Whatta Rip!!!

An eventful few days it has been… honestly!

Where to start? Well I guess at the beginning is probably the most logical.

Friday night: Tylah’s 7th birthday party! My resolve to cope with 20 odd tweenies (the term given the kids who grow too quickly, suddenly have a taste for all top 40 music and become discerning fashion buyers) was kept rather well. I underestimated just how much housework I had to do before all the mother’s arrived so Em watched me as I flew around the house like a woman possessed. It didn’t help that Pippa (who was supposed to turn up early) made a no-show and didn’t call until the first trickle of children arrived, but Emma was a marvellous help, as was Sarah so everything was kept under control nicely. The kids seemed to like the fact that my backyard resembled a paddock so they spent the first little while running around as thought they were wild animals let free. Sarah (having an appropriately loud voice) managed to get the kids attention for a little "duck, duck, goose" action while I got everything organised for the first party game… "Pin the bow on the Bratz doll!!!!" My imaginative twist on the old donkey game was met with many squeals of delight from the little girls and a few comments from the boys, none more apt than little Tom who warned everyone that they should make sure they didn’t "PIN THE BOW ON THE VAG**A!!!!" Now I’m more than aware that this is all natural etc etc, but a 7 year old boy making comments like that was kind of out of line. Emma thinks he annoyed me but in actual fact I was suppressing a bit of a giggle. I mean, it wouldn’t look super fabulous if the kids went home, told their parents about the boys’ remarks and then went on to tell them that I had laughed at him! So I had to put my mummy cap on and tell him off for being inappropriate.

The rest of the night went smoothly and we sailed through the other games (pass the parcel and disco dancing statue’s as well as my pinata – which was a massive hit!)…. the kids stuffed themselves with party food and it was lovely. I gave out the prizes for the various winners and the lollybags as each parent slowly trickled back to collect their children and then wearily slumped in a heap. I know Em would have liked to have gone out but Mike was out at his Xmas party so I couldn’t have left even if I’d had all the energy in the world! I have proved myself to suck pretty hardcore at the going out thing.. I don’t know where is good, I don’t have the energy to dance until dawn and I don’t usually have any money… that’s not to say that sometimes I won’t go out… but I usually like to be home about 3am max because I have to get up the next morning to be semi un-zombie like.

Saturday started off being a nice day. Then it rained. Then the sun came out. Then it rained. It continued in this pattern for muh of the day. Terribly frustrating weather. Emma and I caught the tram to Bridge Road because she had an appointment with Cattiva to have her nails done. We meandered through the shops and then finally sat down at a cafe for a spot of lunch. We had the NICEST soup followed by a cheeky dessert (mine a muffin and Emma’s a brownie) which was yummmy. Then we headed across the road to meet Cattiva and get Emma’s nails looking good. One thing said? Cattiva is extra lovely. Very friendly… Bloody stunning. lol. We had a bit of a chat (made a lot of noise whilst a massage was going on in the next room – oooops!) then Emma and I left to see if we could find anymore nice clothes. I found a pair of jeans for $15 which was great because I love my jeans. But sadly, Emma couldn’t find any that she liked.

Saturday night: Sarah’s Party. I made the massive massive mistake of eating Macca’s prior to going. I know, I don’t need it… but I was trying to get ready and cooking was not on the agenda. As I said…big mistake! I ended up getting stomach pains after about an hour. I tried shrugging them off as I curled Em’s hair and we arrived at Sarah’s at about 10pm. Em got stuck into her wine and I had a couple of Breezers before the pains started getting much worse. It was frightfully cold (under the marquee in her backyard) and I was shivering and feeling very very nauseous. So Em and I moved into the garage where we had a bit of a giggle (well, I giggled as she did some funny things…) but I still wasn’t feeling great. As that party started to die down at about 2am we all moved into the house and chatted a bit more. I finally started feeling so bad that I had to drink water to try and get rid of the nausea but it persisted. We finally caught a taxi home at about 3am and lemme say this: THAT TAXI DRIVER WAS A FREAK SHOW!!! He drove so fast and so recklessly that it was all I could doto hold my stomach… we screeched around corners and skidded around speed humps etc until I got home. I was astounded. Needless to say it didn’t take more that .200 of a second for me to yank the door open and stumble out onto the pavement!!! Yuk. After that I felt much better and went to bed. I left Em lying on the lounge room floor chatting with some of her friends from Perth…

Sunday we slept the morning away (*grin*) before rousing our still sleepy bodies enough to to ready for a trip into the City. Em had scheduled a meeting with Sapphire’s Gaze and I decided to tag along for the ride. It turned out to be a nice afternoon… a lot of walking which left

Em and I with sore, blistered feet but it was probably good for us! She was a very nice girl and we all seemed to get along well… At least that was my feeling.

On Monday we had to get up early early early as Emma (and I) were booked into the Neighbours tour. It was quite stupid because I live 2 minutes from all the Neighbours shooting locations yet we had to be picked up outide St Pauls Cathedral in the City.  We boarded the bus along with many many English people (who seemed to be great, devoted fans of our show) and bussed it allllllllllll the way back to my suburb. Emma and I were totally miffed. The tour was the biggest RIPOFF ever. On the phone we enquired about what we got for our $30 and they said: a tour of the studio, a tour of the shooting locations and a bonus souvenier. I though that was pretty good because although I could have shown Em where they shoot the scenes, I couldn’t show her the studio. Imagine my surprise when we pull up to the studio and the tour guide says he’s not allowed to take us in!!!! I’m like "WHAT???" I drive past the studios at least 3 times a day!!! I could have pulled up to the studio and mumbled a bit of crap…. I didn’t need some jason donovan look-alike to do it for me! But hey… that’s what he did. Then we went to the street where they film the outside shots… again, an uneventful day. BLAH!!!! So in case there are any other Aussie’s contemplating the Neighbours tour??? Don’t!!! I’ll take you… I think I can do a much BETTER job.. (OH! And the souvenier??? A pen!!! A lousey, cheap pen!!!).

Like I said!! Whatta Rip!!!!

Vee