LWE

Howdy!

On Saturday I had my 21st birthday party. It was so much fun! I had people fly in and travel from interstate and intercity to be there. It was such an enjoyable night of singing, dancing and drinking. I spent most of the night catching up with old friends, family and everyone else that came. I didn't have anytime to eat the absolutely delicious food they were serving, but I hear it was good. I'm so glad that my mum put so much effort into my party. She really did go above and beyond what was expected of her. My dad wrote this beautiful poem about raising me. It was so touching and heartfelt.

On the Monday I went down to the coast with my mum and dad who were down from Sydney for my party to see my grandmother and great aunt who weren't able to make it to my celebrations. We drove down in my new car which was great to do. My mum and dad approve.

While I was down there my great aunt gave me some of her shell collection.

When they lived in Darwin my great grandmother owned a farm and one of their workers collected sea shells as a hobby. When he moved interstate he gave his collection to my great aunt and my mum. They are such beautiful shells. I took a few photos. They are all polished and in great condition, a few of them are over 30 years old.

The photo's probably don't show it but the shells above were only a centimeter or so small. They were so detailed and just beautiful. The white one at the bottom was my favourite. It was so exquisite!

This one is a prawn or scorpion fossil.  It was interesting to see what a fossil actually looks like. I've see a few fossil but never held one. It was pretty cool having a little piece of history in my had. My boyfriend though this fossil in particular was pretty cool. My great aunt gave it to him as a gift.

 

For a long time my great aunt was part of the royal flying doctors service. Whenever they flew out to check on rural patients she'd look for a momentum to bring back her husband. Sometimes it would be food from the local town, a flower from the bush or an interesting rock she'd find on the ground. She found this on her 28th birthday on a Northern Territory flight path. She claims it'll give me good luck. I hope she's right!

This was one of the most interesting shells. At first I thought it was a stone fish shell but no, stone fish don't have shells. Ha!

The above shell used to have quite a poisonous creature that used to live in it. In the bottom photo, see how it cork screws around, on the inside of that, this little crab like creature would store little spears and when it felt threatened would release them. They would hurt really badly and then you'd need to get to a doctor quick smart. I think the shell is beautiful, it's so interesting the patterns mother nature comes up with. So beautiful.

This is my little shell collection. I'm really happy with my little treasure trove today. It's interesting listening to how older people spent their time when they were younger. I would never have thought shell collecting would have been a fun way to spend the time, but after listening to my grand mothers and great aunts stories, I think I may start doing it as my hobby too!

Rexy their little puppy. So cute and adorable. My boyfriend had a nap on the couch before we drove back to Sydney and Rexy jumped up and slept on his chest. Such a sweetie!

Back to work tomorrow. I'm not really excited for it after having such a great long weekend, but, hey, it pays the bills and tomorrow is my actual birthday!! We're having a special lunch at work which is very nice of everyone. I'm also going over to my boyfriends family for a birthday dinner tomorrow night which is always a lot of fun and always a feast!

I hope you all had a good long weekend, Christmas is right around the corner and I cannot wait till I have a good solid week off to socialise, re-energise and maybe go to a day spa. Sadly, I found out today that my partner won't be getting any extra time off over Christmas aside from Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day as his office isn't closing.

Lucy