire who invited us over. We swiftly then scrapped the unattractive warm clothes and donned something a bit more presentable! We joined the 4 lovely guys (think Dads on a boys kayaking weekend) in their ridiculsouly huge "area" where they had set up everything including an actual kitchen sink! They fed us spag bol and red wine and we had a delightul evening around the fire playing word association games! Coops was even treated to a cupcake with a lit match for a candle and a beautiful rendition of happy birthday from our new happy camper friends! We also went for a little night time safari with the David Attenborough of the group and found Kangaroos and wallabies just a short distance away from us! It was a completely random way for Coops to spend her 25th birthday, but was so fun and won't be forgotten!

The next morning after our coco pops and chocolate milk and a sighting of about 4 kookaburras that had been lured in by bacon, we went for a walk along the beach which had the whitest sand in the world! We couldn't believe it! We couldn't stay there forever though as we headed off to see more amazing landscapes, like Kangaroo Valley, with lunch spent looking out over some oldies playing bowls with a dramatic, hilly backdrop. We're not going to lie, some wrong turns were taken, but this was all part of the adventure of course! Including one diversion into a National Park that time had forgotten!

Our second night was spent in Kiama - a very cute seaside town with its star attraction, a blowhole! We slept pretty much on the beach so breakfast was spent watching some boogey boarders in our pjs on some beachside grass! The nearby area of Jamberoo randomly has a rainforest, so we went for a walk amongst the seriously huge trees!

We were very sad when we had to return to Sydney and give Max back, as the beautiful countryside of New South Wales had given us itchy feet for more adventures..........

Luckily, we are planning our next phase of travels!! We are leaving Sydney in t- minus 5 days to venture up the East coast!!! Woooooo!!!

So long Sydney, it's been emotional!!!!! We'll be writing again from warmer Northern climes.....(We bloody hope, Sydneys turned arctic!!!!)

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written by  coopsandbets on June 10, 2011 from Sydney, Australia
from the travel blog: We are off to find the wizard!
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Even ter herinnering de voorafgaande winnaar

written by  LED light on July 18, 2011

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