Don’t Listen To A Word I Say

[Little Talks – Of Monsters and Men]

This post is a few days late because of a sudden influx of LIFE that happened over the last few days. And by that, I mean Amelia’s and Melody‘s party. (By the way, Melody is kinda in a blog clique kind of thing, so my tacking on of her link is me trying to integrate myself.)

On Thursday, I went to Amelia’s house early to help her clean her house and set up for her party. She’d gotten her Ps just the day before, so I got picked up from my door and drive to her door, and let me say, having spent the past two years taking two different buses for an hour each time just to get to her house, I think I will enjoy this new freedom!

We washed up some dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen, and then she vacuumed the house while Meg tried to fight off the noise monster. Then we had a bit of a rest, had Nandos for lunch (also, another perk of having her drive: instead of having to order expensive pizza in, or making instant noodles, we can now go out for lunch if we want) then a snooze. When it was nearly time, we went downstairs to blow up some balloons and that’s when people started arriving.

You may not be able to tell, but I’m not a fan of recounting in deep detail everything that happened, so here’s a quick run-down.

Most people were well over an hour late, and so when the pizza finally came, everyone was dead hungry, and demolished the first round. We had to go order more. The alcohol began to  flow as well, albeit in little amounts, because her parents are still home. Everyone was hanging out and listening to some guitar playing, and then for some reason some people wanted to watch UP, so we put that on as well.

It was nearing 11pm, and poor Meg had been up for hours and hours (with a tiny nap in the middle). We’d taken her for a big walkies in the afternoon so she’d empty her bowels outside and not be too excited when people come and pee on them. As a result, she was exhausted. When UP was finishing, her eyes were watering, and she was getting quite grumpy. Thankfully, there were three people at the party apart from Amelia and myself that Meg suddenly took a liking to, and those three people took turns hugging Meg until she became docile and just dozed off.

Anyway, that was Meg. I was worried she’d be badly behaved, but Amelia hugged her every now and then which made her happy, and mostly she was friendly to the twenty odd strangers in the house.

Serena made a caramel cheesecake, which she was paranoid over, because she felt like it wasn’t good/sweet/cold enough. Now, I’ve seen her make many cakes in the past, but I’ve never gotten to try a single bite. But, IT WAS AMAZING. I don’t even like cheesecake or caramel and I loved it. I hope she makes me more. Serena, are you reading still? Make me MORE!

Now, we talk about Cindy.

For those of you who aren’t in the know, Cindy is one of Amelia’s closest friends and, if I divide everything down to the most common denominator, probably the reason I got together with Amelia in the first place. The way that Cindy and I met isn’t exactly the best example of my ability to “stay cool”.

But that night, it was Cindy’s turn to not be cool! She accidentally forgot she didn’t eat much (accidentally), and did a few shorts in quick succession. As a result, she became extremely friendly with everyone, and ample hugs were abound. Then, the high wore off, and the head-stuck-in-the-toilet era rolled in. By the end of the night…at around 2:30 am, we had the last stragglers of the party (namely Amelia, myself and three others who were staying over, Nico – Cind’s boyfriend and who now on I will call Naochi because that’s what I call him – and Ash, who was getting a ride from Nico) holding plastic bags up to her face, telling her to just throw up to feel better (horrible phrase to take out of context, I know). In all, it was an amusing but tiring way to finish off what was otherwise a really amazing party.

I had to bring that up, sorry, because it was a fond memory that I’m sure I’ll appreciate to read about a few years later.

I went home early Friday morning because Amelia had work first thing. I had my day of rest, and then another half day of rest on Saturday, before Amelia picked me up for Melody’s. She held it at Ondergrounds on Russell St, which was a pretty cool venue, but because I had to leave really early due to work Sunday, I only really stayed for a few shots and left. But, from what I saw, everyone was in for a crazy night (and I’m pretty sure Melody will supplement and blog more about it on her fancy dotcom page, so do check it out! LIKE SHE NEEDS PLUGGING), and I was sorry I missed it.

