May 25 - Tricky's Birthday Party!

  I eventually dragged my butt out of bed and got on with the day.  Mr Smart had study to do during the day so I busied myself with housework and blog catch-up.  I brought in the laundry and chucked on another load and generally pottered about.  We decided to go out for an early lunch and since we wanted to have a look at JB HiFi and Big W as well, we opted to go to TGI Friday's at my old stomping ground, Forest Hill Chase.

  I ordered a lemon, lime and bitters to drink and the fish and chips for lunch.  It is five flathead tails in what they call tempura batter, but it's really just a light regular batter, with peppered chips, lemon and tartare sauce.  Mr Smart had the buffalo wings with blue cheese dipping sauce.
  The fish was quite nice but I sacrificed a piece to swap for two chicken wings and they were very rather nice too.

  We had a bit of a laugh over lunch playing with some of the photographic settings on Mr Smart's new phone.  It has this cool picture in picture feature which uses the front and back lenses simultaneously.  We took some very cheesey photos.  There may have been love heart shaped frames involved....
  After we finished our meal we went to have a look at JB HiFi.  Mr Smart was rather keen on getting a new mouse for his computer but none appeared at the right price.  I ended up buying a new keyboard for my computer though.  There isn't actually anything wrong with mine functionally, it's just that the letters on some of the keys has worn away, so it's getting a bit difficult for non-touch typing guests to use.  After that we went to Big W and I grabbed some new jeans, casual tops and we got a new laundry basket each.  It's a funny thing to both need simultaneously but we did!  We ended up spending rather longer at the shops than I think Mr Smart had wanted to, but he was very good natured about it.
  We we got back home I put out the other load of washing and blogged some more, but before too long it was ready to get into our 'uniforms' for Tricky's birthday party.  Bertie and Tricky, it's safe to say, like a bit of fancy dress.  Their parties often have themes and 'uniforms' was the theme for this occassion.  It was Mr Smart's idea to go as a matching pair, and you get no points for guessing that he supplied the required garments!

  Bertie and Tricky had quite a laugh when we arrived as a matching pair of Liverpool supporters!  Mr Smart had fun with this photo, pretending he's not a full foot taller than me.
  I started off the evening's festivities with a bottle of Mad Brewer's Ginger Chops Ale but I didn't get very far through it.  It really wasn't gingery at all, just ale.  So Mr Smart finished that and I had a glass of moscato with wild hibiscus flower syrup instead.
  My nephew got dressed up into his cow 'uniform' and Bertie wore her old Glen Waverley Secondary College uniform as did Allmix, who arrived later in the evening.  We had another school uniform wearer, a top gun pilot, and a few other sports fans as well.

  It was a relatively quiet night but it was nice because the conversation flowed nicely.  There were a couple of Richmond supporters in the house, Mr Smart included, so the Tigers v Bombers match was on the TV.

  Being a smallish gathering this year, Bertie cooked the biggest lamb roast she could find,and served it up with scalloped potatoes and gravy.  She also served up three kinds of fudge for dessert!  Cookies and cream, jersey caramel and choc mint!  I can't remember how many pieces I had exactly, but I'm pretty sure it was around seven.  The cookies and cream was my favourite.  I would've liked it even more with a higher cookie content!

  After dinner the kids went to play outside on the trampoline.  Bertie went and got her pair of Glow Poi.  They are LED lit balls on strings that you spin around in the dark to make cool patterns.  It can be a bit difficult to get them going without bashing into one another, or yourself, but I managed a little bit and Mr Smart managed to capture it.

  By about 10:30pm there had been massive discussions on sci-fi TV shows and plenty of laughs at Tricky's birthday cake, courtesy of the fabulous Muttley, but the kids were definitely starting to get tired.  My nephew started to get the tired grumpies and was eventually tromping around in his cow suit, doing his best impression of a somnambulist.  He was asleep, his eyes just didn't know it yet.  I called him over for a cuddle and sure enough, four minutes later he was out like a light.

  I carried him to bed and not long after, Mr Smart and I headed home and to bed too.  It was a good night, very relaxed.  So Happy Birthday Tricky.  Welcome to the land of being an old fart like the rest of us.
  Jess