well, this weekend was matts birthday and also lyndells. it was a big one for both of them, lyndell turning 18 and matt turning 'a quarter of a century', 'five years from 30', 'half way to 50', 'its only 15 years till i'm 40, i remember 15!!!!'. i'll start from saturday. so saturday, we drove around a bit, looking for somewhere we could sell an old tea chest we have. we bought it for $65 a couple of years ago and the most anyone was willing to give us was $50, so we didnt sell it. would have come in handy for sydney, but, oh well. i guess if we dont have the money then we cant spend it on crap. so instead of getting som extra money, we went op shopping and bought stuff. we had to meet brett at the bakery, so while we were waiting matt and i went to the schitzo shop (schitzophrenia association op shop) and they were having a half price sale. so, we got a denim jacket for me, two shirts for matt, two t shirts for eli, a pair of shorts for eli and a pair of shorts for xander, a masters of the universe quilt cover and a raggedy anne and andy pillow case. all for........$11. how good is that.
then we went to lyndells party. i wore a cute top and got complimented by lots of people. lyndell noticed i was wearing make up and was very proud of me. and she loved her presents. we got her a stuffer purple unicorn that has 'something' about it so i had to get it. you know how some toys just seem to have a personality? anyway, a unicorn, some earrings, a bracelet and a cute pink and white belt with silver stars all over it. and i know that she really did like her presents cos she was wearing her bracelet the next day when i saw her. i saw a guy i went to school with at the party, ben de hoedt. he's cool. he was like us, not a lot of friends, considered a freak, that sort of thing. and we all used to hang out in the art rooms at lunch and recess so, obviously we drifted together in a friendish sort of way. he's cool. he's in a band that i cant remeber the name of and they're doing really well, playing in adelaide, sydney and melbourne heaps often. good to see us geeks doing well for ourselves.
josh tremwith was there too, and he told us that his band, 'a tribe is forming', was playing with ben's band, 'the seeds of babylon', that night at the glenelg surf lifesaving club. i'll tell you a story about that place later. ben and rachel are going overseas in january for a year to 18 months, maybe even 2 years, so i wanted to see them while i had the chance. they are so cool. i'm really not into hip hop, regge, or death metal much or at all, but strangely a mixture of these things seems to work for me. i danced all night and had a good time. then it was '2am daylight savings style' so we decided to head home. we thought we'd just walk until we got a taxi. 4.2 kilometres later, (as measured on the way home the next day) we found one that was happy to pick us up. my legs were very sore and i slept well. except that its virtually impossible to sleep in at matts parents house, so we were awake at about 8.
we went to a toy fair at...somewhere, mind blank....anyway, it wasnt very good. there was anly a few star wars guys, and they were mostly either episode 1 or the green backed figures....you know, the ones when they're al muscly and he-man looking. ( wow, 2 mentions of masters of the universe in one posting :) ) power of the force, thats it. i did get 4 smurfs, some weird hologram magician thing and matt got these little orange guys and purple guys who have pointy heads and carry clubs. both of us recognise them but neither of us can remember what they are.
on the way to paddy's markets i saw a man in a car eating a cucumber. we decided that there wouldnt be many people in the world that could have the coversation we had about this man.

look, that man's eating a cucumber
nice snack
honey, im just popping out, i'll grab a snack for the way
can you grab me something while you're out, im feeling a bit peckish
yeah, can you grab me a cabbage?
dad, dad! i want a squash
no, you had a squash earlier, you can have a tomato
tomatos are fruit, dad, i want a vegetable!
and no, you cant have a whole pumpkin to yourself, you can share one with your brother
dad!, this is a lebenese cucumber, i ordered a continental one!

yes.......did i mention we didnt get a lot of sleep the night before?

so, we're at the markets and matt finds these two 'cheweys' at a crappo chinese stall. i cant remember what they're called, but its like, universe somethingorother. they're basically grey chewbaccas that look like when he's being a bounty hunter in expanded universe or power of the force or whatever. matt also bought a voltron? no....thundercats....the cartoon with all those cat things with people in them that joined together to make a big robot thing. he had all of them except the blue cat, the figures and some of the little things but he found most of what he needed from movie maniacs today for pretty cheap. i got a snow globe of the space needle, seattle washington. it even comes with rings that you have to try and get to land on top of the space needle. i also got the second to last christmas present for sean at one of the toy shops there. i hope he doesnt already have this, but i shouldnt think he does, it looks australian made, so i should be safe.
after that we went back to matts mum and dads and decided to go down to semaphore for fish and chips on the beach. we had a nice time. xander played on the playground and eli ran around chasing the seagulls. there was a tiny tint jack russel puppy or some sort of little dog. i dont usually like little dogs but this one was cute. matt wanted a big lick icecream. there a place there where if you get an icecream with 5 or more scoops, i think it is, you get your photo taken and put in a book there. theres pictures of matt, marc and rikki there. funny.
we got back home and gave matt his birthday presents. the boys made him a card and so did i, and we got him tickets to darren hanlon, a marvin gaye cd, a read-a-long empire strikes back book and a question and answers book about space, featuring c3po and r2d2.

ok, surf life saving club story. back in about 1997, perhaps? no, must have been earlier cos i was underage...95 maybe....everyone used to go to the bay surf club. its on the beach at glenelg and its a cool place to go. local bands like the bearded clams, wheres the pope?, testeagles and the numbskulls used to play there almost every weekend. i think the weekend im thinking about was all those bands except the testeagles. it was an infamous night that since then, everyone you meet says that they were there. the place was packed to way more than was supposed to be in there. people, ( matt and his friends) pushed a big bin over to the wall and climbed up and into one of the second floor windows, into the main room, and landed next to the band while they were playing. i reckon i saw 20, maybe even 30 people get in through that window. there was crowdsurfing that was so rough that people were kicking the polystyrene ceiling tiles out of the ceiling. the girls toilets got clogged with toilet paper while the boys went a step further and broke a toilet out of the floor. it was a big night. they had to shut the place down after that....i wonder why?