My birthday my birthday!! Oh so very much fun!! First off was the great birthday pancake hunt of 2006! We went everywhere looking, ordered the last lot one place had, then 20 minutes later got told they had accidentally sold them to someone else! So instead we went and had birthday scones!! OH so good! Then we went to the birthday market which Em and I accidentally spent loads of money at last week buying pretty presents for ourselves! We were dead good this time though! We bought a duck in the duck race later - well I bought two cause it was my birthday dontcha know - the bloke said I should lead the parade later on announcing that its my birthday - he was getting more carried away than me! Anywho, we collected a Ben shaped boy and slobbed down at the Esplanade - where Bennie gave me my Kangaroo punching pen which is just a genius present! Anywho, we then watched the birthday duck race (ok ill shut up now) which was so funny. Ben of course wasn't bothered but he was jumping up and down and running to the front to see what was happening! (We aren't fooled Bennie!)Shockingly neither of us won but it was dead funny anyway! 5500 rubber ducks floating along happily! Next up was the...Cairns *birthday* parade. We met up with one of the lads who had been in our room in Cape Trib (ok so we chased him down the street and forced him talk to us) and then all sat around watching a man dressed up like a Ghostbusters go power mad in his orange boiler suit! (See the pics!) He was so funny! So angry! The woman in front of us was wetting herself! None of us were brave enough to get too close though cause he would have rugby tackled us to the ground and probably punched us a couple of times citing reasonable force! The parade was dead good, lots of fire and wizard of oz-ness and Chinese dragons and a bus full of little old ladies with the title of "girl in a million" so funny, seriously doubting if they had any teeth but so cute!! Think that was Ben and Owens best bit really! ADVENTURE DUCK! I nearly forgot! There is like a bus thing that is called adventure duck and shaped like a giant duck - tis the best thing ever and it was in the parade!! Emma's photo is a bit rubbish cause either it was pelting along or she got too overexcited ( I know which I suspect!) and mine is rubbish cause I'm crap and just took a picture of the beak bit! But have a look you get the gist! Next were birthday fireworks!! They were so impressive! We sat around eating pizza watching them by the lagoon and it was dead nice. Then we collected Leanne and Nikki (2 pink lasses who we kept bumping into since Alice then adopted in Cape Trib!) and they forced us against our will into an Irish pub called PJ O'Brian's. Was really cool in there, played some pool and mucked about then this band started setting up. Now, if I said to you Iron Maiden look-alikes would you know what I was talking about?! Ok, long haired rockers from back in the day! We were expecting hard core rock - well their first song was Richard Ashcroft closely followed by Angels by Robbie Williams - it was the strangest thing I have even seen! Now, after the band had played their first set the...."ladies" from behind the bar got up on it in their bikinis and chaps (yes chaps) and danced/gyrated for a little while. The funniest thing though was Ben and Owen who lost the power of speech for a while! Anywho, a coyote ugly competition began with a round of lads then lasses competing for the ultimate tart title (and free drinks!). Well the boys might have been struck dumb with awe but Leanne and I demonstrated our support for one of their friends Basty (or Busty as I called him all night!) Let's just say we nearly lost our voices! (Photos will be made available as soon as possible!) We did try chanting his name but as the girls were still around we sounded kind of perverted!! BUSTY BUSTY BUSTY! Well we had to encourage him! It must be scary taking off you top on a bar in a club! Thank goodness for Leanne! I accidentally had a little too much to drink and spent the next day lying (as Emma described it) like I had just dropped down dead on the grass! I wore my dark glasses all day even when swimming (yes and frolicking Leanne!) in the lagoon - very attractive photos! By 7pm I had recovered and Em, Me, Leanne, Nikki and Bennie went playing on the adventure playground!! We had so much fun!! I am so bruised this morning though! There are very attractive photos of my fat bum trying to climb up a slide then running away from Leanne as she did it! I fell off a blumming death defying one and felt like I needed one of those blow up cushions for me bum for the rest of the night! Anyone would think those rides weren't made for an overweight 23 year old! Twas such a good night though! That's about it; Leanne and Nikki have fled down the coast now so we are pretty much abandoned! Luckily we found an English sweet shop here and the woman has promised me a discount card - Dad you would be so proud! So we will console ourselves till we gain a Jo in 2 weeks! Whey! Best run, enjoy the photos - there are hundreds of them though! Speak soon love lennie xxx