A drunken Easter, birthday parties, IKEA and a whole lot of crap in between ;)

The reason why I don't update this blog very often is probably because I can't seem to be able to find the appropriate lyric to headline it. Haha. I have had a pretty good run so far, every title being a Bowie lyric. At the moment I'm stumped. Stumped because this entry will cover too many things... basically just updating you all on what's been going on here on my end!

When kids my age talk about family friends, they are usually negative. "God, I have to go to dinner with my family friends. It's so boring.", "Oh, it's nothing big. Just family friends...", etc., etc. Over the Easter break I went to Mildura for 5 days with a large group of family friends. This happens every year and it could have been something many people would dread. Going to some little country town with a group of 'family friends' seems nothing close to as exciting as going on a holiday with school mates. But for me, it is the event that I most look forward to every year.

I remember attending the first "Easter Bash" back in 1998. It was held in Adelaide and I must admit, I didn't really have such a great time. Having just moved back from Malaysia I hardly knew this group. Our families have been friends for about a lifetime and I have known some of the kids ever since I was born, but it didn't mean I was good friends with them. It was unnerving getting to know them again after all those years of not keeping in touch and it took a few more to actually get through that 'superficial friendship' stage.

Now in 2004, 6 years later, it feels we are like a big family and I cannot think of a closer friendship group that I belong to. I am really lucky in a way to have a lot of the kids around the same age as me and I think that plays a big role. It doesn't mean though that the younger ones are left out! I think they would be the youngest in the world to be playing drinking games! Haha. I'm kidding. Or am I?

Mildura this year was another great moment to add to my memory bank. In terms of friendship and just eventful moments, this year had got to be the best. If only we had the pool, sauna and trampoline from Swanny! Well, it's going to be back at Swan Hill next year so let's make that even bigger because we all know that "It just gets better every year"!! Thank you Andrew, Dennison, Justin, Mike, Michelle, Jo, Mel, Jason, Lauren, Hayley, Jessica, Julian, Robyn, Tim, Kathryn, Byron, Desmond and Shirlene... for being there and making it all fantastic for everyone. The nights of absolute drunkeness would not have been the same if it weren't for all of you. What is better than getting absolutely trashed with people so close to you?? And oh yeah, and let's not forget to thank all the parents for funding the holiday and all that organising! And let's also thank the tequila... I can't stay away from that subject can I? ;). WHERE DID THAT WORM GO?! Yes, I AM stumped.

So that was Easter. It was almost two weeks ago but I still miss everyone so much. Especially you Adelaide people - who should definetly consider moving over to Melbourne ;). I just look at the photos here and although they are just unbelievable funny and embarassing, I get really sad that we have to wait another year before it can happen again...

I am at Uni right now - as usual, escaping the responsibility of doing some study and homework. Life has been rather boring since coming back from Mildura, getting back into the scheme of things again ie: Uni, uni, and Uni. Those assignments! God, the assignments! Last weekend though, was great. On friday was Kim's 21st birthday and she had a party at the Geebung Polo Club on Auburn road. It was a BLAST - that is, *after* I had made my speech. I was SO nervous I had to have a few drinks to calm my nerves. Even that didn't stop me from repeating myself. But that's not really important. What is important was that I believe I said the things that I wanted to say - to tell everyone how much Kim's friendship means to me. I didn't follow my written speech much at all because I just had things on the top of my head that I wanted to say. I let my hair hang out after that though! Lots of dancing to some awesommmmeee retro music haha. Michael Jackson rocks. He really made the night. I don't care a rat's ass about all the stuff that is brought upon him re: child molestation, etc. The world and the media can try their best to bring him down but it's not going to change the fact that he is ultimately one of the world's best entertainers of all time.

My grandma, aunt and cousins came over to stay for the weekend and on Saturday morning I had breakfast at IKEA. $2.50 for breakfast that included 2 snags, scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato, bread rolls and bottomless coffee. Now that's what I call "worth every penny"!! I think I had about 4 cups of coffee that morning from the self serve expresso machine. Fantastic. And oh yes, can I just add here that coffee with sugar is a sin. A SIN I tells ya. So don't put that sugar, otherwise you'll lose some hefty karma points.

We walked around IKEA for about 2 hours. I can never really get bored of that place. I love the toys, I love checking out the furniture and how they display things and pack a living room into about 1 sq meter fascinates me. Everything is also very affordable and not at all that bad looking. I think I could get away with an IKEA furnished apartment and still looking quite modern and classy. Like this vase for instance. It looks like some designer ware. $8. And this watering can that was made of plastic - it looked very much like the plastic kitchen products that Alessi makes. $5. I could price it at $150 and sell it at Myer in the Alessi section and it would still sell. The only thing I don't really like is their art prints section - they need improvement in that area. The prints are okay - nothing too cool. But overall, they've got great design for the price you pay and I think that's just brilliant. I feel loved at IKEA, well atleast my wallet.

Then on Saturday night was Sarah's 20th Birthday Party of which the theme was Japan. Great stuff... I love that idea and I had a few Japanese beers which were brilliaaaant. Mmm... Asahi. One thing I love about birthday parties is that it's like a reunion. I caught up with many MANY friends whom I have not seen for about a month of Sundays (haha, I love that expression).

That pretty much wraps up my blog which I think was pretty boring in the end. I really have to be a lot more like Dick Mac and write stuff that people actually WANT to read. I'll get to work on that once I get over myself.