now that that's over with... yes... march 21st 2007 marked little jacq-jacq's cross-over into the world of legality. an event, no doubt, she'd been dreading since the first day i met her ;) whilst most of us would relish in the fact that being 18 comes not without its perks, all jacq ever saw was another year closer to the grave ;p or as she says "don't remind me leh! i feel so old!"... ignoring the fact that, with the exception of ai-lynn, all of us were born in the year BEFORE her. so yeah jacq... if you're old... consider the rest of us beyond the point of decomposition ;)

being the only one with wednesdays off... and no exam or large homework pile to deal with... i spent the better part of the last 2 weeks trying to orchestrate jacq-jacq's birthday dinner. having talked it through with joel earlier in the month, we'd decided that a nice, fancy dinner would be the way to go for our little sister. and when you're in melbourne... no place spells the words 'nice' and 'fancy' better than docklands ;)

so last night, upon the completion of everyone else's classes, we met at jacq's place decked out in our best. the boys, joel and mark, exploited the limited boundaries of formal male attire and arrived in dark-coloured shirts and pants. jacq and her younger sister sam looked absolutely awesome in their girly ensembles, props to the fact that they're both size 2's! me... i'd spent close to an hour rumaging through my wardrobe and putting on the make up and curling my hair to succumb to my red dress and heels ;) (can you just see the disaster unfolding there?).

after letting the birthday girl run frantic with her birthday 'bag', the 5 of us left the apartment and proceeded to the tram stop on the corner of swanston and la trobe to catch the 8pm to docklands. see... jacq at this point still had NO IDEA where we were taking her... and so safely assumed we knew exactly where we were going. now children, what do they teach us in school happens when we assume? ;p because you know the 8pm tram to docklands... turned out there wasn't one! all trams that ran along la trobe to docklands terminates at 6.30pm ;) we found this out after joel so conveniently decide to trick jacq by telling her he 'booked' a tram and asked that the operator bring it round by 7.30 ;p (hehehe... sorry it backfired on you joe ;D).

but all was not lost in the world of 'manipulating the birthday girl whilst figuring out what to do next'! ;) we found an alternative way to docklands by stopping at southern cross station and walking along the bridge. the night was finally beginning to take shape when the inevitable happened. my flat-footed curse took hold, and by the time i stepped off the tram and into southern cross station, i was already carrying my brand new black heels and walking barefoot. for those of you who've been diligent to this blog, you'd remember my previous experience with heels on the night of trinity's prom. which ended the same way with me walking barefoot along southbank. but it was a long walk to the restaurant and i did not want to make the entire trip without shoes! despite mark's protests, i put the heels back on every few metres or so... only to aggrevate the cuts in my feet more... at which point mark proceeded to be amused ;p

joel stopped us outside this beautiful structure built along the marina edge. clear glass with bright lights and a breathtaking view of the skyline. our restaurant for the night ;D little jacq-jacq took a while to figure out that this was where we'd be having dinner and raved about how she loved the chocolate cake here. bingo! joel had the biggest smile on his face from the minute we walked through the door ;)

our twisted journey saw us having dinner at close to 9.30pm. everyone was hungry, but with a view like that... i don't think anyone really cared. it had been a while since all of us had come together and just hung out and laughed without a care in the world. granted, mark and jacq were preoccupied with their coming exams on friday, but every once and a while we managed to get a few words through and things would fall back into place again. sam has undoubtedly become a group favourite, looking and sounding exactly like her big sister, but ALOT less innocent... who knew we could find a bullying partner for jacq in her little sister? ;p

after downing the great food and chocolate cake, the girls decided to make a 'short' trip to the bathroom. sam found the cubicle doors very interesting, one of those new inventions that start off as clear glass when vacant, but switches opaque the minute the lock is turned. we spent a good 5 minutes turning the lock back and forth waving at each other ;p nostalgic of our first experience with allynna on prom night, me and jacq pulled out our camera phones and took pictures of ourselves in the mirror's reflection. where were the boys the entire time we were being vain? waiting for us in the freezing cold outside :D

the best part of the night was on the way back home. it was close to 12am and the tram stops were empty. for some reason, jacq had a barney song in her phone, and for a better reason, thought it appropriate to play it out loud while we waited for our ride. before long, me and joel were singing to it as mark begged that jacq switch it off :D the arriving tram was empty too... so we had the whole thing to ourselves! that was so cool! it was like as if the whole of melbourne has gone into hiding and we were the only ones left. made up for the fact i missed all of them so much ;)

so yeah... last night was great. despite having bandanged toes and a large case of a fatigue-induced hangover, i got to hang with my friends, proving that time and distance does very little if you're in it for the right reasons. if you're willing to make the effort too ;D

happy belated 18th birthday jacq-jacq... hope it was great one ;)