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.

Ice Blocks Keep Fallin’ On My Head

I think this will just be written to remind myself later of the…

GIGANTIC HAIL/THUNDERSTORM THAT FELL YESTERDAY!

Before 3 pm, I was just home bumming online. On Facebook, I saw some friends from west-side mentioning some sort of storm. Us east-siders thought nothing of it, but I decided to tell my dad to close the garage door and windows anyway.

Sure enough, as the clock-hand shifted ominously past the 12 to meet its fatter friend resting at the 3, a loud bang announced the arrival of the hail.

I’d first thought that yet another stupid bird had flown into our window, as it was a bit windy and dark outside. But when the 2nd, 3rd, and subsequently 15th “stupid bird” crashed into our windows all around the house, I’d decided either I’ve become Evan “Almighty” Baxter, or this was no bird stupidity.

I ran to the front door, and looked out.

Hail the size of half of my fists were falling outside, and there were so many already that it looked like my trees had a bad dandruff problem. I ran upstairs to my bedroom to check my windows, because my window faced south and the rain seemed to be coming down from that direction. From my window I could see the sad little chili patch my dad was trying to grow. Well, that was dead.

Within 10 minutes, a Facebook group about the hailstorm was made.

I heard that the CBD got pretty flooded. Melbourne Central and Flinders got flooded, and Southern Cross closed due to damages.

Yikes.

Tomorrow I still have Uni, despite Labor Day. Apparently it’s meant to rain again today, so I wonder how tomorrow is going to go.

I should probably wear shorts. I hate shorts. And shoes?! WHAT AM I MEANT TO DO THERE?!

Alex.

Raindrops keep pelting on my head

Today was NOT a good day for me.

My parents went to the Melbourne Uni open day in my stead, because I had a Chinese SAC I could not miss. So I had to make my own way to Chinese school. Being a Sunday, I decided to walk there.

I live about a 30-40 minute solid walk from the school, but I thought, hey, exercise.

Within 2 minutes of leaving my front door, it started raining. I put up my hood, thinking, hey, it’ll pass.

Then it started being more enthusiastic about its job, so I opened my umbrella. But at the exact same time the wind woke up, and in the interest of me not spending the rest of the walk mimicking Mary Poppins, I put the umbrella down.

When I was about 7-10 minutes into the walk, the rain REALLY let go, and I had to wait in the bus shelter for about 10 minutes. I was already pretty wet.

I thought the rain eased up a bit, so I started walking again. As I reached the lights, where there are NO places to shelter, the wind and rain decided to go at once, and I more or less stood at a 45 degree angle.

The rain only came at a northerly direction, and I was walking north the entire time, so my front was completely soaked, leaving my back dry. My jeans had a discernible line down the middle where the wet line is.

I was within the home run, having stopped once again. When I was about 3 minutes away from my destination (the trip had taken me nearly an hour because of the all the stopping), I managed to step into a huge puddle, wetting the feet I’d managed to keep dry for the past hour.

At that point, my jeans were stiff on my legs, my hoodie was soaking through to my top underneath, my hair was poof wrecked, and now my feet were wet.

I was able to wring water out of my hoodie.

It took 10 minutes of standing under the hand dryer to make my hoodie only be damp and cold.

Then I ate some dodgy sushi and had a stomach ache the entire time at Jack’s.

I came home, I showered, I put comfy warm PJs on, and in about 2 minutes I’m going to hit the hay for an early night.

“Day off” tomorrow, and I will finally write the explanation of what’s going on.

So take care, everyone.

Alex.

P.S. My back fence blew down. It’s the fence we share with our neighbors behind us. We’ve lived in this house for over 4 years and not ONCE have we talked to them. This’ll be fun.

Wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend

No, my entry isn’t about someone jumping. I’ve just had that song stuck in my head all day.

So, I know it’s late but I’m posting because I can’t sleep. Today was 42 degrees (celcius. That’s way over 100 in farenheit). Right now I don’t think we’re under 30. We have aircon but it’s not the same. Anyway. The point is I went out today.

For those who know me, you know I hate and do not do well in heat. I was okay for the first half hour maybe but after a while I started feeling crummy and dizzy.

Okay so let me explain in detail. Which I do anyway.