And, to finally catch up, I worked all Sunday and all today.

PS Here’s Meg

She’s having a nap while hugging her decimated Pikachu toy. It no longer has a face, but boy is it her favorite.

 

 

The Life and Laughs: Revenge of the Laugh

Oh, subscribers, are you still there? Are you surprised to see me again?

As of this moment, I have finished all the assessment tasks for my university degree. There is the small matter of handing it in and, oh, passing, but I have confidence that I will receive a high enough score to get me the certificate.

So, where I left you last.

I was about to start my two-week internship, which turned out really interesting. I found out lots about myself in those two weeks – how quickly I can really write, how to self-edit, how to take criticism (although, the sub-editor who sat me down and went through my work was very nice about correcting my mistakes, much nicer than my actual class teacher), how to make phone-interviews.

I also learned how much I hate journalism. Well, not all aspects of journalism – but I wasn’t a fan of slow moving, methodical get-the-interview-and-write-it journalism. I’m not knocking it, I just guess it wasn’t for me!

I also did some tough interviews for a writing class, since the assessments needed us to go interview complete strangers. I interviewed two research professors, and a few of my friends. For one article, I chose to interview April and Bianca about their personal lives. They were toughies, I had to fight to keep tears back with Bianca.

Overall, I did pretty well in Semester 1. Of course, I knew Semester 2 was going to be a bitch and half. But before that…

I went on the SAMA camp. SAMA is the Monash Anime club, which Mela is a part of. It was in the middle of July, so it was cold and wet – and the place we went to seemed to be creating mud out of every crevice. As the club is a nerdy one, most nights were spent playing Mahjong, watching anime or horror movies. The last night, however, saw everyone wanting to get rid of all the alcohol that was brought. Much drunkeness and throwing-upness occurred. Cindy drank til she was a bit beyond tipsy (we thought she was outright drunk, but a few weeks later we saw a video of her being actually drunk and talking in an infectious British accent). And my girl? Well, she went much beyond drunk – bashed through hilarious drunk by hugging everyone and telling them she loves them, and then crashed into bad drunk and threw up what smelled like pure alcohol. The next day, suffice to say, she suffered.

There was also the SAMA Social Night, which happened in August. I was forced to go, and went through a horrible process of trying to find clothing for the formal event. In the end, I put together some dodgy looking pieces, fixed with the bowtie that Amelia gave me for my birthday (oh, did I mention? I turned 21! I got loads of presents, but Amelia’s was the best: the bowtie, a great scarf, and a crap-load of Nerds lollies). I ended up winning best-dressed male. Clare, who went, could not stop smiling at me when I was up on stage. If I could have melted with embarrassment, I would have.

Semester 2 was tougher. I had 3 subjects again, but all requiring research, and none were creative. One was a whipping 8000 word mini-thesis. Amusingly, the other two subjects overlapped each other almost completely in content, simply from different ends. And so the first six weeks saw me learn a whole load of new information, and the last six saw me revise it in the other class.

Annie and I worked very hard, for once…and the last time. We holed ourselves up in the library every day we were in (which was, granted, around twice a week), for a whole month, and worked our asses off while we were at home. We did up to 20,000 words of research for a 2,500 essay, and sure we laughed about it later, but at that time, it was horrible. I once wrote so hard that my arms cramped, something I haven’t really encountered since VCE exams.

I also got a new laptop! A Samsung Series 9, which is as light as an eyelash and about as thick. It’s a beautiful machine, and I want so much to keep it beautiful I haven’t taken off the plastic cover on the front and on the wrist-rest.

Amelia bought me tickets for and attended with me Maroon 5. It was a shocking concert – although there wasn’t a mosh, and we sat further back than we thought we would, they made up for it with their relentless energy. I did not stop dancing the whole time they were on stage, and neither did they! Jen and I shouted ourselves hoarse (we both wanted to go, and dragged our other halves with us).

