55 1/4

When it was my birthday in March, the Scientist had had to drop plans for a special birthday for me turning 55. It was that day that we went into lockdown and the best we could do was to bring home take away food to enjoy with the family. I had a good day anyway and life carried on.

A few weeks ago on the Friday, the Scientist said to me we were going out the next day and I needed to be ready to go by 10am. I wasn’t too sure what that was about so I was kind of curious. On Saturday I got up and got ready to go out and we ended up driving out through a new section of highway we hadn’t used before. It was kind of neat to see it from the car. I’ve rode out that way on my bike but not so far as we went this time. We turned off to Bullsbrook and drove along another road for a few kilometres. Then we passed by this place called Outback Splash. This used to be called The Maze but they have added a water park and expanded it considerably in the past few years. Anyway, I commented that I guess our destination wasn’t Outback Splash only to be told it was where were going. It was a bit odd to pass by a place we were headed to. We turned around on another road further along and went back to our destination. Then the Scientist went right past the entrance to the parking lot and had to turn around. I later learned these were just delaying tactics. I should have been suspicious since I know he wouldn’t easily miss these turn-offs.

Finally we were parked and went into to the entrance. But the Scientist made me wait outside for a bit while he was discussing something with staff. Finally we went through and sought out a particular “hut” (shelter) that we were aiming for. We did eventually find it and sat down at which point the Scientist did a little speech about how his plans for my birthday got ruined by covid-19 and so he was finally getting his plans into gear that day.

So I turned around to find three of my friends from tai chi there, with presents, to celebrate my 55 1/4 birthday. From my friends I got a candle and incense burner set, a tea cup with my favorite color purple, and a metal water bottle that had the color purple too. It was all very sweet.

Then we went off to the koala house to meet the koalas. We had special tickets to get up close and personal. The keeper took us through and set up a step ladder so we could pat the koala in approved locations and see what it was really like. This was my first time being so close to one. Decades ago when I was pregnant I had held a wombat and that was quite an experience. But these were the dozy koalas who were mostly sleeping. The one we had access to was agreeable enough for a while but after a few people had been up to see it, it moved itself to the back of the house and out of the way. Still we had a good look and I got a few photos on my phone.

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After this we returned to the hut and the Scientist went off to get a cake and the food he’d ordered for lunch. He came back with a huge tray of rolls with various fillings. It was a bit much for our small group of five so quite a few didn’t get eaten until much later.

Then it was time for cake and on there he’d written it was my 55 1/4 birthday and he had two candles to put on the cake. But there was the issue of blowing out candles and the idea was to remove them to a plate for the blowing part. But it didn’t matter as I expected because the breeze blew it out instead. The next thing was trying to cut the cake since there was a lack of any sort of knife. One of my friends made use of the cardboard backing of the candle and that worked enough to get the pieces we needed. It was a really yummy cake, homemade with buttercream frosting and lots of chocolate and decoration.

Afterwards, the food was put away and we went off to the first of the mazes. We had been to the Maze years ago when the kids were much younger and had a good time. The hedge maze at the time wasn’t a thing yet because they were still growing it. But we could see where it would be. And it was quite a bit of fun although not particularly difficult. There were quite a few people going through and there was a natural reaction to just follow along but we did break rank and sought out our own pathways. It wasn’t long until we reached the center and stood on a platform looking over the maze. Then it was a pretty easy task to reach the end on the other side. I’m not saying it was simple but it wasn’t that challenging.

The second maze was a tire maze and the idea was to reach a certain point by following a color progression and jump across tires. I didn’t even realise where the goal was until after I’d gone through and come back out. I tried again and it was quite difficult to get through and we gave up. It was actually kind of tiring going round and round and there were also quite a few others doing the same but it was a lot of fun to try it out.

There was a maze/not maze with some other animals, mostly kangaroos we also visited.

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Next was a ring toss game that we all tried to play and had varying degrees of success. I managed to get one ring on the whole time. We took turns until we reach the goal on that one.

The last maze was the main attraction, a wooden maze that had several flags you needed to reach. I remember this from our previous visit and Game Fanatic was instrumental in helping us find all the flags. This time we made it through to a couple of flags and that was okay. The third flag was also doable. But trying to get to the next one proved a bit too difficult and we ended up going in circles and not getting any closer to our target. It was around this time my bladder made its needs known and it wasn’t too much trouble to get back out of the maze. I went off to to the toilets and the others came out of the maze and that was the end of that. I’d had stuck it out had my bladder not been so insistent.

Next we moved on to the mini golf part of the park. This was no great version of mini golf but we still had fun giving a shot. I managed to do par on one hole. The rest were kind of all over the place.

Afterwards, one of my friends bought us ice cream and we sat at a table outside the café to eat. It was in the midst of this final treat that the music that had been playing stopped and it was clear the place was closing down. So after we finished we left and came home. There had been ideas of carrying on the celebration afterwards by having a bit of a games night elsewhere but not all of us could go so we opted to leave it at that.

It was later that I realised it would have been better to say it was my 55 1/3 birthday since it was actually four months after my birthday so that was another fun aspect of the day. It was kind of surreal to be having a birthday celebration months later but it was definitely a unique one as my birthdays go. Even better was the fact that Lego Lover helped me finish the cake later on. He’s a bit iffy on cakes that leave the house but he was happy to enjoy all.

I will also point out the boys were both quite helpful in preparations. Lego Lover had the task of keeping me shopping on the Friday night while the Scientist worked on the cake. Game Fanatic kept watch to keep me out of the kitchen later that evening and even into the Saturday. It was very much a family project even though the boys didn’t come along.

Overall it was the most memorable birthday I’ve had in years. My 50th was another prominent one with a party at home but this was a totally different sort of thing. All great fun to share with the Scientist and my friends.