I have been, elsewhere.

It's been a busy few days.

Wednesday turned into my birthday, seeing as how Neek and the SigOt and I all had the same day off, so I designated it my birthday so that I would not be forced to spend the time on my own.

I decided I wanted to go fishing for my birthday, so we headed off to Mandorah to fish off the jetty.

Unfortunately, the fish and squid weren't feeling in any way cooperative, so while we fished, the fish did something other than get caught.

And they did it well.

Neek, at least spent much of the day bonding with her squid jig style lure, which she named Nemo. Apparently, he's not much of a fisher, but he and Neek got along like a house on fire.

We went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I came out of nowhere near as excited as when I went in.

I was disappointed.

There was no bubble room. No bubble car. No everlasting gobstoppers handed around. No Slugworth bribing the kids. Mike TV took his Dad instead of his Mum, and Violet took her Mum instead of her Dad.

And, sad to say, Mr Depp made a really fucking freaky Willy Wonka.

What is the world coming to?

We planned to round the evening out by going to our favorite tapas restaurant, but they've changed the menu and of the 6 things I like to eat, they only had 1 remaining on the menu, and they were out of it. The cheek of them.

It was my birthday, so I made us all go to another restaurant.

I'm a very fussy eater. I don't like beef (unless it's in spaghetti). I don't like lamb unless it's roasted. Don't even mention "game". I'm not big on most vegetables unless I've cooked them. I HATE gravy with a passion. I can't eat coconut cream, or spicy stuff.

It kind of limits the menu.

So, we went to another restaurant, and thankfully, we had a marvelous meal there.

We ended up at the SigOts work for cake, and they surprised me by putting a candle on my piece (the SigOt made Princess Gateaux which was just gorgeous) and singing happy birthday.

I believe the exact shade of red I turned was well hidden by the darkness.

Thursday morning I got up SUPER early, and went and sat the STAT test. It was a bit of a fuck around, just usual bullshit of paper and forms and protocols, but I think I did OK.

I got stuck on a few questions, and left them for later, and I had enough time to come back and go over them. In the end, there were only 3 that I wasn't sure about my answers.

I guess we'll see how I went in a couple of weeks.

I washed the car (which is using less petrol now that it's lost half a ton of red dirt). I booked it in for a service. And I did something else, which I do not recall.

I had the tyres looked at on the car, I went to see the real estate people.

And that's it.

Lots of people I read at the moment seem to be having a hard time, and I really want to help.

Unfortunately, none of them seem to be having problems that a beaded necklace would fix.

It's kind of the same way that I feel about living in Darwin. Everyone I know is too far away to be able to visit with, or talk to.

I can't wait to be back down south, where I know people. It sucks trying to make friends when you work stupid hours. I guess making friends in the hospitality industry is easy when you're into going out drinking most nights. But I'm kind of over that. I don't want to go out and get slaughtered four nights out of seven. I'd rather get a quiet buzz and sit around listening to music in the background and chatting with friends.

Anyway, I'm going to make dinner, and go to bed.

I have to work at 7am in the morning, and the SigOt has promised he's going to go for breakfast with me and watch the sunrise, seeing as how that's the only way I'll get to see him on my birthday.

If I'm awake when he gets home, maybe we can have birthday sex.

At least I'm guaranteed another birthday next year. We can make up for it then.