My Neighbours Ruined My Birthday

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Last Friday it was my birthday, and even though I'm not too into my own birthday I was excited to turn 25. My day started off nice enough with morning hugs from Romy, well thought out gifts from Luke & cups of tea with my sweet friend Sarah who had stayed over the night before. I dropped Luke off to work, and Sarah home on my way to the shops so I could pick up a couple of Christmas gifts and buy myself a birthday treat from Kikki.K (which is my new favourite shop). After a semi successful trip to the shops Romy & I pottered about the house before we went out to get a coffee from the cafe I work out. On our way out of the complex as we were driving down the driveway we passed a neighbour that we have very little to do with aside from a quick hello here and there. He was walking down the middle of the driveway and in his own time moved over so I could drive past him. As I passed him it seemed a little odd that he didn't say hello, but I quickly forgot about it and kept going on my way. When I got home and parked in my garage I was getting out of my car just about to close the garage door when I saw that he was standing behind my car with steam coming out of his ears, and this was when things started to go down hill. Rather than say hello, he asked me if I knew the speed limit for the driveway and without letting me answer proceeded to tell me that I took the driveway at 50 kilometres, when the speed limit is 8 km & that I almost killed him. I told him that it was rather impossible to drive that fast, to which he said 'well you were at least driving 40 km, you tried to run me over', and that was when I realised he was drunk. My 70-something year old neighbour was blind drunk at 2 pm, abusing me on my birthday while my other neighbours were either watching from their windows, or standing out the front watching from their doors. From this point the afternoon turned into a circus.

The lady that lives directly across from me has made complaints to our real estate since the second night we have lived here. She is your typical busy body that thrives on drama, so Friday afternoon was heaven for her. It took her less than ten minutes to get on the phone (I actually heard her making these calls) to the real estate, the owner and the strata agent letting them know that I am a reckless driver and how it especially concerns her as she worries for the safety of my child. There was so much back and forth in between houses that the complex was buzzing with retiree drama, and by the end of the weekend the actual events of Friday afternoon had changed entirely. Things escalated with the neighbour who started everything and first thing on Monday morning we went to the police station to make a complaint about it. This is not something I would normally do as I really don't like all the fuss, but after telling other people about the situation and being told numerous times (by the real estate included) to alert the police, we did. On our way there we received another phone call from our real estate asking us if our door were broken because apparently we "close them too loudly". Another complaint from our nosey neighbour trying to make things worse. 

A week has almost passed and I still cannot believe how my neighbours carried on, especially considering they are all over 50. Aside from Romy crying, we are the quietest people that live in the complex yet get the most complaints because we are renters in our mid twenties. Our lease ends in March and after the weekends events it could not come soon enough!

Our Weekend Away

Christmas dinner (thanks for this gem Rikki!)

My family is pretty keen on Salt Water Sandals, clearly

Nanna cuddles

Aunty Ash trying to have a pre-party nap

Kissing cousins

Baby swapping

Friday afternoon my sister, brother-in-law, mother, Romy & I all went to the Gold Coast for the weekend. We had a family Christmas dinner altogether on the Friday night as this Christmas we all won't be together as some of my family will be off travelling or spending it with their in-laws. We all exchanged gifts, drank wine and ate lots of nice food. It was a very lovely evening, and Romy enjoyed meeting her extended family for the first time she didn't want to go to sleep. But after a couple of songs and a few walks around the garden, my cousin managed to get her to sleep.

On the saturday morning we woke up early to spend a few calm moments with the birthday boy before everybody arrived & to get organised for the big birthday party. While everybody was setting up mum, one of the aunties and myself quickly ducked out to get my mum a pair of salt water sandals, as everybody else had a pair and she didn't want to miss out! While we were out we had coffee and juice at this cute little cafe called The Barefoot Barista, and I had one of the tastiest coffees I've had in a long time. We got home in time to finish setting up for the party and not long afterwards everybody started arriving. There were so many cute babies it was almost too much! It was Romy's first birthday party and she had a blast being surrounded by so many people and so much noise. She especially loved playing with her cousins xylophone! On Sunday we all went out for breakfast before we said our goodbyes and headed for the air port.