Amelia turned 20, and I took her to the Conservatory at Crown. It was a bad start, because I got lost and was late to the restaurant, but Amelia ate a massive fill from the buffet, and I gorged myself on the chocolate fountain. The food was very good (considering how much it costs), but the thing that got me the most was the service. First-class waiters and waitresses were patient as hell, despite covering about two dozen people each.

We also celebrated our 1 year anniversary (yes, it HAS been that long!) but, unfortunately, on the day I had classes I had to attend. We delegated the celebrating to her birthday, since they’re both very close to each other. Amelia also held another birthday dinner at Paesano’s at Knox O-Zone, and so many people showed up that we had to get two massive tables and squeeze together.

Meg, Amelia’s dog, has gotten extremely cute – and much bigger! Although she is still quite small, she no longer fits just on one arm, and I need to carry her with both. She’s not gotten much smarter, but she’s very loyal, and the other week when I visited her after a long break, she was so excited, she peed! I love Meg very much, and I can’t stop talking about her when I’m with other people. I think it annoys them but if they were loved by Meg, they’d do the same.

And now, I’ve finished all the assessments for my university schooling. I’m not going back to class next year, nor have I a job lined up. I was hoping to take a year off and see what my options are. Perhaps I can pay Amelia more attention too, as I have neglected her a lot this past few months.

I’m about to go to China for a two week holiday, by myself. I’m utterly terrified, because I’m about as good a flyer as a rock, and I’ve never had to go by myself before. But, hey, I’m 21 now, I should learn how to hack it.

It also means that, despite this lengthy and vigorous attempt to revive this blog, I will not be blogging for the next 2-3 weeks, because WordPress is blocked in China. But I will strive to come back.

So, Revenge of the Laugh! The Life Returns. Etc.

Alex.

/edit: Also, Brendan happened. He had to carry my drunk girlfriend since I couldn’t, and she kept on thinking she was flying, causing him to nearly drop her a lot. (This was at SAMA camp by the way.) Also a bunch of other stuff including him took place, like um. I don’t know. Also he got a new girlfriend.

Then it said ‘mew’

On Friday night was Dani’s birthday dinner. On the train ride there, Mela pointed out that in my previous post, I’d gotten the sequence of events wrong, and Monday actually happened on Tuesday and vice versa.

We arrived at Melb Central late, and were worried that we’d held everyone up, but it turned out that everyone else were just really, really late, and we decided on having some hotpot for dinner, picked up Soph, and went to Little Lamb on Russell St.

Carmaine and her boyfriend dropped by for a few minutes but declined to dine with us, saying they were too poor. So, instead, Dani, Mela, Soph and I pigged out on the hotpot, aiming to eat more than the 25 dollar flat rate we paid, and we all chatted. April came along a bit of the way through and, despite not eating, stayed to talk. Mela and I realized that we were sitting on one side of the table while eating, and the other side of the table sat the three halfies, all of them good looking and none of them eating.

Saturday was Brendan’s party. Cindy and I went to Stud Park to shop for jello-shot ingredients with Mela, and then we went to Sam’s Warehouse to get shot glasses. It was cold and raining, and my hunger drove my caring girlfriend to begrudgingly buy me a sausage with bread.

We went to her house, and the other two made jello-shots while I went on Tumblr. Cindy accidentally spilled one shot while we were arranging them on this ceramic tray, and so not to waste, the three of us took turns slurping up the semi solid goo with a straw. Ah the dignity that we forfeited.

After that, we went to Brendan’s house early, having nothing to do at Mela’s (they watched Whip It for a while but I complained). We met the kitty ‘Doc’, and we played with the kitten for an hour or two until more people arrived. Brendan got this weird blowup guitar as a present, and the jokes of him blowing up something large and pink were numerous.

