Party on

Today we were planning to go out boating. My parents have always wanted a boat but when I bought them one my dad came over all scared. Naturally he doesn't admit it (I wonder where I get my stubbornness from?) but he hates it. One time a couple of years ago we took it out and the throttle cable snapped. Due to a huge design flaw in the engine this caused it to jam at the full throttle position. Fun.

We could have had a troop of water-skiers behind us and they wouldn't have slowed us one bit. I thought it was fantastic, I was busy giving him the thumbs up and yelling for more speed. Then after we hit the fourth fellow cruiser (it was a narrow river) I figured we had a problem. I went and pulled the kill on the engine and my pale faced father composed himself enough to say "Why the fuck did it take you over five minutes to do that son?"

I don't think my reply "I was having fun!" impressed him too much.

Anyhoo, the plan was to take the boat out but that didn't happen because it was decided that "it's too windy". Instead we decided to head to a beauty spot up the coast a ways. It was about an hours drive away and after the first 15 minutes or so my niece (Gods bless her) began the obligatory "Are we nearly there yet Nanny?" She was sat between S and I and I could see S's frown/twitch every time she said it. Naturally I decided to join in the frustration action because I'm a shit. Whenever I felt she hadn't said it for a couple of minutes I would pipe up "Are we nearly there mum?" Then I realised a good way to increase her frequency was to say "Oh, there's the sign for X Town/village. That means we're only about 2 hours away...."

OK. You got me, I'm a BIG shit.

We rocked up to the place and had a leisurely arvo wandering around the place. The only mildly frustrating thing was when we visited a local pub and it took 20 minutes to be served. The place was a little busy but that doesn't count as defense. Busy places should have efficient staff. This chick only took one order at a time and she pulled the drinks one at a time. That simply doesn't work for me. I've worked in several bars and it's not a huge challenge to be working on 3 punters orders at the same time.

After this we bought a gift for a friend who's birthday we would be attending later that evening. She collects fairies so I loved this shopping. Isn't it so nice when someone collects something so you have an idea of what to get them for b'days and Christmas? It's even better when it's someone special so you get to choose something that has meaning.

We returned to my parents place and then caught a train to local city where the surprise b'day party was to occur. It rocked. A good time was had by all. One random fight broke out amongst some other punters and it was only at that point I realised how lucky S had been. We were over a week into out visit before I had to step in front of her (just incase). That's almost unheard of in my area, it's normally fistycuff central. And she impressed me totally - not only was she unphased but she also grabbed my beer before the table was knocked over. How cool can this girl be?

We returned to the birthday girls place for the night.

Things we saw/done:
The "being a tourist" gig. Party at Hard Rock Cafe. Friends.