A Chick's weekend

A Monday long weekend prompted a visit to the beach house at MacMasters, 1.5 hours north of Sydney. Friday, when we left, was miserable. It was a wet cold week & the weekend looked just the same. We arrived with plenty of red wine, ugg boots, blankets, hot water bottles, magazines & the lap-top at 1: 30am, Went to Split Enz that night & left at midnight after the concert; perfect for traffic avoidance.

Nicole was my passenger, with Liz, Tanya, Sally, Suzy & Liz's son as weekend companions. The first bottle of red was opened at 2am on Friday night when we arrived. An auspicious start.

Saturday morning, set up the lap-top on glorious dial-up connection, (the speed is appalling !) which only added to the hilarity of the activities we had on-line. Nicole's obsession with ebay & RSVP was the activity-de-jour. We soon learnt of her preferences (tall men, anglos or french please, no tatts & a scent preference of 'eau savage') Nicole would shriek everytime she found someone desirable (this started at 9am on saturday morning) and we would rush to the screen and inspect the description/ photo gallery/ star sign & height details. Her list of favourites was soon building.

Liz was next. Her star sign preference is Aries, so we did a seach & found someone for her. Her lack of RSVP account was soon remedied with our instant skills at creating her RSVP profile, complete with photo images from our trip to The Door. (where she glowed with health)

Sally, dubbed, Sally the wise, was our fairy godmother in advising us of the pitfalls of arriving on RSVP. She was subjected to 800 responses in her first weeks on-line. As an attractive witty blonde whose true interests are rugby & cars, backed up a realistic smiling photo, it was enough to test her email deleting skills & the RSVP system.

The tone for the weekend was set, we talked flirting, dating histories, younger vs older men, baggage issues (only one small piece allowed, say Nicole) star sign preferences, & my current status with MrTASF & how I should handle it.

As Sally started telling boarding school stories, from the time she was a boarding house teacher at a private boy's school, we started drilling her about younger men. "they all like older women & are more interested than you think' she said. We sipped wine & leaned in for more. "just be yourself & be relaxed" she continued "but also don't be impressed, especially with cars & achievements, be a bit mean. " It reminded me of my mother & the fridge. Mum has just got a new fridge, because she spent the last 12 months complaining about the dents from the removalists. Finally Dad relented, and has impressed her with a double-door/ water cooling/ wine pocket super fridge. Sally mother was equally unimpressed with her to-be -husband's sport car & good looks.

After talking so much of men, it was time to visit the Avoca Beach Hotel to watch the rugby. Australia vs. England. The car park was full of ute's and tradies vans. The all chicks weekend posse had arrived. The initial hype of being in male company was diverted once we started watching the rugby. The on-screen action was too good. Mortlock's kiss to Larkham, after the try was the highlight.

The final day was bright and sunny. Time for walks on the beach and more RSVP work. By now the duplication of the men's entries were having us in stitches. How many like the 'shawshank redemption', have read' the da vinci code' like 'walking on the beach' and 'drinking red' ? about 80% of them. Sally suggested starting a rsvp make-over company to teach them how to have 1. a good photo with no sunnies or action shots. & 2. an original list of activities.

So the final advice was, I shouldn't call MrTASF. I will be 'busy but happy' when he calls & I might have some time to see him, but only if the invite is good. If he doesn't call, then, sorry, he's not interested. This is the game, it's just how it works & you play it to get results. No more pity stories. over them.

And quite honestly, I am happy, I have such great friends. We laughed all weekend. Sally's sage advice was delivered with humour & experience, Tanya's sweet but saucy email to a potential was totally left field, but we are all dying to try the same!, Suzy's affectionate nature reminds us all of touching and hugging our friends and Liz's mesmersing confidence as she relayed stories of adoring men had us in awe.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I looked at the full moon last night from the beach & felt it was a time for change. good change. I am me & I'm happy.