I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but my Mum and Dad run a small business which does local tours and charters around the state.

So last night, we were invited along to one to the Casino with a group of RSL Club attendees, up to the Casino (about an hour away). We accepted, because we don’t go out very often at all, and thought it’d be a bit of fun for the evening.

It was about 7:30pm when we got up to the Casino, so we figured the first thing we should do is have something to eat, before we got stuck into the drinks (which we’d started on the bus on the way up). So we went to the food court and grabbed some food – I had some grilled salmon with chips, and Michael had a bacon & cheese burger with chips. After that, we headed up to the pokies and tables, and had a bit of a flutter on the machines. Michael won $19 on the 1c machines, and I won a grand $8.00

After this, and after a few more drinks, we headed back downstairs to the lounge, where Mum and I had a Midori Splice cocktail each. Before too long, it was midnight and time to head off – which was an adventure, because we were on a small bus with 20-ish drunk people! It was a good time though, and we got back into town at around 1:30am.

Then there was drama – one of the passengers, an older guy, was getting down off the bus, and during the whole evening, he had been concerned about the steps on and off the bus – we found out later he has two artificial knees. Anyway, we got to the RSL Club (which was the drop-off point) and he stumbled off the bus (just as drunk as the others), and when he got to the bottom, he walked a few steps, turned around, must have become disorientated from the alcohol, and fell to the ground. Behind him was a rendered brick wall. We heard an almighty crack and a scream from his wife. Before I knew it, my Mum was climbing over me, ran off the bus over to him and started to assist him (she is First Aid trained, because of her job). He appeared unconscious, but he was breathing. Michael called an ambulance, and the Paramedics arrived a few minutes later. Dad said it may have been his drunkedness that prevented him from getting really hurt, because he fell limp instead of putting hands out or trying to stop his head or anything.

As they put him up on the stretcher, he started responding and trying to take the neckbrace off, which the Paramedics obviously didn’t let him do. I can only imagine waking up and having something around your neck, though – it must be a pretty ‘WTF’ moment.

So the ambulance took him away to the hospital, and we expect him to be there all night and till at least tomorrow morning. Being an older guy, they might have wanted to check if he had a blood clot or something, or if it was simply losing his balance and the alcohol didn’t help it!

All in all – an interesting evening!!! I hope he’s okay – and if we see him at the RSL Club again, there’ll be an interesting tale to tell him!

It seems that every where I look, there’s babies. I understand that the human race is a perpetually reproducing species (duh), but goddamn it seems they’re just everywhere.

I don’t know if a lot of these parents realise how precious their children are, though. A lot of couples have a lot of trouble getting pregnant, and their life dream is to have a child. On the other side of things, there’s people who really don’t want kids, but are the ones who have them.

Our friends are of the first group – they have been trying for a long time now, I think 3-4 years – to have a baby. I don’t know the ins-and-outs of what procedures they’ve had or anything like that, because you don’t like to ask, but I know it’s been a rough road for them.

Last night we got a phone call; my friend’s hubby spoke to Michael (they’re pretty good mates now), and then Michael handed the phone to me saying my friend wanted to speak. She said, “We came over Sunday but you weren’t home, and we were going to come over tonight but you said you were going for a drive so I didn’t know what time you were going to be home, but we have some news that we want to share before I tell everyone at work tomorrow – we’re having a baby!”

I was OVER THE MOON, to say the least. These two people are just the most loving people – they would do absolutely anything for their friends and family, and I can’t think of two people in my everyday life who deserve it more. I went out today and bought her a card and a giftcard for a baby shop (she’s only 15 weeks along, but I figured they’ll obviously need to buy stuff for the baby before it’s born!). We are just so excited for them.

It did make me think though – I’ve been on the contraceptive pill for about 5-6 years now. I think it would be devastating to me to try to avoid getting pregnant for so long, and then when it comes down to us actually trying, I won’t be able to fall pregnant. It’s a real issue that has just come up recently for me, and been accentuated by my friend announcing her pregnancy after so many years, but I guess I should be hopeful – after all, it’s a reality for them now.

I think I’ll just stick with the cats for a while.

Or maybe to Heaven – I’m learning to drive.

I went for 2-hour drive with my Dad tonight, and it was good. I think I’m a lot better from when I first started again in January, and definitely better than when I was learning at 16 years old.

When I moved to Melbourne in 2005, I quit driving because of the ease of access to public transport – it didn’t make sense to have a car and learn to drive in the city. But here where we live now, it’s kind of a necessity to get around and have some freedom. There are buses and cabs, but they cost a fair bit and buses are pretty irregular.

I do panic myself sometimes when I think about going for my provisional licence – it seems a really tough test – but then I think about all the people I know who’ve passed it, and there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do the same. That said, my driving might be good but I really need to work on parking and reversing, particularly parallel parking. I have a weird issue with cornering too, but I think that’s slowly being ironed out.

Anyone else have issues when learning to drive?