Birthday Party Wrap-Up

Stuff it. I'm not waiting around any more for the photo of my birthday cake from the friend who took it and has not yet sent it through. I'm updating you all on the wonderful birthday I had - even though it was a few weeks ago now.

First, you should know that Wifey has never met my work colleagues or boss. And living in Melbourne, as we do, means I'm far away from my family, all of whom live in Sydney.*

It should be noted here that there's a very good reason for this. My family moved to Sydney when I was in my final year of high school. One day I came home from school and discovered that they'd moved. I don't know what that says about me. Feel free to leave theories.

Anyway, my birthday (Friday, 19th August) started out like any other day. Dreading somewhat having to go to work on my birthday (particularly as it was a Friday - although at least I had the weekend to look forward to), I got out of bed when the alarm sounded and hopped in the shower. Wifey had gotten up before me and was in the dining room studying (she's a part-time student), but this was nothing new so it didn't give me cause to suspect anything.

After getting dressed and whatnot, I went over to wish her a good day before leaving for work. She kissed me, said happy birthday, told me to have a good day, and then watched me walk all the way to the front door before calling out:

"Oh, I almost forgot ... you're not going to work today."

She had to say it four more times before I believed her.

Yes, she had (very sneakily) retrieved my boss's mobile number from my phone at some point a month earlier, and made secret arrangements for me to have the day off as a surprise!

What a woman.

BUT SHE COULD HAVE LET ME SLEEP IN!!!

Ahem. Anyway, about five minutes later I got the usual 'Happy Birthday' phone call from my parents, before they themselves headed off to work up there in Sydneyland. That was all very nice, and they thought it was a lovely surprise Wifey had arranged for me. They said they hoped I would have a good day and they'd see me at Christmas (our next planned trip up).

Then the doorbell rang.

Bear in mind this was still 7:45am. Any guesses as to who was at the door?

WRONG!

It was my parents. And my brother. I've only briefly mentioned my brother once before, in reply to a comment someone left a while ago. This is my brother:




Yes, he's a drummer.

Anyway, they'd travelled down from Sydney, as per Wifey's surprises, to spend the weekend with us both. (And in case you're wondering, as I don't see much of my family since they abandoned me to this wintery-weathered state, I enjoy spending time with them. So this was a nice surprise, as opposed to what some of you may have been imagining if your partners had sprung a visit from 'The Olds' on you.)

Anyway, we all had a long, hot breakfast of bacon and eggs, croissants and stuff like that, before heading out for the day. Then the presents started coming in. There was also a birthday party on Saturday night, as I've already mentioned before, so the presents really stacked up.

All of them were appreciated, but because this blog is Muppet-themed, I'm going to list the gifts that stuck to this theme.

As you might already know, Riss, her husband, and our as-yet-photo-withholding friend got me this:




But what you don't know is that Wifey got me this:




... which is extremely rare and had me VERY excited.

CBomb, who works with me here at the office, just turned up with a legitimate, 1977 impossible-to-find 60 piece jigsaw puzzle of this image, which she found for 50 cents in an Op Shop, but called it a late birthday present - and excites me because it is also extremely rare:




In fact, it's so rare, that I can't even find a photo of the actual puzzle box anywhere on the entire Internet! And the Internet easily has over a hundred different websites in it! Imagine!

I also received a couple of Muppet birthday cards, money from my family to buy a special 'display cabinet' for all my Muppet busts, and stuff like that. It was mega-cool.

Happy Muppet Birthday, me!

But you know what? I'm not the only one celebrating an important birthday this year. Read this article to learn more about one of my favourite pal's birthdays, and how it's intended to be celebrated.

Note to all who know me: If one of the 50 stops around the world is anything even remotely 'local', ... I want tickets!

... And I'd be happy to receive all those DVDs for Christmas! ...

:)


* Which, for the non-Australians or just generally the geographically-retarded amongst you, is ages away.