The clouds floated around on the weekend, threatening our plans with a downpour. Luckily, they held it in just long enough for us to celebrate John's birthday. The aging of one of our most immature and youthful friends has been a highly anticipated joke for quite some time, and the preparations for it were immense. The last week or two I have been frantically writing and re-writing lists of everything needed and not needed, whilst I organized an outing, a party and a secret present between uni assessments.
The first birthday event was an hour of racing each other at a go-karting track. There is a track out near Windsor, surrounded by fields of spinach and lush overgrown wild foliage along the banks of an empty creek. With no more instructions that "hold your right foot flat on the accelerator", we were off and whizzing around the bends only inches from the ground. Although for some of us it was less 'racing' and more 'trying not to die'.
Once we were aptly exhausted we went home to continue the festivities with flashing LEDs, homemade decorations, a blackboard and John's usual selection of loud music. We set out, and succeeded, in having a night of intensive eating, drinking, chatting and drawing. Between midnight sparklers, a homemade cake with hazardous candles and a rather sad impromptu speech about our shiny new kitchen bin, we all had a great time celebrating Johns age!
