Matt's Birthday Blur

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Matt:

Just a quick note to say thank you for all the birthday cards, phone calls, emails, SMS and packs of Tim Tams. It’s good to know that despite being 17,000 kms away and not being able to drop casual hints, it wasn’t forgotten!

I ended having an awesome day. It all started the morning before when I was in the shower and heard the doorbell ring. After a few minutes, Ed told me to come out because the first part of my present had been delivered. He added that I should put something on before I came to look.

Now I have always considered myself an expert at working out surprise presents. As a kid, I remember sitting under the family Christmas tree in the weeks before the big day, carefully examining the size, weight and shape of each package and figuring out what lied beneath. This penchant for packages has continued into adulthood and, given the whiff of a hint (such as being asked to cover up); I can usually work out what I’m getting. For some reason, my mind flashed with the image of a strippergram…

Thankfully I was wrong.

Edging up the corridor towards the lounge room, I opened the door to hear a familiar ‘Hello Matt’. There, standing in the corner of the room was my brother, grinning. The surprise had worked... I had no idea! Fortunately though, I had the presence of mind to hold the towel!

It soon turned out that Dom and Ed had arranged in the weeks before for him to surprise me for my birthday. It was definitely a great start!

That night we had organised an 80’s theme party at Greer’s place. The event had all the main ingredients needed for a good night: great soundtrack, awesome people (including the odd one in drag), heaps of wigs and dozens of leg warmers all mixed together with loads of duty free booze and over 400 jelly shots.

At some point during the night (probably when the 400 jelly shots kicked in), the level of decorum began rapidly declining after someone decided to start swapping shirts. To this day, I have no idea where my singlet ended up.

The rest of the night is just a blur of bare skin and fluro. One of the few moments of clarity came when I went into a room to get a CD and sprung my newly arrived brother getting up close and personal with one of the party guests. It seemed that 24 hours of flying hadn’t impact his energy levels and I spent the minutes that followed running around the house shouting 'My brother's not gay! My brother’s not gay!' until the next decent song came on… Alcohol is bad (particularly when mixed with gelatine)!

Most memories of the rest of the night come courtesy of the photos… I’ve included some of the more tame (and less incriminating) ones here.

Anyway - thanks again to everyone that helped make my first birthday away from home as fantastic (if no more so) than all that came before it!

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