50th Frivolities

Greetings earthlings.  Our sincere apologies to all you dedicated blog-followers out there for not having posted in over a week.  Reason being?  Trickery.

I was tricked into thinking I was going to be spending a day or two in Moama with Andrea's Dad and brother.  I ended up spending a week on board a house-boat cruising the Murray River with my family!  What a surprise!  Being my 50th birthday, the intent was to generally remain covert and have a low key day with the Andrea and the boys.  Well unbeknown to me, Andrea had organised for my family to fly over from Perth to spend a week on a luxury house-boat.  I should have known that she could not let an opportunity such as this slip past but she got me hook, line and sinker.

 

In order to get me to the wharf Andrea blind-folded me and then drove the caravan straight into a bollard, which was not the surprise I was expecting!  This aside, the real surprise came when all my family rocked up!  What the??

 

 

It was fantastic to see Mum and Dad, Anthony, Barb and Max again after six months away from home.  Unfortunately my sister Kathy and her husband Bernie could not be there.  It was so exciting to see them and the idea of spending a week on a beautiful house-boat was just awesome.

 

 

So, given such an opportunity, there was only one thing to do.  Party On!

 

We loaded on board what seemed to me to be an inordinate amount of alcohol, somewhat akin to what you would expect a touring rock band would need for a world tour.  So we figured we ought to drink it.

 

The house-boat itself was terrific.  Four bedrooms each with their own ensuite, a spa, BBQ, deck chairs, wide screen TVs and plenty of fridge space for all the alcohol....... oh, and food.

 

I was first at the helm.  Warp speed Scotty!

 

 But we all had a go.

This is Barb showing Max the way to the train station. 

 

Humorous side note: 

Whilst waiting on the train to depart Melbourne for Echuca, Max decided to hop off the train and fetch himself a coffee from a nearby café, despite Barbara's stern warning that he would not be back in time and would miss the train.  And yep, he missed the train.  Anthony reckons it was absolutely mint watching Max running along the platform, coffee in hand, as the doors closed and the train slowly departed.  All this despite that fact that they served coffee on the train anyway. LMAO!

Mum had a go too, after a few glasses of bubbles.

 Here is Andrea trying to steer clear of bollards.... good luck with that.

 



Fletch looked great in his Captain America's outfit and Captain's Hat

This way to the beer Dad!



 

 Andrea with her little friend, Mr Bubbles.

 

The boys found their own 'bubbles' to play with.

 

Fairly soon, it became evident that the Murray River is 'rope-swing heaven' and the boys could not resist testing out every one we came across.  There were some quite scary swings with very high dismount points, but we managed to scrape through without too many injuries; Only the odd scrape here and there.

 

Jack in fine form.

Hey is that a crocodile in the water?

Fletchy won the Dare-Devil award with some awesomely radical moves.

 



Jarrah was dubbed Mr Bravery because he was the first to step up to the plate every time.

 

On Tuesday it was time to celebrate the raison d'etre, my 50th.  Such a wonderful day full of laughs,  hugs and good times all 'round.  Oh and a shedload of beer, bourbon, champagne and wine to boot.  It started with a big cooked brekky complete with party poppers and finished off with burritos, my favourite, for dinner and white chocolate cheese cake. 

 

 

 

I missed out on the Shelby Cobra I had been hoping for but scored two bottles of Wild Turkey, a bottle of JD and the worlds biggest slab of Jarlsberg cheese!  Thanks so much to everyone for their well wishes! It was a hoot.

 

 A 50th should be celebrated with two cakes, not just one! 

 

 

All this partying took its toll on all of us, not just Fletcher, and soon enough there was some serious snoring going on about the place. 

 

 

The next few days consisted of barbeques, camp fires, beer, rope swings, spas, champagne, sun baking, happy hours that went for days, counter meal lunches, bourbon, music, cruising, wine - red and white, laughing, playing, singing, drinking, eating, reading, more drinking and more eating. 

In fact all the 'ings'. 

 

It was the perfect week away and we all had a ball.  I certainly don't need any convincing that times like these are what life is about.  Thanks so much to my beautiful and VERY HOT wife Andrea for organising this little heist and to my family for being my WONDERFUL family.  I love you all!

 



Beats workin!