At around 5:20 mom came home and dropped me off at the train station. Was hot. Bee came, and Carmaine was late by about 2 minutes, as in, a train left 2 minutes before she arrived. Was hot. Randomy guy  missing a leg sat down next to us and started talking to us. We all gave fake names but I’d like to think I did it smoother than the other two (haha but I like the names you picked). Bee told the guy to go away in a nice way. Guy went away. Poor guy. Random asked Bee if she was okay. I laughed a little. Well hell, I did try to get his attention but Bee and Carmaine were dressed rather…sexily? So he didn’t pay attention to lil ol’ me.

Waited until 6:20 for the next train. Was hot. Waited in Grand Tofu, and then as we came out saw Ann from Jan&Ann. Talked to her for a bit. Funny chick. Started school today.

Got on train, thank GOD for aircon. Got to city a bit late and took the tram down to what we thought was Lonsdale. Passed D.P. and a mass of Asians (well…THE mass of Asians) and realized that what we thought was Lonsdale was actually La Trobe. Walked back down to Lonsdale and then up Lonsdale to Stalactite. Was hot. Went upstairs, arriving “fashionably late”. Sat, ordered food and drink. There were a bunch of people there that…well I didn’t know and I still don’t know. And Andrew got a haircut and we made fun of it from across the table. Sorry Andrew.

During dinner a moth came in and Sab- is scared of all things that fly. She cried actually, because she was so scared of it. Ate dinner, and left the restaurant. Oh, halfway through eating CJ showed up! Was rather awesome to meet her finally.

Walked around back onto Swanston, and Carmaine took a tie off Dom. It was white, so against her dark tanned skin and her black dress it was fluro. That was funny in pictures. Took a tram down Swanston to Fed Square, and on the tram we remarked that Dani was actually less emo than Carmaine (Dani wearing a floral dress and Carmaine in black). Carmaine then said, “No it doesn’t work, because I haven’t got red on.” I said, “Yeah you do. Your sunburn.” Andrew laughed. Go Andrew. Carmaine wasn’t too thrilled haha but it was worth it. I thought it was a good joke.

Passed a huge line of emos. Dani said that Bullet For My Valentine was playing so we were all saying, “ohhh” knowingly. Got to Fed Square and lost a bunch of people (not that mattered because they were all people I didn’t know). Got Slurpees and as Carmaine and I were getting our’s, I said, “Say when”. She never said “when” so I kept going until it spilled over. See, Carmaine, you have to say when.

Basically hung out outside of the SevenEleven. Took pictures. Then Carmaine dropped her camera and it fucked up. We were all really sad and shocked. That camera has really seen us through some tough times. I love that camera, man. Year 9, Year 10, Ski Camp, Last Day 2007, Year 11, Formal (not that I was there. And EmPow tried to start something about me going to the formal this year tonight), Last Day 2008, and all the memories in between. That camera is awesome. Anyway, Carmained fixed it later. Then D.P. left so everyone started leaving. Bee, EmPow, Carmaine, Dom and I went to Maccas for the soft serve, only to have the idiots tell us that ice cream machine was broken (assholes). Saw CJ again, randomly coming in. Tried to get worker’s discount off’a her but to no avail. Went to Hungry Jack’s next door. I hate Hungry Jack’s soft serves. Taste like baby powder milk. Bye to Dom, and we were on the train home. Exhausted. EmPow tried to read “In The Lake Of The Woods” but to no avail. Bianca tried to help me search for my soul (and I love you Carmaine for saying my best quality is “loyalty”) and Carmaine wouldn’t femez her legs. Ha.

It was hot. Today was hot, undeniably. I felt dizzy on several occasions and am nursing a headache. Big love to Carmaine and Bee for looking after me and asking if I was okay and alive frequently. And, apart from the fact that in heels you scare the crap out of me, I thank you for the hugs, Carmaine.

And now I shall just switch my brain off. I don’t do well in heat, at all. Winters for me.

Keep Cool (oh the fucking irony)

D.F.

P.S. I totally forgot to mention that this was all for D.P.’s 17th birthday which was 4 days ago. Haha sorry my bad. Happy birthday dear. We tried to sing it but only I managed to do it all.