It's not my birthday anymore..

It's easter weekend. A four day holiday for everyone in this family. RJ, AJ and myself have spent the entire time watching basketball. Yea, that's right basketball.

For those of you who know me, that probably comes as a pretty big shock. I'm not the biggest sports fan, but we had a higher cause. It was the national Deaf basketball championship.. and a great opportunity to catch up with all our friends. There were peeps there to support the teams from Melb, Syd and Bris. There was a couple of really good games too. Syd and Melb guys were close both times they played, and I.. yes I even got drawn in. There was of course several "May I hold the baby?" and "How old is the baby?" and the unavoidable "Girl or boy?" (even when she's wearing a pink neon sign that screams "Look at me world, how can I get any girlier than this!!!"). It actually seemed to be show and tell for babies and babies to be.

There was this eleven year old that had particular trouble with. She would ask to hold the baby every day. If you're a mother you can understand the delimma here. If it's your own child, it's one thing.. but an 11 year old stranger? And yet how do you say no? Sorry girl, you're too young, stick with the dollies? Nah.. that'd be rude. There were other babies around too.. so I'm sure that little girl made her rounds. It sure would have been interesting to see how many mom's told her to buzz off.

I'm smelling a strange smell right now. Like someone having a cookout. I'm hoping it's coming from outside and not in this very room. This room of course being my In-Law's place because we STILL don't have internet at ours. We tried the "Unwired" thing, but it just doesn't appear to work so well in a double brick building. So I guess I'm putting it off until something better comes along. I really don't want to pay for a phone line or for cable tv (if that's even an option). I've mentioned just getting a wireless card and seeing if we can pull internet from a neighbor's access point. If nothing else, I suppose I could strike a deal with our neighbors in the other units to split the cost. I'm sure one of the others have a phone line that we could tie into. Something to look into.

So now that I am officially 30 in every country except Sweden, you are probably wondering what I think of it. Well I don't. I hardly even notice. I more notice the ungodly amount of chocolate that this country devours for Easter. I thought it was bad in the states.. but I must say, these people are mad for chocolate. And the result.. 3 of the most heinous canker sores I've had in a long time. Well, they're not quite heinous yet.. but they're getting there.

It's hard to lay off the chocolate here tho. It's beautiful. I never really cared much for chocolate in the states, but I don't think they've ever done it quite right either. This is the place for chocolate, in my opinion. Milk chocolate, and not any of that coffee tasting stuff.

And well, speaking of food.. it's ready. And so am I. Laters.
-len

Yet another 21st birthday..

Today I turned 30, going on 20-something.

We had an "afternoon tea" today in my department at work. You wouldn't believe the spread. On top of that, my mother in law bought me a huge lunch and another lady from another department randomly brought me some chocolate cake!

Needless to say I'm stuffed. Not in the the Aussie way, I just mean I'm really full. Tonight the extended family is getting together at our place to continue the celebration and we'll no doubt have even more foooood. I hope I have room by then, because RJ's mum makes some killer haystacks, and RJ herself is making the cake.. a bananna cake with light passion fruit icing. My mouth should be watering right now just thinking about it, but I'm too busy digesting.

I got some pictures taken by one of the ladies in my department, so I'll have something to put up sometime if they're not all as goofy as I suspect. Everyone seemed to either ask me about uni (which I'm not currently attending) or asked me how it feels to be 20. None of them ever guessed that I could be 30. Oh, and they all signed a card for me. I didn't get to read it all, but it's something to do with putting my feet up. They know how hard I work down here. It's getting better, mind you.. but it can be exhausting.

I'm looking forward to getting home now. Jenny is probably waiting on me right now. I'll catch up with you all someday when it's not my birthday anymore.
-len