After we had celebrated Jas’ birthday last Thursday (I had made her a chocolate cake) and we had gone to a very amusing Japanese restaurant for dinner (we sat at a table around a huge cooking surface and so could watch the cook cook our food while we were eating it, and we were entertained by him as we had to try and CATCH parts of our food with our mouth/hands.. Which of course turned out to be very hard and therefore very messy.. but it was fun!) it was time to go camping to Hastings Point on Friday! Jas picked me and my friend Shannon up from school at lunch time and we arrived at the camp ground in the middle of the afternoon. The whole Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday we were really lucky with the weather and went swimming in the pool, chilled at a beach not far away from where we were staying, played table tennis and air hockey and we also tried our luck at one of those machines where you can put money in and try to fish a toy out.. We spent quite a lot of money on that, just trying to get a fish I really liked but didn’t manage to get, before a little girl came for help and fished the fish for us on her first go.. On Saturday we also went to Byron Bay. First we drove up to the light house and had an amazing view from there. Then we walked to the Most Easterly Point Of The Australian Mainland. After that we went on a little shopping tour through Byron Bay (the whole town lives kind of a hippie lifestyle). I bought 2 braceletes and a pair of very comfortable denim shorts. We also visited Scott’s sister who was camping in Byron Bay with her family. That camping ground was direct at the beach! Jas and Scott said we would go camping there once, too. So that’s how we spent our first two days of the weekend. On Sunday it was my birthday so the day started off with eating yummie pancakes with strawberries, honey and cream and opening some really nice presents. Then Anselm (a German international student) and his host parents (friends of Jas & Scott) came for a visit and we spent the day at the beach enjoying the beautiful weather. It was an absolutely fantastic day and we had lots of fun. We came back in the afternoon again to eat Scott-made hamburgers for lunch and in the evening after dinner we ate chocolate cake which Jas & Scott had bought in a bakery nearby. After that we just let the evening chill out, Shannon and I watched a movie and Scott allowed me to be on Facebook for about 15 minutes, yaay! At about 10 p.m it started to rain though, but luckily we were already snuggled up in bed then, although it was very hard to fall asleep with the rain hitting on the canvas all the time (not to forget Scott’s snoring..). The next morning it was already time to pack up again (I was ready first, believe it or not!) and to drive back home, it was really nice to be back home again.

I can say I probably spent the best birthday weekend ever this year, with great people, beautiful weather, a beach and heaps of fun! My 18th year couldn’t have started any better.