Now, this party was the one where I was meant to drink, but something went odd with my tolerance, and I ended up on that platform of one-shot-too-many, and my darling was put to the test by having to take care of me while I threw up for about an hour. But, hey, before that the party was great! Apparently I danced, we ate pizza and chips, played with the kitten some more when someone brought him back downstairs. Arthur and Valia (newly coupled and all that) were being super cute and made fairy bread. We sang along to karaoke.

In the end, Mela’s older brother drove us home. Having work the next day, I did my best to hydrate and sleep, and then went to visit Mela after she finished her shift the next day before Jen (from that other time with the surprise visiting at work and all that) who was going to have lunch with Mela drove me to work.

I always like Brendan’s parties. I will aim to like all of it without throwing up of course. I missed out on Truth or Dare too!

Alex.

Happy birthday Amelia!

Today was/is Amelia’s 19th birthday. I tried – and possibly failed – to get a surprise going. I think she knew, but she acted along well anyway.

I went to the city earlier in the morning to get her presents – yes, I left it til the last minute. I got her a notebook in which I wrote my birthday message, and hopefully she’ll use that notebook to write down some cool dreams that she has. I also got her a box of tissues and some Strepsils because the poor girl had gotten sick just yesterday – the eve of her birthday.

After realizing that she’d be late coming into the city with Ser-, I thought I had enough time to go to the florist right outside the Town Hall and got her a small bunch of mini carnations.

In the end, her friends Ly- and Ei- actually got there before she did, so when Amelia finally arrived, they ran up to her to hug her as a way of surprise.

We went to Dessert House for some cheap lunch. I don’t really think I’m a photo blogger so I won’t post the numerous photos of food and us that Amelia took. After lunch, we went to Starbucks to sit for a bit. We sat there for ages, and Brendan and Nha- joined us, and then later on Des and Tat (they’re all, bar Brendan obviously, Amelia’s friends). Brendan and Nha- got Maccas, and Nha- was nice enough to actually get me a cheeseburger. I think I scared Ser- a bit when I more or less bullied her into taking my money to buy her drink – I just really didn’t want to hold onto so many coins.

L2R, Amelia, myself, Ser- and Brendan. Ser- doesn’t like having her photo taken. This photo was after a LOT of persuasion.

After getting many glares from the Starbucks staff – one of them actually had to tell us to quieten down – we sort of all agreed that instead of going to Papa Gino’s on Lygon as was originally planned, we’d all just eat the cake in the city, then go back to Glenny to have dinner. So I made a booking at Zest 91, and went to pick up the ice cream cake from QV. Amelia cut the cake with a plastic knife, and we ate the cake with little plastic spoons.

At this point, Ly- and Ei- had to leave, so Tat and Des went to Ferntree Gully where they parked the car, so to meet us at Zest, and Brendan, Nha-, Ser-, Amelia and I went to ICUE to play some pool. Nha- is extremely good, Brendan is passable, and I think I made the wrong impression and Nha- thought I was decent, which I am not.

At 5, we thought it best to go back to Glenny. Said bye to Nha-, only to be greeted with sheets of rain. We slodged through a crossing with no lights, and found our way onto a packed Glen Waverley train – one of the few that seems to be running that afternoon. And not surprising either, seeing as already the gutters were overflowing, much less the lowered tracks.

The train ride was pretty terrible, mostly because Amelia had developed a headache, couldn’t sit down to sleep, Ser- had no sense of balance and so kept on falling onto one of us (and dislikes physical touch). I was just glad we managed to make it onto an express train that was running at all. I didn’t even consider the possibility of being stranded in the city today.

Went to Zest 91 for dinner. Sat upstairs, not after going up a crazy winding spiral staircase to get there – not the most comfortable decor idea. Met Amelia’s friends Andrew and Steven.

Oh, right, throughout the day Amelia was trying to find ways to work me into her conversations to tell her friends who I am. Her subtlety led to her telling Tat and Des “oh, by the way, that’s my girlfriend”, and telling Andrew and Steven “oh yeah, Alex, yeah, I’m dating her”.

