Holly’s birthday, to Darwin

Monday 23rd June 2008

Katie was, unsurprisingly, the first to wake but the deal was that she would ask Holly if she wanted to get up yet. And lo and behold... she did! She was showered with cards and gifts as well as the all-important consent to get her ears pierced and Paul made her favourite breakfast of bacon and eggs.

But life has to go on and soon we were back into the routine of packing up and getting out. The trailer made ominous scrapes as we dragged it up the hill and out of the campsite but a quick check at the top showed it was all fine and we were off to the big smoke!

It was a pretty quick drive and for the girls it went by in a flash as they watched Holly’s brand new dvd of Hairspray. Even once we’d arrived they sat quietly in the car to watch the end and then started picking out their favourite bits so they were still occupied long after everything was all set up. Needless to say, Paul and I took the opportunity for a quick breather and were rather slow in pointing out the THREE swimming pools and giant bouncy pillow that this caravan park has to offer. So slow, in fact, that lunch was done and we were in the car on our way to town before it was mentioned!

Holly’s birthday treat was to be a trip to the movies (to see the second Narnia film) followed by dinner of her choice. We had been planning a trip to the body piercing shop until they told us they were out of suitable earrings (WOT?!) and couldn’t say when they’d be getting the next shipment and they didn’t recommend anywhere else because of the bad hygiene risk. If we’re gonna do this thing then we want to be starting off right so we’re waiting to hear from them and if the worst comes to the worst we’ll get it done in Cairns next week.

The movie was great although probably not very faithful to the book – I don’t remember there being so much humour in the written version – and it felt weird to be doing something as everyday as coming out of the movies into a city street.

Paul and I agreed that downtown Darwin has a much better feel than Perth (I suppose it is much smaller, business-wise) with a very much relaxed, holiday atmosphere. It’s certainly not a shopping mecca and in many respects not that much different to somewhere like Broome except for the big, official buildings and many large hotels. The suburbs with their malls etc could belong to any city or large town in the country.

Guess what Holly chose for dinner, yup, MacDonalds, which is where the delightful glasses in the above photo come from. Paul and I abstained and picked up some Indian curries on our way back to the car to eat at home.