Australia: Celebrating my 30th birthday at Jamberoo (Wollongong).

My 30th Birthday was on: ‘Thursday 15th January 2009.’ It’s a tradition in my family to make birthdays last for a week. Judy (my mum) was on holidays for the summer and we basically spent the whole summer together. Before my official birthday, Judy and I went swimming at Leichardt pool, and went to the cinemas to see the movie, ‘Yes Man.’

I absolutely love plains. Big plains, small plains, or fighter plains… it really doesn’t matter - I love them all. Because of my interest in plains, we were originally going to drive near ‘Sydney Airport’ to take photo’s of in coming and out going planes but weren’t able to do so because of a heat wave in Sydney. It was so hot (40 degrees) so we stayed home. Thank goodness for that heat wave that arrived at ‘4:30pm.’

I live in a one bedroom apartment in Sydney. I woke up at 9:30am, walked outside and found a present at my front door. It was a ‘Stainless Steel Toilet Set (brush and paper holder).’ Judy (my mum) came over to visit. We had breakfast together and took my dog (George) for a walk. When we came home, we had three games of ‘Rummikins (a tile game) - I won two of the three games. Mum then gave me the first of many birthday presents and a card. I love guessing what the present is before opening it. So before I opened it, I felt what it was, and laughed when I realised what it was. It was a ‘bike seat.’ This was an easy one to guess because of the shape and the feel of the gift. Mum smiled and said, “Even a dummy could guess that one!”

Mum had to go to the doctors so I stayed home, had fish for lunch and watched the movie, ‘Toy Story#1’… one of the DVD’s I got for Christmas. When the movie ended I gave myself a beauty makeover, watched TV, had Chinese for dinner / watched the movie: ‘Zathura’ with mum, and got ready for the big day in Wollongong.

Our day at ‘Jamberoo Recreation Park, (Wollongong):’
Although my birthday was on the ‘15th’ I hadn’t yet officially celebrated it yet. So we spent the day at ‘Jamberoo Recreation Park’ (it’s the place where you control the action.) Because Jamberoo was also celebrating its 30th I thought it would be nice to celebrate our birthdays together.

The day started at 7am. Mum picked me up at 8am, and drove over to Connies (a friend of ours) place and picked her up at 8:50am for a long drive to Wollongong and a day of fun at Jamberoo. When we arrived at her place, mum went up stairs to her top floor apartment, chatted for a while, and helped her down with her things. Connie is a real talker (she tends to go on and on). Because of this we didn’t leaver her place until ‘9.15am.’

The trip was going well until we got onto the ‘M5 free way.’ This was where Judy took the wrong turn and got a bit lost! When she realised she was lost, she said, “There’s two different ways to get to Wollongong… we might be going the long way!” Thanks to Connie, all the signs, and I - we made sure Judy was heading in the right was heading in the right direction. We did a round trip… we drove down via the ‘M5 free way’ and returned to Sydney via the ‘Pacific Highway.’ We were going to turn around and head back, but we decided to stay on the M5 and missed the Wollongong exit. As we were driving to the next available exit, we ended up in a traffic jam on the ‘Hume Highway’ (in the middle of nowhere). Road work was happening and we all had to form one lane. All drivers were ok once we got past it.

Once out of the traffic jam, we found an exit, and drove to a ladies house for help and directions. The ladies name was ‘Mercedes Crawford’ - a dress maker, writer, artist, and a Language teacher in the Alpine area. She was so nice. She showed us around her massive house, gave us directions / a copy of her map to Jamberoo and spoke with us for a while. We didn’t leave her house until ’11:10am.’ I don’t know about Judy, but I know I could FREELY walk into a stranger’s house like and ask for help. Thanks to Connie and her free will, we were able to get the help we needed to get to Jamberoo before it closed!

We finally arrived at ‘Jamberoo Recreation Park’ after a ‘4 hour and 12 minute’ adventure drive around Wollongong. It was very late so we had lunch first before we went in. Because of lunch, we didn’t officially get inside the park until ‘1:20pm’ and we only had ‘four hours and thirty minutes’ to play. As the birthday girl, this was plenty of time for me to do what I wanted to do at Jamberoo.

Mum wasn’t well so she didn’t go on any rides… she just came along for the ride and to hold our picnic spot for us so it was up to Connie and I to have all the fun. We basically went on everything except for the ‘Bobsled ride’ (because there was such a long line up), and ‘Splash Mountain.’ I absolutely loved the ‘Taipan ride.’ When we were lining up Connie said, “Do you know what the difference is between a Taipan and a Python is? The Taipan loves Thai food and the Python loves pies!” - stupid isn’t it? Unlike Connie (who said it was too dark inside), I wanted to ride the snake again. We rode the Taipan with three other people. Before entering the mouth of the snake, I yelled out, “I regret nothing!” (just in case I didn’t survive it) and laughed all the way down. There was a point, where the tube we were all sitting on was up at a high angle. We all thought that the tube was going to flip over so we got scared.

When Connie and I got out of the water, we went back to our picnic spot, had a drink, some fruit, had a ‘sun screen smack fight,’ got my camera, and walked around the park taking photos with Judy. When we arrived back at our picnic spot the second time, Judy and I lined up for the ‘race car ride.’ We were only in line for a short time when Connie came over and joined us. Judy decided she didn’t want to ride, and left us. She went back to the picnic spot, picked up her camera, came back to the bridge, and took photos of Connie and I driving around. This was my second time on the ride. Unlike last time, I didn’t crash or stack the car this time… I drove safely! I don’t have my licence yet so I took the opportunity to practice my driving skills. Although I drove safely, the lady behind me crashed onto the grace area. She also bumped into me and two other cars in front of me. When a worker told her ‘don’t panic’ he then turned to the crowed lining up and asked, “Hey, did anyone catch that on video?” He was obviously an ‘Australia’s funniest home videos fan!’

It was 4:30pm (almost closing time for Jamberoo), and it was starting to get cold - so we got changed into warmer clothes, enjoyed an ice cream, got into the car and came back to Sydney. We did get a bit lost on the way home but it wasn’t as bad this time… it was just a wrong turn! We finally got home at 7pm. Although, got lost on the way to Jamberoo, all up it was a very nice day, and a great way to celebrate our 30th birthdays. Jamberoo was awesome and I can’t wait to go to Jamberoo again!

Unlike Jamberoo, my birthday celebration didn’t end there. On Saturday 17th January, I had my 30th birthday party with family at Clovelly, Sydney. It was a family get together. Everyone was there including Heather (my cousin) who was at work. She was home when we got back from our walk around Bronte Beach. We left our house at 3pm and arrived at my Uncles place in Clovelly at: 3:15pm. Whilst at my uncles place we: - talked, I blew out my birthday candle, we had afternoon tea, drank coffee / wine, went for a walk around Bronte beach, (as the weather wasn’t good enough to go swimming), had dinner, and I opened more presents. After dinner we went into their Lounge room for supper. Were we: talked some more, eight heaps of chocolate, watched the tennis, and left Clovelly for home at 8:30pm. All up my 30th birthday was a pretty nice one. It was also a nice way to start 2009.

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