V's 30th B Day

Where to begin? Maria, Veronica’s mother, left Sydney this past Sunday morning. Drama ensued upon check-in at the airport because unbeknownst to Veronica and I, the clocks had been set forward an hour the previous night. (No mention when I read the paper on Saturday, or when we watched TV that night.) So, Maria had ten minutes to make her flight. But, besides for that little snafu, Maria had a great vacation here in Sydney. She spoiled us rotten, cooking up a storm, and no doubt I gained a few pounds throughout her stay.

We celebrated Veronica’s 30th birthday on the 2nd. The celebration was a low-key dinner at our favorite place, the Bavarian Bier Café, with our good friends Andy, Jamie, Jay, Martina and Gavin. It was a good time filled with tasty food, delicious mango beer and a drunken French chick thrown in to boot. The drunken French chick was courtesy of Andy, and here 4 separate pit stops over at our table provided everyone with some good laughs. The laughs were due to her telling us repeatedly, ‘I’m drunk’ and ‘You’re hot’ to different people at the table. Comical, yet bizarre.

I got Veronica tickets to the Cirque du Soliel show on Friday for her birthday. The show had been in Sydney for about 2 months. Since Veronica had wanted to go, but was a tad dismayed by the price, it was an easy present to give. And don’t you love it when you give a present that entertains the receiver as well as the gifter? Exactly! Great show, if you haven’t seen it, definitely check it out next time your in Vegas, or Paris. Highlights of the show would have to be the little Chinese acrobat who could rotate her entire body all around while perched up high on one arm. Nuts! The trampoline set with two guys was also very impressive, and a tad scary, since they performed without safety nets. Good times, and we enjoyed some delicious ferry floss (cotton candy). Hence the picture with blue tongues.

The rest of our long weekend was spent relaxing. Sunday night we went and saw “Waltz With Bashir’, an Israeli movie about a man trying to recollect his memories about his experiences in Lebanon during the conflict in 1982. The film is animated, yet there is nothing childlike about the topic or pacing. I highly recommend this movie; check it out if you have the means.

Monday we hung out with Jase, Brenda and Hunter over in Freshwater for most of the day. The sun finally peeked its head out in the arvo, so we took a walk around Manly. Katrina and Naomi, two of my coworkers from the Melbourne office of Video Australasia were in town, so V and I met up with them and Jamie at the Steyne Hotel, one of my least favorite places in Manly. This bar is a dirty cesspool of humanity, and it did not disappoint in showcasing the worst behavior mankind is capable of. Case in point, we were all standing at the bar, waiting on a beer, when a skirmish broke out between a small man and a big man. I literally turn around when I hear Small Man say ‘WTF?’, see him take one step forward, and Big Man (either a Maori or Samoan who looked like he played rugby) moves forward like a cat and throws a right, which connects squarely on Small Man’s mouth. Small man fell like tree and was knocked out COLD. The bouncers immediately had the Big Man in a bear hug and dragged him out of the bar. I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life. One-punch knockouts were the stuff of fiction I had reckoned. After last night I can assure you, that is not the case. DAMN!