Because the dinner was mostly Amelia’s closer friends, Brendan and I ended up having a bit of a chat with each other – something we haven’t managed in a while, and I never realized how nice it was to talk to him. It was different to when on Skype or MSN, because online he tends to do weird things and is distracted easily, but in person it was better to keep him on track.

It was a pretty long day, and it was made worse by extremely bad weather. But I really hope that Amelia liked it anyway, because I know that it was some effort for the people who came out, and I know that for the people who didn’t, they wanted to.

And a huge thanks to Ly- and Jan- (the latter of which ended up having to work, so couldn’t come) for helping me organize the whole thing!

Alex.

I’ll Find Deep Inside Me I Can Be The One

[Your Guardian Angel – The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus]

I don’t know if 2 years in a row makes it a yearly thing, but yesterday was Whitty and Yeleng’s birthday party – again.

It wasn’t as hot as last year – in fact it was much colder, windier and wetter.

Managed to persuade Lily into making a more than 1 hour journey to East side, and then another 20 minute bus ride to Rowville. We did some grocery shopping for the games we were meant to play – meant to because, in the end, we played 2 of them. So I guess Whitty just gets a bunch of random food like Aeros and Nandos sauce.

Anyway, the party was predominantly Whitty’s Swinburne friends, with the next majority being Monash people. Then, we had 3 Melbourne people, and then we had Lily. (Hahaha…) So at the start there were some group division but as the night went on, people started warming up to each other, and the vodka.

I was in Whitty’s room with Lily trying to play some guitar, and in conversation I’d mentioned that Whitty has a cat as well as Penny the dog – Penny was a bit TOO friendly with Lily when we first arrived. I mean I’ve heard of bitches being forward but this was ridiculous – and we wondered where the cat was. Halfway through trying to play a Bruno Mars song, a black creature suddenly leaped out of Whitty’s closet and streaked out of the bedroom, drawing screams from Lily. At the same time, Whitty’s Swinburne friends decided to arrive, and I was pretty sure their first impression of Lily was a screaming ball of panic, and their first impression of me was a less than sympathetic friend laughing her spleen to waste.

Swin, Yeleng and I were managing the games, and the first one we played was the one we’d played the previous year, which was to eat ice-cream off of kitchen utensils, most of which were definitely not spoon-like. After watching people try to lick ice cream off egg-beaters, and getting brain freeze, the Monash team lost, and as punishment Lois and Andrew had to lick Nutella of different sides of a cling-wrap…at the same time. This punishment made Lois not want to play any more games at the risk of having to, God forbid, be close to her boyfriend again, but the videos and pictures were well worth it.

The second game included one person being blindfolded and feeding the other person jelly with straws like chopsticks. I don’t know why but the jelly didn’t set properly, so it became a matter of who could shovel the lime flavored goo into the other person’s mouth faster.

At the end of the night, the party more or less dissolved into people just crashing on all the couches watching people play video games or watching TV. The Swinburne kids enthusiastically took pictures any time they could, and I wasn’t so tired as to not try to photobomb one or two of them.

At around past 11, most of the people had started leaving, so Aymee, being the cooler P-plater that she is, drove me home. I was pretty damn jealous not only of the fact that she has her Ps, but because she’d also gotten her own brand new car. My fear of a friend driving me to death has been quietened, too.

And now, I have to go watch some DVDs that dad brought home, and then get ready to go out tonight to see my Melb Uni crew.

Alex.

You’ll Never Know I’m After You

[Hold My Hand – New Found Glory]

Screw it, I’m starting song titles 5 days early. In case you’re a new reader/stalker of mine: I put portions of song lyrics in my title, so it really doesn’t have a thing to do with the rest of the blog. I was going to do it for summer, starting December, but I decided to start early.

