You know you’re on a good holiday when you forget what day of the week it is. That seems to be the question of the day … everyday.

In between eating till you’re gonna burst, going to the beach, and sleeping, the rest of my time is spent lazying around with a book in the lazy muggy sun. I love Byron.

Christmas dinner was at Esta’s place and boy were we in for a feast. Seriously LOVE living with two chefs.

I managed to get a bit of everything on my plate. Prawns, greek salad, roasted vegetables, haloumi cheese, baked potato, ham and lasagna. Might I add, this lasagna is the best I’ve ever had. AND, unbeknown to some, it was actually a vegetarian lasagna.

I have a habit of saving the best till last, the prawns. But then you can fall into that deadly trap of being too full to enjoy that last bite. Well, I did fall into that trap. By the last and final prawn I was way too full to enjoy them. It was more of a punishment, a yummy punishment.

The night eventually turned the good old BBQ into a BB (Backyard Bar), complete with a cocktail book and shaker set.

Christmas is a time for giving … and eating. That’s why I love Christmas time, not because of the presents, because of the food. My family, like Europeans, do a big Christmas eve thing instead of the Christmas Day thing and the table is always overflowing with food. This years centrepiece, as usual, my Dads “secret”-glazed leg of ham.

And of course the usual fresh prawns and oysters.

Every year there’s tones of left overs to be consumed in the days to come, but not this year. For the first time ever we catered to the correct amount of food – it’s a Christmas miracle!

Anna’s probably one of – if not the most - stylish people I know, so it’s only natural to celebrate her birthday accordingly. We went to the Gazebo Wine Garden, a gorgeous restaurant in Elizabeth Bay with flair. As you can tell from the name of the restaurant there’s a lot of wine.

There are a few kooky things that give the place a unique charm, one being the bathrooms, which would have been a bit inappropriate to photograph so I didn’t. You’re just going to have to go there yourself to check it out. Another odd thing was the Christmas Tree and Tasmanian devil (?) stuck to the ceiling.

With a party of 20+, our table was split into two and we were in for a set menu. I’m usually not the biggest fan of set menus because of the limited selection, but I was pretty impressed with the choices.

Instead of the usual 2 options for entree our table was given a variety of plates to share. It was great to be able to pick at each of the different plates. My favourite was this glorified sausage roll.

For my main I went with the ocean trout, ever since my recent Byron trip I’ve been craving seafood.

For dessert I went with the good old chocolate brownie. I was away from my seat when it came out, so Brendan decided to draw a little face on the ice cream. Looks a bit grumpy, probably because I was about to demolish it.

The atmosphere was fantastic, very happening, very lively and very festive. Every time a birthday girl/boy ordered a drink, the staff would stick a sparkler in it, ring a cow bell and shout and cheer as they brought the drink to you.

Good venue, good food and good friends. What better way to celebrate a birthday. Happy Birthday Anna!

You should have seen the look on my face when this box arrived today. 24 Christmas cupcakes from My Little Cupcake and only a handful of staff left in the office to finish them. Excellent.

Looks like the over-eating season is here. Time to loosen the belt buckle.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back, we just chilled out in the hammock trying to wait for a decent hour to start making cocktails.

Now we knew we’d be in for an awesome feast with two chefs in the house, but seriously, it was beyond awesome. Now bear in mind, it was just a normal Tuesday evening, nothing special, not even a public holiday, yet on the table we had a feast fit for a King (and 8 of his friends). We had lamb that was super juicy and tender with a side of home-made tzatziki; roasted vegetables and grilled mushrooms; salsa; BBQ corn and cocktails.

If this is a glimpse of everyday life in Byron, I think I’m going to find it hard to stay away.

I’d never been crabbing before so everything was new and exciting (and really smelly). First up we got the crab pods and chucked in the bait, we used something called fish wings which smelt and looks really funky. Kind of looks like a bird actually.

The crab pods weren’t as successful as we’d hoped producing only one crab, but in true ‘Man vs Wild’ style, we found other ways to survive. As it turns out, all you need is some rope, a rock, a bit of prawn and presto, you have another crab.

The surprise of the day was when Esta reeled in her rod and there was a giant crab instead of a fish. Score! The claws on this baby were massive.

After a morning of fishing/crabbing, and a quick phone call to my grandma for the recipe, we’re all set for a Singaporean chilli crab feast.

Then off to The Balcony for tapas and cocktails to celebrate. The kiwi crush cocktail was divine (and strong!). I especially liked the sugary rim around the glass – sweet …

We’ve driven to Byron a couple of times in the past and it’s usually a pretty easy drive, but for some reason that wasn’t the case this time around. We took the giant landcruiser instead of the usual compact car so naturally we thought it would be a much easier and comfortable drive. Nope. Instead of the usual 10hr drive, this trip took a whooping 14 hours. Yes, that’s correct 14 hours in the same car on the same road. Plus the added stress of running low on petrol in the middle of no where; creaky wooden bridges that sound like they’d break under the weight of the giant 4wd; and a GPS that often didn’t know where we were.

On the way we spotted this cool fluro pink buggie, no story behind the buggie. I just thought it was cute.

After the killer drive we couldn’t figure out why it took us so long, seriously 14 hours is ridiculous. I think we need to bump heads and think of a better driving plan. No toilet breaks?

I went with the seared scallops for my entree. As expected, they were fantastic, though I guess you can’t really stuff up seared scallops (unless you burn them). What took me by surprise was the salad. I have no idea what they put in it, but I could have easily eaten a plate of it alone, and walked out one happy customer.

For my main I went with the Wagya beef pie. Under normal circumstances, I don’t think I would have ordered a pie at a fancy restaurant, but Danielle guaranteed it would be a decision I wouldn’t regret.

Definitely no regrets. Not only was the thing so giant that I couldn’t finish it, the beef melted in your mouth, as did the pastry. After attempting to finish the giant pie I seriously couldn’t eat anymore. But when this cute passion fruit biscuit stack came out I just couldn’t resist.

This is a perfect example of “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”.

Now you’d think they had found the perfect combination: Everyone loves Kit Kat and Cookies and Cream, therefore everyone should love a Cookies and Cream Kit Kat. Wrong! It’s just weird and tastes like lard.

It just goes to show that something just aren’t meant to go together like ‘coke and mentos’ or ‘corriander and food’ or ‘a soft serve cone and mac sauce’. They sound like they’d work in theory, but in reality – it’s a disaster.