Firstly - Sorry all about the lateness of this writeup.
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As has already been stated, Trina & I flew up from Melbourne to partake in this most Fraptabulous of Everythingian Get Togethers.
Despite having spent an awful lot of time flying throughout my life, I am always nervous about the idea of a human construction hurtling through the air, being held up only by our scientific & engineering capabilities. That coupled with the fact that our flight up to Sydney was Trina's first flight in a long time meant that there was a buzz of anticipation and nervousness surrounding the both of us as the plane took off and we waved goodbye to dry, brown, Melbourne.
Luckily we survived with only very minor turbulence, and staggered wearily into Sydney airport, on a mission to find Kalon... OR DIE TRYING!
Thanks to the wonderous pieces of technology we call 'Mobile Phones' we were able to work out roughly where we were meant to meet, that he had a dodgy pink sign for us, and that we were not going to have to find public transport in order to make it to his place. So off we went into the city, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed and looking around like a pair of tourists.
And thats when he abandoned us..
Well, no.. Kalon let us out at the side of the road so that we could have a walk around the city. He had a 21st that he had to attend, and we all decided that us walking around the city would be much more fun that us joining him at this party, which quite frankly, he didn't even seem to enthusiastic about attending ;)
So Trina and I walked around the city for a few hours, had a nice dinner at a small Mexican-ish restaurant, and then caught a movie.
After this we caught a bus back to his place, and let ourselves in.. When he got back from his party we presented him with the Uber Expensive street sign I had made up... Kalon's Place
I'd have to say that the whole trip was worth it just to see the expression on his face when he saw it, it was really quite amusing, and definately made it all worth while.
After a brief chat we decided to head to bed, Kalon graciously relinquished his bed to Trina & I and went to sleep on his couch.
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We woke up in the morning to the sounds of Kalon's Secret Sunday Morning Mix, which is of course a wonderful mix of musical and vocal tracks that I am sure he obtained legally, as well as a healthy dose of pancakes, that were wolfed down rather quickly.
Despite the fact that:
a) I'm not good about meeting new people
b) I dont like tea very much
c) I'm not that big on obscure and exotic foodstuffs
I actually had a great time at the Yum-Cha, thought I think I may have been the quietest person there.
Bridie O'Reillys was a great place to just sit and let the copious amounts of tea and food settle. Unfortunately I was having to drive back from the airport, and thus could not have anything alcoholic, but it was fun nonetheless talking about the various issues pertaining to Noding and E2 in general.
Zone 3/Laser Tag was great, I ended up placing 2nd in the last game, after finally working out exactly where I was shooting when the gun was aimed straight ahead. After the games a handful of us had to wait outside for a taxi, and wait, and wait... until I was sure that Kalon had pulled an April Fool's joke on us... but finally it arrived, and us weary warriors sunk into those comfy seats with many a soft groan..
We stopped off at a bar on the way back to the airport, but Trina and I didn't stay too long. We were both a bit anxious to get to the airport early, which turns out to be a good thing. When we arrived we were told that our flight ( 9:30 ) had been cancelled, but we were upgraded to Business Class and placed on the 8:30 flight, it was 8:25 at the time.
So off we went, grinning and trying to hide the Hungry Jacks/Burger King that we had smuggled onto the plane and had a nicely eventless flight home.
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The End.
Thanks everyone for such a great time, especially Kalon & SimonC who I think paid for waaaay too much stuff.