Hopefully next time we're all together I am able to take proper photographs rather than the above grainy iPhone snaps with an actual camera. My cousin's partner Rikki took some really beautiful photographs over the weekend, and I cannot wait to see the rest of the moments she snapped up. It was one of the loveliest weekends we have had in a while, and I especially enjoyed seeing Romy so happy in my families company. I can't wait for her to spend more time with (almost) everyone at Christmas time.

24

Today I turned 24. My day started off at 5.30am with banana pancakes, mango cheeks and cups of tea prepared by Luke while I was getting ready for work. We had breakfast together, a ritual that we often do not get to enjoy together. I went to work at 7 am, and had a rather pleasant day despite working on my birthday. When I got home Luke & I had cups of tea and scones for afternoon tea, which was followed by a foot massage and a quick cat nap. After a couple of birthday calls from my family, we popped over to my parents house for home made pizza, ginger beer and birthday cake. My parents bought me a Kindle for my birthday, which was a total surprise! My birthday present from Luke awaits me in Sydney, which is where we shall be going tomorrow for city adventures and a lunch date. All up, it was a lovely, low key birthday.

Birthday Treats

Luke & I haven't been able to find any places that sell Doc Martins around where we live, & that is what Luke wanted to get me for my birthday - a pair of black Docs. So that I wasn't completely gift-less for my birthday, Luke & I went to the shops today & he brought me some until-you-have-Docs birthday treats! These treats were a dress, woodcut letters & a cute calendar from Typo, earrings, a necklace, a book & the new Black Keys album. 

23

It was my birthday today, I turned 23! 

It feel so bizarre to turn another year older, and to sometimes still feel the same way you did as a sixteen year old. I don't really fuss about with birthdays, I just don't get into them the same way as my older sister does. She likes to have herself a 'birthday week'! This year I actually got to spend the day with Luke. I've only spent one of my birthdays with him since we've been together because he has to work all the time. It was such a fantastic day. Because we had dinner plans for my actual birthday, my parents took me out for dinner on Monday evening. We went to a local restaurant & had dinner & drinks. It was a nice little evening. 

Luke & I slept in until 10 am, luckily my aunty called me & woke us up, otherwise we probably would have slept through more alarms or snoozed them. I normally can just wake up and be up, but if Luke has the day off, I'm the opposite. After we woke up, we had blueberry bagels & coffee & I spoke to my friend Lara. After breakfast we got ready for the day, and made a little drive out to Terrigal and had lunch at Bellyfish, this cute little beach side cafe that I had been told had killer coffee. So we went for lunch. I had a spiced lentil & chickpea burger, & Luke had salmon. After lunch we went to the movies & saw 'Jack & Jill'. Luke gave it 0.5/5, and I would probably rate it 1.5/5, only because there was a handful of actual funny scenes & Katie Holmes is a babe! After the movie finished we went to my parents house after they finished work and had cups of tea with them. My mum had a bucket filled with different types of tea & chocolates with a gift card for Myer. So I know what I'll be doing tomorrow!

We left my parents house around 6 pm to get ready for our dinner date at The Cowrie. The person who owns the restaurant Luke works at, also has a couple of other really nice restaurants. One of them is The Cowrie, which is a fine dining & ala cart restaurant. It was such a fantastic birthday meal! I had a vegetable & cheese entree, it came out so neatly presented & looked really colourful. And for my main I had a marinated goats cheese tarts with persian figs. And for dessert, Luke & I shared an indulgence dessert plate for two & I chased it down with a cappuccino. When we came home, we made some whiskey drinks & watched a couple episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 the original series. So all in all, it was a pretty fantastic birthday indeed! I got to do all the things I wanted to do, and do them all with my best friend!