Here I am, about to turn 35, sit­ting in the most beau­ti­ful place, listen­ing to gor­geous music, drink­ing red wine, eating chocol­ate truffles. I spent the day tromp­ing up Cradle Moun­tain around Dove Lake and then had a three-course meal served by a French-cana­dian named Benoà®t, entrée of garlic prawns, main of sea­food mornay and Tas­manian salmon fillet, dessert of summer berry pud­ding… then Kilkenny cream in the spa and star-gazing… intense stars under a moon­less night, far from any­where near West Kentish on the north-west­ern coast of Tasmania. 

I think I’ll go and have a milk spa as my birth­day comes in, a dif­fer­ent spa… a bath spa… as opposed to the party spa we were all in earlier. About the only thing that would make this better would be Matt being here (and I have the most glor­i­ous gift from him to carry with me, a brace­let of garnet so gor­geous, so me, given with such care and thought…) and Christina being here… 

But I have friends here. One of my best friends is here, Jack, and his boy­friend Brian… and one of my oldest friends from high school Naomi… 

I wish I’d brought my book… it’s about the only draw­back really…