Now... where were we? Ahh yes...

It's been awhile since i've last posted.

Obviously there's much to say.
Firstly was my birthday, and i would'nt be alone to say it was a blast and a half!

I wanted to thank all those who came and all those who made it possible.The venue was a rather large fully furnished house which took endless days of mind numbing long distance phone calls to book.The house was situated at Anglesea next to the lighthouse which can be easily seen in the horizon from St Kilda beach. The birthday boys chow and i arrived first accompanied by his girlfriend in his corolla and my ultra cool cousin from Sydney Karen.

Upon arrival we arranged and packed all the furniture that could potentially be damaged. The first guests was my long time online buddy Emily who bought the first sighting of alcohol, breezers and old VB.We sat around until about 11 'o clock 6 cars who was led by the ever so organised Lam rolled in.

One thing went through my head as soon as i heard Lam's distinct muffler.

"Party time."

Head counts was Andrew, Angela, Ash, Chris, Dit Lay, Hanzel, Jay Wong, Lam, Lisa, Mark, Monin, Omer, Petey, Pham, Phil, Tao and Tuan.

My greatest praises go to Lam who made it happen, without his efforts organising rides and picking up some provisions the night wouldn't have turned out the way it did.

Thanks to my Chess set (comprised of shot glasses as pieces) and my deadly shot glass russian roulette left Lam and Allan wasted and followed by my own cuz Karen who didn't waste her time with the ample alcohol.
Coronas, Heinekens and Johnny Walker was the party favourite and the mood was exactly what i had planned, which was memorable (most of the guys would vouch for that) and calm.The weather held up really well with no rain or freezing winds for the whole weekend which allowed most of the party-goers to take complete advantage of the balcony Chow and i specifically chose when we were booking. The balcony itself was huge! At least 2.5m x 6m.

Some of the funnier moments occured on that balcony which i will go into a bit later. Anyway as most of the guests were getting aquinted with the house Nathan, Tuan and Pham decided they wanted to use the spa after Phil and Ang... except in this case they ALL decided to go in.
The pictures i will upload speak for themselves and i believe Pham and Nathan will never live it down with the exception with Tuan (notice the thumbs up?)

While the questionable sexuality antics was going on back on the balcony i enjoyed fine cigars provided by Nathan and kicked back and with the others on the second floor balcony until John decided it was time.
"Hey Chung! This is for you!!!" as he guzzled down the remaining contents of Johnny Walker red straight from the bottle itself. Couple of seconds later and the contents of that bottle along with the night's dinner and other party snacks was left in the garden below. Nice John, i got a zippo from Allan, Phil and Ang; Cases of beer from Hanzel and Lam, Expensive cigars and wine from Nathan and vomit from John.

Also noting the presents itself... are my "friends" trying to kill me?Perhaps, couple of "bottoms up!" coronas later and i was red at the flag of China.

I remember not being able to cleanly hit the strings on my guitar and started hearing the stories of other guys passing out. Lam karked it cold downstairs on the futon which Omer and i took the liberty of starting a great wooden heater for him. Karen was out in her room hysterically yelling then crying her poor self to sleep accompanied by ever so caring Tuan. Chow, the other bday boi was on the verge of mental collapse talking jibberish (mostly regarding Frogs and Nathan. For all those who haven't heard, Tuan secretly recorded him on his phone).

Too many things happend but overall the peak of the party was as good as it could get. At that point everything had exceeded my expectations because i didn't hear any whinges and complaints, the mood was just people settled and just wasted to unwind. As the night progressed to the early morning a couple of us found ourselves wrapped in our sleeping bags outside the balcony waiting for the Sun to rise which was a good 2-3 hours away mind you!

Head count for all those who froze their ass off was Monin, Tuan, Tao, Petey, Omer and Mark (Mark and Omer went in after a while) but we were joined by Lam after his beauty hangover slumber.
There the last antic was carried out by Petey Vu himself. Peter figured if he's not sleeping, so shouldn't the house and initially wanted to wake the household by banging a pan, not the most original idea nevertheless it was hilarious at the time. Instead the suggestion to wake the house by playing loud music was the go. Petey disappeared inside and for a moment we all thought it wasn't going to happen... then we see the curtains move across like a bat out of hell with loud footsteps "dom dom dom dom dom"...

Seconds later opening beat by J-Kwon - Tipsy started playing.The balcony boys cracked up laughing... "diiiiiiiiicks!" to all the sleepy people in the immediate lounge where the hi-fi was situated. The music was turned off momentarily later not by the people in the lounge but by Chow himself who was still intoxicated came out with his black belt Wing Chung fists ready to strike. We, the balcony boys had stopped laughing and started to pull our collars.

Finally the Sun came up and i was the one who gave in to the temptation of sleep. The bastards left me out in the balcony while they went back inside... only waken up by the mid-afternoon Sun.

We went on a cruise up to Apollo Bay (thinking that the 12 apostles weren't that far of a drive) and to our suprise it was another good hour before we even got there. Not all of us went, Lisa, Chris, Andrew, Emily and her friend Bec had already gone back to Melbourne. While Allan, Petey, David, Wong, Nathan, Hanzel, Phil and Angela stayed back for additional sleep before the long journey home the rest of us enjoyed beaches, moutains, trees and ocean.

I got to stick my upper body out of Omers Rav4 screaming "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" was one of my highlights!

Sheer beauty it was. At the point i've had enough fish and chips to last me another month and to this day i have kept that promise. We all arrived home safely and exhausted. The weekend was everything, by that i mean everything.

Again, when i reflect on these times it makes me feel incredible lucky to have friends that has been there since my days of primary and high school with some new friends at uni. The people who've in some way shaped my life were all there. Even so, the people who couldn't make it are in my hearts, in particular Avon (my incredibly talented and ever supportive artist cousin who's living the dream in NY, USA) and Rui (as good as a blood counsin/ brother could get).

There's not a day that goes by where i don't thank God for great family and friends. My toast was to all who in some way moulded the person i'm today and i'm forever grateful. My dreams and aspirations have been realised and i'm walking the path i want to be on because of you guys. No blog and no words could really express what i feel. For what it's worth, it was a helluva weekend.

Cheers,

-Jay