as mentioned in my last post, jacqueline had informed me of certain plans that had been made in my honour for tonight. so as i got home yesterday from school, i paced myself into cleaning the apartment that was still suffering from the post-apocalyptic essay season 2 weeks before. with no intention on vacuuming the floor or making the bed in the near future, i proceeded to the dreaded duty of dishes - being the most obvious cause of distress. but in between my cleaning and watching 'supernatural', joel came online and sent me a message... something the busy boy hadn't done in a LONG while. as we talked about my impending birthday, joe apologised for not being able to join the other kids in seeing me turn 19. my worries were confirmed, as the prospect of celebrating my birthday without him became more real. doing little to hide my annoyance... i went back to cleaning plates ;p. before long i started talking to sam, who was propped in front of her computer doing her eap assignment. naturally i decided to exploit the younger one for details regarding the plans her sister and the boys had made for me ;). though her training has proven effective and sam did little to leak out the truth, i was told that my intentions for evading harm would have to be done "quickly". ding ding ding... went alarm bell number one.

then shortly before 9pm, joe called and told me that he was visiting a friend across the street and that i needed to come down to the lobby to claim my birthday present from him. elated at the fact that i was going to be seeing him after so long, i grabbed my keys and ran into the lift without so much as a second thought. but as the lift approached the lobby... something occured to me. the building across the street was a serviced apartment... why would an enrolled rmit student be living in a serviced apartment? and what did sam mean by 'move quickly'?

as the doors opened, my heart was literally halted as multiple balloons were popped in my face. ai-lynn, jacq, mark and kevin were standing there to greet me, all the while laughing at my startled response (you people are evil... i love you guys... but you're evil!) ;p. as i hugged everyone thank you, my brain still hadn't processed the fact that joe wasn't around. a part of me though he was hiding behind a column somewhere to preserve the illusion, but ai-lynn explained that joe was at the the library working and the he wanted to make the call so i could have all my friends meeting me in the lobby... even if they weren't all physically there ;)

after being presented with a huge collage made up of messages, photos and poems and a cake box from brunneti's (always a good sign ;p), i hesitantly invited everyone back upstairs. it was ai-lynn's first visit to my new place and i kicked myself for having presented it in such horrid conditions (sorry ai-lynn! ). jacq produced a packet of balloons and proceeded to blow them up before engaging in a 'balloon fight' with mark on the couches. as i still fussed with my plates, kevin and ai-lynn lit up the cake and attempted to sing me happy birthday... eventhough it was 2 hours from midnight ;p only after blowing out the candles was it brought to my attention that jacq couldn't count... because my 19th bday cake only had 18 candles! (yes jacq... we believe your story about the one candle turning up on the floor ;p).

we settled into the living room and watched a show on sbs about human dissection, whereby donated cadavers are cut up and disembled on live television for all to see. how cool is it that after only 9 weeks into their first year, all 4 of them understood well enough to digest what was going on?! me... i didn't know they taught greek at melbourne uni... hehehe ;)

with public transport ending at close to midnight, ai-lynn, jacq, mark and kevin left at 11.30pm. towards midnight and well into the early hours of may 1st, i received phonecalls, smses and msn msgs from friends and family wishing me happy birthday. the best of all came from mom and hafiz at exactly 12am, singing me happy birthday like they would've should i have been in the room across the hall ;) to everyone who called me or messaged me to wish me a happy 19... thank you so much! i really appreciate all of you remembering and for those of you back home in kl... i miss you guys so much! we'll have a birthday repeat when i get back kay?

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despite REALLY wanting to do otherwise, i got up today for school and attended my introduction to psychology A tutorial at 9am. after grabbing a large hot chocolate from my favourite place on campus, caffeine (where the coffee guy sees me so often he just needs to pass me my cup without even calling out my name ;p), i walked to meet katie and elyece at the 10am chemistry lecture... all the while massively high with a huge smile on my face ;) jack's mannequin was blasting in my ear... which helped too ;)

got home my 12 pm and let max out of her cage. adorably, the little one gave me a big hug when i saw her... and between that and spike's long happy birthday wish last night... my cats are awesome aren't they? ;p mom's birthday parcel arrived for me at close to 2pm. a huge bouquet of flowers, a chocolate cake and balloons! have i mentioned i have the coolest mom in the world? max may be scared of the helium balloons but i loved everything... thanks mommy ;) hope you had an 'up' day today!

chilled around in bed watching alias until 3 when mark called and told me he was locked out of the house ;p so i went down to the city and met him for max brenner till 5pm when his mom got home. despite your weird philosophies about me and the chocolate heaven that is max brenner mark... you had a belgian waffle so shush! ;p called jacq in between chocolate binges and was told to come by at 6 after she got back from the gym. though mark argued i should've followed jacq... WHO THE HECK GOES TO THE GYM WILLINGLY ON THEIR BIRTHDAY?! have i mentioned that boy is trying to kill me?

killed time at borders for an hour before meeting jacq and sam at their place before dinner. rather intimidatingly i watched as the two sisters studied for their exams... simultaneously! all i could do was sit in the corner between them and wonder how they've both managed to stay sane amidst the amount of prodogical talent that runs in that house! pass some brain cells to me please people!

but the nicest part of the night came when we met joel for dinner at universal. the three of us haven't been there since joe's birthday the year before and it was the first time we'd all seen each other in over a month. it's the first time i saw his newly shaven head! looks good on you joe... never thought i'd admit it but it does... who knew that crash bandicoot would adapt well as an 8 ball? ;p hehehe. but yeah... joe, jacq, me and sam indulged in an awesome italian dinner before walking the corner and heading home.

so yeah... i am now officially nineteen-years-old. eighteen was an amazing year. i learned so much and experienced so many firsts that i'm truly going to miss the security of it all. but if the past day is any indication of how the year is gonna be... everything is going to be awesome! i have an amazing family and terrific friends who i wouldn't trade for the world! and at 19... i can say that's pretty good;)