So, today marked the last exam, and thus the end of the my first year at university. It was a really silly and anticlimactic end: my 9 am exam meant that I had to wake up at quarter past 6, and after getting my adrenaline going so I am awake and walking to uni to be healthy and all that crap, the exam turned out to be more of a test or quiz than anything. When the lecturer/examiner first told us that the first exit-time is 15 minutes past the start, we all giggled at the thought of walking out of an exam 15 minutes in.

15 minutes later, at the first exit-time, half the lecture theater where we did our exams stood up. 30 multiple choice questions, and quite a few of them were really easy. I won’t say that I did them all right, but it was pretty easy.

Pris and I left the exam disbelieving that we woke up early for this. We each called our respective friends to tell them we were done – and were both greeted with half-asleep “uhhhh-huhhhh”  because it was quarter to 10 in the morning, and everyone was still in holiday-sleeping time schedule.

I walked around Melbourne Central for about an hour looking for a present for Lily but…well I failed to find a good present (within my budget). So pretty much I’m a fail friend.

After sitting through the freaking clock singing AGAIN, Steven met up with me and we went and trawled Borders for another hour looking for a present for his friend. There were some pretty funny books – we looked in the self-help section – especially the “Statistics Taught in Manga” and they have this little TB manga girl being taught stats.

Anyway, now I’m home and ready to embrace the holidays. Anyone want to help with my social life? Anyone? Friends? No?

Alex.

Holy Orange Jesus!

Today was Dani’s birthday dinner. And as bad a mood as I am in now (being completely irrelevant to Dani and her birthday), I think I will do my best to write about it cheerfully.

So I was a few minutes late, but I met Dani at Flinders Station. She was wearing a hat from Beth, so even though Beth couldn’t come down, she was there in headwear.

I re-met Theresa, and met Corey. And Mel was there, and her hair was green. It was no longer red.

Holy shit, Mel is Ramona.

Dani really liked the present I put together, which is really just a bunch of small nothings that’s more memories than anything. But she liked it, and that’s what was important.

After a quick coffee charge at DeGraves, we set out to Windsor, where Mel and Dani know some good Op Shops. And so, as shopping with Dani usually entails, a car crash of musty books and soft shirts and doorways and curtain change-rooms dominates my memory.

I found a really cute toy of two dinosaurs with their necks entwined, and I got it for Jen for her own personal reasons. It was the only thing I bought today but I was pretty damn happy with it.

We went into a pet store, and there was this kitten with a patch on its chin. I called him Shannon Noll. Shannon was cute. It winked at me.

We went to Grill’d for lunch, and I didn’t want to spend too much money, plus I couldn’t finish an entire Grill’d burger. So I bought the Kids Meal (and the checkout chick was nice enough to let me get it), which came with this cute as mini burger, the yummy chips, A FRUIT JUICE BOX, AND A COLORING PAGE.

I colored a blue cow. It was great.

We also went to a bunch of comic book stores in Windsor, and then later on to Minotaur which is on Elizabeth Street. I have never really been into a comic book store before, and the place is bloody awesome. I think I might be going to them more often, just for fun merchandise. I really wanted to walk into the comic book store with a musical t-shirt like Koothrapali on TBBT. I would link you to the video but my net is capped (with 10 days to go, I am screwed).

Corey is a huge comic fan – he and Mel had a discussion over who is more powerful, Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, or Peter Petrelli from Heroes. Seeing as Peter Petrelli can absorb any super power near him, and has since learned to keep those powers, he would therefore have Dr Manhattan’s power and more. BUT, Dr Manhattan’s power isn’t really a power, it’s more derived from the fact that his body is pure energy. Is it possible for Peter to absorb the power and stay human? Because where would his powers come from, if his body is human?

We went back to the city, passing MacRob on the tram (naw), and after Corey satisfied his craving for Churros, we went to Red Silks (where else. Honestly, we go there too much).

Anyway, that’s roughly where the day went sour, because mom made me go home early. As in, I was halfway through dinner and she called me to leave. I couldn’t even stay for cake, much less Galactic Circus later on. It’s not even that I wanted to have some fun (even though I did, because I hadn’t been able to go out for the entire past week), but I RARELY get to see Dani these days, and the people at the dinner aren’t exactly daily meet-ups either, except for Mai.

