A Little Bit Older, A Little Bit Bolder

9 March - Thanks to a Penthouse Forum I read back in 1993 for today's headline. Started the day by collecting a fair swathe of well wishing emails from the homeland in honour of my special day (most of the people realising the time difference but not all) - no well wishing phone calls but that's hardly something to complain about. So I won't complain about it. Work started reasonably well and all of the other couriers were in agreement that the previous day had been one of the worst days weatherwise in living memory. Even the lifers agreed with that which was a bit of a relief because I didn't want to be thought of as the whining Aussie who couldn’t cope with the local conditions. There were quite a few couriers who got jack of the conditions the previous day and went home early but I stayed throughout. If only we got a bonus for being so hard core but I guess being hard core is its own reward. Throughout the day I was constantly getting happy birthdays from all of the other couriers. The word had got around and even a lot of the guys who I barely knew were wishing well. I have to say it was very touching to get all the good wishes from the little community so it was a pretty enjoyable day on the whole.
Never really got around to organising anything proper for celebrations but me and Marcus (my birthday companion) agreed to meet at the SoHo billiards bar in Yaletown for some celebratory drinks. A fairly decent turnout considering the lateness of the organisation - Marcus and his girlfriend Lorne (also an Aussie), Jason and Mo (my coworkers) and a swathe of other couriers (Surly John (or St John as I call him), Elaine and Derek, the perpetually drunken F**kin' Darren (don't ask how he got this nickname but its probably because whenever anyone talks about him they're pissed at him), Chris and Shadow of course) and my housemate Mark came along later. I was a little torn about not inviting Rene but the fact of the matter is I really want to cut ties with the guy because even though he’s capable of being a really nice guy he's got a bit of a screw loose and I just want to ride out our last few weeks of living together with as minimal contact as possible. Inviting him would have been giving acceptance for his unacceptable behaviour over the past month (he did sarcastically thank me for inviting him to my party the next day but I just shrugged without explanation - maybe he'll take some stock in the fact that everyone in the household doesn't want to have anything to do with him anymore - I think its doubtful, but one can only hope). Got completely ripped off with playing pool - didn't realise there was a charge and we just picked up the balls and played a few games before leaving the table fallow for most of the night, there were even randoms not in our party playing on the table and when we returned them we found out there was a plus $30 charge for the use - I think a new boycott might be in order. In any event, it was a great night that may have gone on for far too long, especially as me and Mark kicked on to the wanky 'El Furniture Warehouse' (it probably got its name because it was once a real furniture warehouse and I think the space could be far better used by returning to its roots) on Granville where I consumed more booze than was good for me followed by McDonalds (i needed hot fat and empty calories to soak up the copious amounts of alcohol I'd consumed). It had been snowing that day (lousy Smarch weather) and by 4am when we returned home it was a blizzard and the whole town was covered in a thick blanket of snow like a winter wonderland. Didn’t snow at Christmas but it did on my birthday, which would have been like a fairytale if it wasn’t for my current choice of of career.