Happy birthday to me...

Hip hip! Hoo-ray!

Awesome, another year older. Great, just GREAT! How is it possible that I am 34 already? I thought I was young and cool but it seems that I've become an old bastard without even realising. I guess that's what happens to us all. I also have to share the day with Linda (fiance) who was rude enough to also be born on January 31st. Despite me frequent protests she is refusing to reschedule her birthday. Unacceptable! I WAS HERE FIRST DAMMIT! :-)

Anyway, what's doing? Well, something that I forgot to mention in the last post is that Linda and I have decided to get married in Fiji in March 2006. Hopefully some friends and family can make it along with us - but Linda and I are conscious that we're asking a lot of some people to fork out over a grand to come see us get married. Still, that's 7 night in Fiji, baby! YEAH! :-) Official invites should be going out soon...

Now on to other matters. Had a lengthy talk to Paul Barrs the other night - a REALLY old mate from my days in Sydney (I was born in Melbourne, but grew up in Sydney until 14) and acting with Shopfront Theatre. We were both in a play that the whole cast wrote along with Errol Bray and performed for a while in Sydney, Vancouver, New York (@ the United Nations General Assembly no less!), New Jersey, LA, London etc etc. (I didn't make the London leg as my parents decided we'd move to Tassie after I returned from North America.) Anyway, that was all back in 1985 so it's been a while since we saw each other. Bizarre thing - I couldn't get over how I was completely mis-remembering things about our journeys. Paul fished out an old diary he had kept while we were in North America and it turns out things that I am sure I can remember as clear as day are actually a total mis-mash of different events. Weird how the memory works - or more to the point DOESN'T work! Ah, 1985. What a year. I was 14, living large in Sydney, touring internationally with an acclaimed theatre company with others who have gone on to fame and fortune, and then came Tasmania. Hey Justin, forget all this stuff, we're going to live in Hobart! It'll be great. Freezing cold nine months of the year, no beaches, no theatre stuff at all to speak of, about one twentieth the population of Sydney, no more friends, no more going to Cronulla Beach for school sports afternoon every Tuesday. Thanks Mum and Dad. No, really. Thanks. :-) (I'm still a little upset if you couldn't tell! Actually, I'm not really. I'm just recalling my anger at the time. I grew to love Hobart and now that I'm back in Melbourne I quite miss it. Besides, life has been good - REAL good - so who knows where I would have been if we'd stayed in Sydney...)

Baby news now, and Kristen is firmly in the land of smiles. It's great to get some kind of reaction when you're talking to your child. She's been a great baby so far. I was quietly nervous as so many people I know that have had second children have said that their first was an angel, and the second was the devil incarnate. Just look at my sister. Hi Sarah! :-) But, Kristen is just wonderful. She's such a happy baby, always smiling and gurgling to herself. Must be that she's happy her Dad is such a cool dude even though he is officially an old bastard. :-) She's always happy to go along with whatever's happening, or to be held by whoever wants a cuddle. Here's a good example - on Saturday night we took her to a Karoake/buffet dinner place thing (that was totally lame, but that's another story) to celebrate our birthday with the gang. It was a pretty loud place once the music started up, but she never even cried. (Chelsea stayed at Maddie's house for the night, but Kristen was too young to be sat for that length of time while Linda's still breastfeeding, so she had to come!) Anyway, I rocked the house with a smashing version of Stevie Wonder's Superstition and everyone fell on their knees to praise the glory that is Jay Dubya. :-)

Funny thing happened while I was filming Kristen in Chelsea's lap last night too. Kristen was looking up at Chelsea and smiling away, the kind of thing that has a huge "Awwwwww" factor and you just HAVE to get on camera. As I'm filming Kristen's face suddenly went from smile to a very determined push and the we heard the raspberry-style sound of a nappy being instantly filled with semi-solid matter. Kristen immediately returned to beaming smiles, but Chelsea was suddenly looking VERY worried. I asked Chelsea what had just happened, and she said that "Kristen did a poo!". Despite Linda and my constant reassurance that Kristen was wearing a nappy and therefore Chelsea was safe, all she could say was "Mummy, take her away now." You've got to see the video to get the effect, but believe me it's one of the great video moments...

Pissed off that Lleyton Hewitt lost the Oz Open last night. In fact it proved my point that if I get too involved with something, the result is bad. I'm serious! I missed the first set because of some stuff I had to take care of, and Lleyton won the first set 6-1. I finally sat down in front of the telly in the middle of the second set and Lleyton lost that set 6-3. Then I had to get up and do some other stuff and Lleyton is winning the third set 4-1 until I sit down again, when he immediately drops his next 2 service games and loses the third set 6-4. I watch the fourth set in its entirety and Lleyton again loses the set (and the championship) 6-4. Then I immediately switch over to the cricket in time to see Australia squander a nice run-ratio and lose to Pakistan by three wickets in the WACA one-dayer. BALLS!

Still, I'm actually happy for Marat Safin. He seems like a genuinely nice guy when appearing in an interview etc with a really good sense of humour. Given that he had lost 2 Australian Open finals before (to Federer in 2004 and Thomas Johansson in 2002), it was probably his turn. Lleyton can get them next year. Anyway, Lleyton apparently proposed to Bec Cartwright last night who is certainly not ugly, so I'm sure he had a pretty good night anyway... >:-)

Well, I'd better trot off now. Apparently we're off to Piccolino's for dinner tonight with Linda's family - yum! That'll be great. Always up for Piccolino's! Mum and Dad are coming over on Saturday for a few days too which is going to be fantastic. Can't wait for them to meet the little piggie.

OK blog - goodbye and good luck!

J