So, I am home now.

Still, good day.

Alex.

P.S., the title is derived from the fact that Dani somehow misread my handwriting in the card as “Jesus” instead of “juice”.

“Look at the baby on that nose!”

I don’t really know exactly what to write, but I know I should write something, because today is/was Dani’s 19th birthday, and it deserves to have been recorded on here.

That’s making this blog sound a bit too important…

Happy birthday Dani! And I am so so looking forward to Tuesday! (So, yes, that’ll be on here. It’s been a while since I recorded when I went out…maybe because I don’t really go out anymore. Or I do…but it is melted into a Uni day and it’s so mundane to talk about, because I don’t seem quite capable of transferring the mood of the event onto blog. So I suck.

(We should take a more up-to-date version of that photo…)

Alex.

That’s so intense! 42!

Yesterday I went to Jacky’s birthday party, which is where the first part of my title comes from (explanation later) and, of course, today is 10/10/10, which is 42 in binary.

Jacky’s birthday was a last minute decision on my behalf, and it was a great decision actually! Mandy gave me a ride to Jacky’s place, and we had finger food at his really awesome house. Played pool for a bit, and then watched Annie and Anna make Jacky a last minute card. They drew Jacky is a balding man with blue eyelashes and full red lips. I gave him sleazy eyebrows.

Clare got a Blackberry! I was really excited because when she gets internet on her Blackberry I can communicate with her with the BBM.

After a while, Clare and I played on Guitar Hero, and sort of did that until Jacky came back bearing lots of pizzas. Had the pizza, then had cake! Jacky took 5 or 6 tries before he managed to blow all the candles out – especially since one re-ignited itself.

Annie and Viv C tried to smother me. Elaine did nothing to help.

Then came the tried-and-true tradition of watching Mandy be a part of Super Mario Bros. Hungy, as Luigi, felt compelled to pick up Mandy’s yellow Toad and throw it into the lava repeatedly.

Then, of course, Mandy played MarioKart. Okay, to be honest, everyone played but Mandy was the loudest and the most INTENSE player. Ad- and I probably came close to bursting a kidney laughing at her intensity. “Move over fatass!”

At a very late point in the night, when a lot of people had gone home, I left with Dorothy and Mandy. I had sore throat from laughing non-stop at Mandy’s intense MarioKart playing.

Alright, so I went to bed at 1 am, ready to pry my eyes open at 8 to meet up with Gil. (Pearl)

I got to the city at around 10:30, having stayed awake on the train with my fantastic Pokemon Yellow. I felt rather cool playing it (on the way home, an Asian guy gave me a smile of approval after seeing my Gameboy). I got to Flinders Street, to find that the crossing to Fed Square was blocked for the marathon. While waiting for Gil to come, I kept an eye out for Steven. It was really…well inspiring is an overused word but, still, you know, inspiring to see all the runners. I saw this really old grandma keep her head down and soldiering on near the end of the run. There were these two girls who dressed in angel wings (sorry I forgot to take a photo) and holding a sign that read “never ever give up”.

Of course, there are douchebags who cut across the path of the runners because they’re too lazy to go down the steps next to the station and come up from under the bridge. Two of them cut across this guy who had pulled a hamstring, and one of them said to the other one (holding a cigarette) “this is just stupid!”

When Gil arrived in her adorable gray beanie (which didn’t give her hat-hair) we went to line up for the tickets to Tim Burton. That itself took over half an hour. Still, it was really great to just chat with her about her cougar-ness. Oh yes. My friends, Gil is a cougar (she can deny it, but it’s true).

The Tim Burton exhibition made me want to just draw again. I used to draw when I’m trying to listen in class – people say I’m distracted but I pay better attention when I’m drawing – but I hardly do that anymore. I guess, though, I actually have to take notes in Uni. I dunno, maybe one day soon I’ll sit myself down away from the laptop and have a bit of a draw. Nothing as fantastically quirky as Burton’s, of course, but I can try.

