I grow old, I grow old...

... I wore the bottoms of my trousers rolled... and had a totally awesome party!

Despite the rather large amount of time and effort it takes to plan and host a party (not to mention the shitload of cleaning that needs to be done afterwards), I still enjoy hosting parties because it's nice to fill the house with noise and friends. So thanks to everybody for turning up and helping me make my 21st a blast. ^^.

As I sit here typing this, I'm looking at the pile of gifts from my friends and realise that they know me all too well =). Let's go through the things I like most:
1. Pens - oh, I do love a good pen and this growing obsession was satisfied quite nicely today. I received a a Lamy semi-calligraphy pen (and a bottle of pretty green ink) from Samantha and Charley, and a Waterman Harmonie (I think it's a Harmonie) from Tracy and co. Thank youuuuuuuuuu!
2. Coffee - I drink way too much coffee (so much so that my liver suffers because of it). Of course, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing, so a whole gang of people chipped in and got me a brand spanking shiny coffee machine. And while it's possible to argue that they're trying to kill me, it will be a very happy and hyper death.
3. House - Yay! Kirsten and co. got me Season 4 of House. Need I say more?
4. Puzzles - it's a daily ritual. Pick up the newspaper at the campus newsagent and try to get the sudoku (and as much of the other puzzles as possible) done before classes start. The sudoku usually gets done, but now that Cyd, Amry and Desi saw it fit to purchase me an electronic sudoku, you can bet that my attention during lectures will drop dramatically. So thanks for that guys =). Also thanks to the Guildford gang(I think...) for getting me a totally funky lateral thinking board game thingy that I'll probably just go through by myself.
5. Japanese movies - yay! Samurai box set from Terry and Robert. Woot!
6. Books - Lauren got me a gift voucher for Angus and Robertson. Sure, the staff there are totally imcompetent but that's just half the fun of shopping there. I also received a copy of Freakonomics from Desi, Cyd and Amry, which promises to make for some fun light reading.
7. Vienna Teng - as if the shiny Lamy pen and ink wasn't enough, Samantha (vocals) and Charley (guitar) also saw it fit to serenade me with 'Lullabye for a stormy night' by Vienna Teng. It was just totally yay and I can now tick 'be serenaded' off my list of things to achieve.

The other gifts are also very much appreciated and will be put to good use. Who knows, maybe they'll kickstart yet another unhealthy obsession!

Special thanks also to the people who helped out with everything today so I could play the role of host. Thanks to Jeffrey and Liang for manning the BBQ all night. Thanks to my lovely mother who slaved away over the deep fryer to make deep fried chicken and her legendary spring rolls. Thanks to Samantha and Samantha (no, that's not a typo) for coming over crazy early to help roll the aforementioned spring rolls and to skewer large amounts of meat. Thanks to all the photographers who were snapping away all night. I'm looking forward to seeing all the photos (especially the one of me kissing Robert).Thanks to all the drivers who stayed sober and got everyone to and from the party safely. Sorry you guys couldn't drink, but I hope the food was good enough to make up for it. Thanks to Grace, Desi and Haidang for bringing their PS2s and Wii to keep us all entertained for the night. Thanks to Ace for just generally helping a bit with everything. A huge thanks to Keagan who helped heaps with the clearing up and saved me several hours of cleaning. And thanks to everybody for being responsible with the alcohol.

It was great having you guys over, and I hope you all had as much fun as I had (if not, more!). Let's do it again some time, ne?