Kings Cross, Boats and Empty Tanks

Daphne, Lachlan's mum was having a 50th birthday party. It was going to be fun affair as we crusied around on a boat through Sydney Harbour. I was actually quite excited!

This was going to be a very eventful evening!

The boat would be leaving the docks at 5:30pm and we had to be there by 5pm at least. Lachlan and his Volvo would not mix well with city driving, and so we opted to borrow Regan's Mercedes. Seemed to be the better option.

The first half of the journey went well with no dramas at all (sound familiar?) It wasn't until we hit the Lane Cove tunnel that things began to get a little more "interesting". I had a print out of the directions and was trying my best to remain calm and give the best directions to Lachlan as possible. Plus we had an in-built GPS system which we could revert back to if things got bad.

Lachlan hates the city when he has to drive and navigate his way through. So do I. We normally take the train, but it was going to be too late a night to catch a train back home.

For a moment I got confused and directed him down a main road, thinking Darling Harbour was in that general direction. How very very wrong I was!

We looked around us and saw that we were in the completely opposite end at Kings Cross! I was apologising profusely for messing it all up, trying to calm his anxiety. It wasn't working as well as I had hoped. Finally, we rang his dad, who was completely bewildered that we had managed such a mix-up! Plus he wasn't super impressed, as we discovered our tank of petrol was literally on empty. We had to find a parking space somewhere to avoid getting completely stuck altogether.

We managed to discover a random secure parking lot and made our way onto the main road. We were running late by this stage and the stress was building. Spotting a taxi we hailed it down and made our way down to the Harbour.

Luckily the rest of the party had not really arrived yet and we could relax for a little while before the boat was ready for us all to come aboard. Once that happened we spent a rather pleasant evening floating away on the still water.

I met various characters on this boat, all of whom I hardly remember now. Some were friendly, some were interesting and some, well, were just a little bit odd. But everyone we met just added to the colour, fun and variety of the night.

I do distinctly remember one particular character: her name was Leslie and she was certainly a colourful character. I know that Wes tried his hardest to avoid her the whole night. She took a special liking to one of Lachlan's cousins, and she did her best to convince us that we would make great parents. Even poor Granny had to endure an agonising conversation with the woman.

Whenever we think back to that evening, Leslie always comes up and we always have a good laugh. How can a party be truly authentic unless we have "Leslie" type characters?

The night came to a close, but ours was still far from over. Once we alighted back onto dry land we had to find a taxi and somehow remember where we had parked our car. Luckily though, Sam and Peta, Lachlan's brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law offered us their car to drop us off. Once we found the car we paid our parking ticket, which was a small fortune, and then hailed a taxi. The car was completely empty.

The taxi took us to the nearest petrol station and we bought a jerry can so that we could travel far enough to find another station. After paying the taxi driver, which was another fortune, we filled up the car and drove off.

However, we had to find a petrol station quickly before we became stuck again, and we had no idea where we were! We drove up and down random streets until finally, by God's grace, we saw a sign pointing towards the beloved Western Suburbs and we headed onto the familiar Parramatta Road.

Finding a station we filled up and eventually made it home. It was a crazy, fun-filled, adventurous evening which I will always remember!

But May was only beginning and it would be a much more crazy month than I could ever imagine!