The Burton version of Hansel and Gretel made Gil and me crack up – because for some reason, the witch was a man, and Hansel and Gretel were Asians in German clothing. That, and the low budget made the overall show hilariously…scary. The talking clown/gingerbread man is sure to give Gil nightmares.

After staying on our feet for nearly 90 minutes, Gil and I decided to have lunch at…Maccas. It was a good thing we went to Maccas to sit down and eat actually, because we ended up talking for about 2-3 hours about Code Geass (because that’s her obsession), Ouran Host, then somehow FRIENDS, and then Simpsons. The table next to us saw 3 different diners come and go, and we still sat there.

When, finally, at around 4, we thought we should go. Still, it was a fantastic way to spend 10/10/10, which by the way is 42, which by the way is the answer to life, universe and everything.

This is…probably not the best photo but yeah, that was the one on my phone. The ones on Pearl’s camera…is on her camera. She’s not online at the moment.

She doesn’t look 20 huh? Old ass.

Alex.

Jagged Watermelon

Today, I went to Steven’s birthday BBQ. It was in Doncaster. Do you know how LONG it takes to get to Doncaster on a Saturday public transport timetable? On the way home, we didn’t have anything planned, and as things turned out, it took over 2 hours to get home.

Anyway, backtrack to morning. I got up UBER early and arrived at Steven’s BBQ at 10, and BEFORE he did! Hung out with Clem, Swang and a few of his other friends for, oh, an hour or two, before people slowly started showing up – no other girls showed up until Tracy, at around 12:30 or something.

Steven’s mom got a LOT of meat, and we cooked about half of it, and it fed the 15-odd hungry teenagers there. That’s how much meat there was. Elaine came along some 30 minutes before Mandy and Dot (even though Mandy first made contact with Jacky for instructions on how to get to the park around 15 minutes before Elaine arrived). In fact, the getting-to-the-park became a much favored topic of conversation – Big-Head arrived sweaty, and told me he had gotten off the bus 5 stops too early, and walked perhaps 2 km in the full sun and uphill.

There was a Nerf gun at the party, and we tried to shoot a can with it – which soon changed to shooting at Jacky. Mandy couldn’t seem to figure out the mechanism, and in trying to teach her, Jacky shot her in the face. Everyone “OHHHH”ed at that.

Susan was also lost, and she needed to be picked up by car. I asked Clem to pick her up, but he said, “I don’t know what she looks like! I don’t want to pick up random chicks!” Sureee he doesn’t. In the end, Brendan (not Whitty), who knows Susan and can drive, picked her up.

Viv arrived without too much problem, and she gave me a really nice hug. This was particularly important because she commented her concern on my blog before, and I had to mention it.

Later on, Jo L and Anna showed up, and after eating a LOT for their small figures, they made what they called Daisy Chains with Dot, put them on their heads, and took 50 photos of themselves (I saw this on their camera later on).

Brendan noted that I made fun of Swang a lot – but I think he doesn’t understand the love between us. I bag her but I do it with love – and she is the same. It’s all good!

I tried to make a new nickname for Elaine catch on, but it wasn’t working out. I can’t explain the nickname because it has something to do with her last name, but you can trust me when I say that it is an amazing nickname.

Susan was thirsty, and there were no more drink left, so she cut up the last of the watermelon. She decided to be arty with a big knife – which scared me – and tried to cut jagged pieces, like teeth. It actually worked.

The day ended when Mandy finally won a game of Big-2, after Jacky let her win. He had a winning hand, but she wouldn’t leave until she won, and it was getting late.

Mandy, Anna, Dot, Joanne and I took the bus home. At Nunawading station we just missed a bus, and ended up waiting 30 minutes for the next one. Like I said, it took me over 2 hours to get home.

Happy birthday Steven!

Alex.