Its 20 years since my 20th birthday!

Now that's a weird thought. I am turning 40 tomorrow, so as I type I am still in my mid-to-late 30s. Its the lunchtime of my life.

I had my party yesterday (Sunday) to take advantage of the pre-easter availability of interstate friends. Alex and Suparna from Melbourne stayed with us for a couple of days, en route to Alex's brother's wedding next weekend. They are very excited as Suparna is expecting a baby in five months time. They have been in IVF for a couple of years, so its a very big deal.

Friend of the Blog, Michael Lean also blew into town for the party. I was conscious that I couldn't compete with his deluxe salmon n' Grange Hermitage penthouse-style 40th wingding, so I concentrated on just not running out of beer. Michael L. gave me (among other things) a teabag squeezer. I have just about scalded my fingerprints off doing this manually, so its about time I had a utensil.

A big surprise was when John and Carmen McGlasson (also blog veterans, also from Melbourne) walked in. Over dinner the night before I had been cursing their names for not responding to the invite. Of course I didn't expect them to come, they have three sub-driving age girls who have a social round that makes Paris Hilton look like a hermit. Yet there they were in my house!

Halfway through the night it struck me how fantastic it was to be able to take something into the kitchen and show Michael and John in person, rather than scanning/photographing it and writing something about it on the blog.

Also in attendance [which makes me feel I should write what they were all wearing, so let say they were all wearing salmon-pink chiffon] were Matt and Mem, Nick and Anna, Elf's sister Imp who is still a houseguest, Mum and Dad, Lindy and Sam, Rob and Mel, and their respective anklebiters Edie and Callie, Lily and Katherine, Ellen and Tristan and Olivia. The kids all seemed to have a great time, with minimal need for correctional barking.

I asked that people bring no gifts [or wolves]. Nevertheless I scored a beautiful bunch of books, many bottles of wine and also a rotary cheese grater that I am planning to convert for use as a super-8 camera. I will make a sensitive nuanced documentary about... lets say the Devonport singles scene of the 1970s... then I will visit my parents-in-law, show them the film on a DVD and then reveal that I made the film with their cheese grater. Talk about a wow factor.

We had a bit of wasp problem all day yesterday. It was humid and about 28° and the charred kebabs seemed to turn them on. While I was trying to open Alex's present I had to interrupt myself 2 or 3 times to shoo out wasps. One settled on my foot. I checked with Alex that the (still wrapped) present wasn't breakable, then brought it down on my foot - killed the wasp, and bruised my middle toe grievously. The present was a branding iron. I had been holding it by its handle, and hadn't really grasped the weight of the other end. Its the letter 'C', by the way.

Most of the guests had departed, full of light beer and trifle, when we wound down the afternoon with a kick of the footy. I went for a walk around Salamanca and the docks with Alex and Suparna, which was very nice. I haven't been for a nice stroll with grown-ups for a very long time. Pizza for dinner. Then off to bed, still 39.