#BirthdayBonanza

It’s 1939, dressed in lederhosen the family stand in a neat row. Fraulein Maria plays her guitar with rouged cheeks as the rest of the family are counted in to sing.
“Happy Birthday to you...”
My ears bleeding, I’m brought back to the present. The faces morph into those of Berry, my Dad, Ness and Mitch! Both men gesticulating wildly with their arms while the woman try to keep singing in the low opera style key!
“Yay!” I cheered as the song finished; unsure whether I was cheering their performance or just because it had finally finished!

Ness and Mitch told us of how they had come to arrive almost an hour late. I’ll set the scene.
It was a dark and scary night in the middle of Hunter Valley. A young couple had set off on their way to celebrate the birthday of their beloved step sister. Zooming along the petrol gauge had begun to wobble dangerously low. “We’ll go to the petrol station.” Ness said confidently. She may have not been so confident if she had known what was to happen next. The wheels rolled to a halt as the GPS told them they had reached their destination. Nothing! An empty road...and an empty tank. Mitch began to panic and cry!
“Stop Mitch! We’ll find a way!”
They nervously tapped in a new address for a different petrol station. 13km away. But the car only had 11km of petrol left, they might not make it!
“We have to try!” Said Ness regaining confidence and strength.
She slowly picked up her phone and dialled the gas station’s number.
“Hello Susan speaking...how can I help you?”
“Susan! Do you have petrol? We need petrol!”
Susan didn’t receive many callers looking to book a pump of petrol but if she thought she was talking to a crazy person, she didn’t let it show.
“Excellent!” Ness hung up and they headed towards the unknown destination.

They crawled along the darkened streets rolling down hills and hoping for enough momentum to push them back up again. Glee spread through their veins, “Lights ahead!” They shouted.
The car chugged, the engine gasping and crying as it searched for fuel. Nearly there! Tuc tuc tuc ttt, exhausted, the car rolled to a halt next to the pump, Susan looked nervously out of the window, her finger resting on the emergency call button. The car downed the fuel in desperate gulps and finally, they were able to make it to the house. Unfortunately, they were on dinner duty so by the time they arrived I was thinking, “less talkin’! More cookin’!”

I was presented with a bundle of gifts. I opened my ones from home first, everyone had given me some spending money for my travels in Asia and my Paggy had made me a gorgeous elephant! They also sent me galaxy chocolate which means the diet is officially cancelled!
Suddenly flames shot out from the oven as the bread had caught on fire! “Nothing to see here!” Ness closed the oven door then ...snap! The whole house fell into darkness as the electricity had blown. It was annoying because I had to use my phone torch to find the bottle of wine! Not long after, we had power back and we were eating dinner and finishing opening presents.

My dad and Berry gave me money for my elephant experience in Thailand, a running belt, some happy socks and...

Now I didn’t want to bring this up because I’m feeling a little sensitive about it but ... some people have been having a guess at my age and not quite getting the correct answer. Cherik’s friend Nate put me at a horrifically high 37 years! While the barman that made my birthday cocktail after I had shared this story with him said, “No! I would have said 30!”
I did not ask these people to guess and now I have been aged by a decade. So there I am, surrounded by loved ones, happily opening gifts when Ness exclaimed, “Oh a silk pillow! That’s to help with wrinkles isn’t it?” I looked at Vanessa with all the anger and pain that I had been harbouring since the 37 comment.
Deep breath, if I put together all the travel money, I might have enough to get Botox around the eyes!
I’ll have you know, the silk pillow was actually intended to keep my curls from frizzing overnight and nothing to do with my pug-like face!
Finally I opened my gift from Ness and Mitch (we’ll call them Nitch) they gave me a beautiful bag by an Australian designer so I could take a piece of Australia home with me! I might look like I’m nearing my 40s but at least now I have style!

After some wines and cake it was game time. This time there would be no teams! Only me’s and I’s and I intended to win! We built the tower of jenga and began to pluck the wooden cuboids out one by one.
Annoyingly, people kept stacking them stupidly so the top layer was

uneven and unstable, this caused tension and I was afraid the tower would never last! But alas! It grew higher and higher! Almost to the same intensity from when I played with Steve and James in Bondi!

The tower would occasionally wobble, teasing its opponent cruelly but then would regain stability. But finally, crash! The blocks tumbled to the floor, the cracking wood echoing through the kitchen like bombing in a war zone...ish.
Everyone reached to save their loved ones (the wine) and like true war survivors we began to build that tower back up again! Jenga really is a wonderful example of human’s ability to be resilient and courageous. (This is why I don’t usually write my diaries after drinking wine!)

The evening ended with some sing a long karaoke hits while we used the Jenga blocks to build sculptures and then annoyed each other by knocking them down and throwing bricks at one another! It was a really fun and special birthday and I look forward to my 38th!