Hanging with friends in the shed.

I could have checked into a luxury unit and sat in sartorial splendour checking out a view of a mountain or an ocean.

I could have done a quick three-day cruise.

I could have booked into a QPAC show and had a city stay-cation (Since my son suggested that this was a “thing”, we’ve done this twice now, and exploring our State’s capital makes for a pleasant weekend).

But instead I chose the best option of all.

I spent the four days sleeping in a shed, with no shower, no toilet, no running water and no electricity. I spent the four days cooking on an open fire and using the same fire to warm my hands. I developed an affinity for a tooth brushing tree and less of an affinity for another form of ablution. Washing was either with a bucket or we schlepped across to the neighbour's shed, there to graciously avail ourselves of his generous amenity offering.

My phone ran out of charge on the first day and this was perhaps the second best thing about the sojourn. It is quite nice to be incommunicado for a while and let the cares of the world spin on by. But the thing about the four days (apart from the toothbrush tree which developed a nice minty smell) was that I spent the four days with friends.

Because at the end of the day (or in this case four days) isn't that what life's all about?

Does it matter that your phone is dead? Does it matter if the tree in the far corner of the paddock is a temporary no go area? Does it matter that preparation for dinner is best done in the afternoon, before the sun goes down and the cold sets in? Does it matter that you live by the sun and the wind and embrace nature in all its glory and mayhem.?

Nothing matters to me because when the shed is shared with friends, when you laugh until your stomach aches, when you eat your fill of vegetables cooked in coals, when your hair smells smoked, you know that you are in the best possible place.

Give me four days with friends, a potato in alfoil, an open fire and a bucket shower over  an ocean view any day. Mind you, on the fifth, it wouldn’t be bad for me and my friends to head for that luxury apartment.