It just fell off!!
I've had a busy week. Spent Monday and Tuesday night at the library studying my ass off. Went to G's on Wednesday night and we went to Caffe Numero Uno for his birthday. I had a massive salad, and everyone thought I was strange, but I was full!
On Thursday morning I reversed out of the driveway and heard a crunch , as I got to the road. I thought it might be my numberplate or bumper bar, but it was my exhaust pipe and muffler. Just fell off! 
I rang J, because I was meant to meet up with her that night, and she sounded half dead. But when I spoke to her later that day she had 'miraculously' recovered from whatever it was, and she said she'll pick me up. I offered to meet her in town first, so I ended up catching the bus after work (which took the scenic route, and I was half an hour later than I said I would be). Met up at Bonjiourno, but not before witnessing a 4WD driver going round into the laneway where Church nightclub is, and getting stuck on a bollard, thereby damaging her wheelarch. Ha ha. No, I don't like 4WD drivers. They think they can intimidate Barina drivers. I also despise Ford, Volvo and BMW drivers. Ford drivers because they're just crap, Volvo drivers because they never look where they are going, and BMW drivers because they are arrogant and also, my ex-landlord owned one. J talked at length about her assignment for her Food & Nutrition course on obesity. We had something to eat, then we walked, in the rain, over to UniSA library. She was procrastinating to the max, and I was sure she'd get kicked out for talking too much, but luckily there weren't many people in there. When she was borrowing some books, the librarian said her student card had been found - she'd lost it a week before. She always has a lot on her mind! Then we drove to her place for a cup of tea, then over to N & M's to collect her brother, then she drove me home. We talked, as usual, about her lack of 'lust for life' and how everything's 'boring'. He said it would take an hour and a half, so I didn't really have time to walk home, so I just wandered aimlessly around Glenelg. I noticed some really cool little apartments along the beach called 'Seawall' - they were so retro, with maritime paraphernalia around the front of them that were really cute. Some of the more expensive apartments had outside spas - I wonder how often they'd use them in the Winter? The place had pretty much no 'pull-up' zone out front, as it was in an alleyway off Currie Street, and it had no carpark, so we had to park in a Hindley Street carpark and carry all our luggage over. We dropped our bags at our room, and went for a walk to Rundle Mall to look at Playstation controllers, but couldn't find a decently priced one. When we got back, G. couldn't find his mobile phone! He's lost his phone in the city before, so he was FREAKING OUT! We found the phone in my car (when he was reversing it for me, it had dropped off his belt. Lucky! FINALLY we headed off to dinner at Primo on Gouger Street. It was lovely - not as crowded as the one at Brighton, and much more friendlier than the one at Tea Tree Plaza! They even gave us little plastic bowls to take home the food we couldn't eat! Headed back to the hotel and found that they hadn't yet brought up our champagne that was included in the deal, so I went down and asked for it. Shortly later we found that the smoke detector was ticking! I really didn't want to go back down to Reception to complain again! G. hit it a few times and it eventually stopped. How bizzarre. We played Playstation for a while - Lego Star Wars! (more recently I've been playing Spyro and getting freaked out by big purple spiders!!) Unfortunately the disc was a bit dirty and got stuck in some sections. We got Cashies to clean it for us the next day. Strange how you lose track of time when you play Playstation - it was 2am before I knew it! Luckily we had a late checkout time of 11am! In the morning we went down for breakfast, and found that Reception had forgotten to give us our breakfast vouchers! Hopeless! Must've been on Work Experience or something! But the guy who served us breakfast was way cool. The hotel was strange - it was historical and decorated nicely but had an amateur feel about it. Kind of like a polished sterling silver tea set with a massive crack in it. Oh well. We went for a drive to Cash Converters up near G's place, and the guy there said he had all the CD singles out from the backroom just for today, so I went mental because they were all 50cents. Bought about 20 of the buggers. They were all good stuff too - it wasn't the usual stuff people don't want, like Yanni and Celine Dion. Modern, good stuff. Happy joy. We then drove to the Sexpo. It's the first time it's come to Adelaide since 2001, and I don't think it'll be the last, because the place was PACKED! There were exotic dancers, heaps of stalls and a 'gerbil ride' (sort of like a ghost train). It was all interesting and amusing, but everything was expensive, and it cost $25 to get in! G got his photo taken with an FHM blonde model. My favourite dancer was Arianna Starr - she had massive butterfly wings, and really cool body paint, and good taste in music too! One of the best things I bought there was, strangely enough, a book about beautiful accommodation around Australia. It had 2 of my 3 favourite placed - Fire Station Inn (pictured in my profile) and Patly Hill Farm, but didn't have Jubilee Retreat. So I emailed the author and he replied this morning saying he'll check it out. After that we quickly drove up to the hills to Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary. (we'd been told to be there by 5:30pm) We had a dinner, tour, accommodation and breakfast package for $100 per person. Pretty good. We quickly unpacked our stuff and headed over to the verandah to meet our tour guide. Then she asked for our tickets, and I'd left them back in the room because I'd only taken my keys and mobile phone! But she believed us anyway. The tour was really good, except for the gang of kids who kept giggling - G reckons they were smoking pot or something. Saw possums, kangaroos, and even a platypus or two. I was glad I took my new Maglite. For more info, check out: http://www.warrawong.com/ We then sat down to dinner. We waited for nearly an hour, even though we'd placed our order as soon as we'd arrived at the Sanctuary! G. put on his angry face and we soon got some attention. They apologised, as they thought we'd gone on the later tour! Our Eco-Cabin was a cabin pretending to be a tent, pretending to be a cabin! It had canvas walls and roof, and even zip up windows, yet it had real beds, air conditioning and an ensuite. Only things it didn't have was a bathroom mirror and tea and coffee making facilities. That would've made them perfect. It was pretty chilly, but warmed up as soon as we put the air conditioner on. I woke up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night so I reached over to get my phone (to use the torch on it) and all I could feel was the plastic bag next to it. I didn't want to turn on the big light. I eventually found it. When I came back and got back into bed, I noticed a flashing light - it was coming from G's iPod speakers. So, I reached from my phone again, and couldn't find it again, and the plastic bag fell on the floor and made a hell of a racket and G. grumbled and enquired what I was doing. When I told him, he put the speakers upsidedown and told me to go back to sleep. I know it doesn't sound like it, but when we were talking about it the next morning, it was incredibly hillarious to me! The next morning, G. slept in, so I went to breakfast myself and read a book about koalas while eating nutri-grain in front of an open fire. When we checked out there were about 15 Lotuses in the car park. Must've been their regular Sunday run. Beautiful machines. The good news is that I've finally handed up Book 1 of my Editing course. All I need now is to wait til they mark it and send me the next book. For my 'Sabbatical' I'll be staying in a cabin in a caravan park by the sea down near Brighton for a few days. Should be peaceful. Last night I went to Marion. I ordered a Greek Salad from a place called Aromas. Last time I was there they gave me a fruit salad instead of a Greek Salad. That's understandable - it is very noisy in there. But last night, just before they served me, they tried to charge a lady $14 for a piece of cake and a coffee! They later explained they thought she'd wanted 3 pieces! They asked me if I wanted my quiche warmed up, and I said yes. Now normally they put it on a plate, but this time they warmed it up and put it into a plastic take-away container. What the...? Then she asked me if I had a knife and fork, and proceeded to rifle through my Campbells newsagent bag seeing if I had a knife and fork in there. What the what the....? Airheads. So hard to get good help thesedays. Pity their food is so good. I've been coming home late so that my brother and Z can have some time to themselves, but I made the mistake of coming home on time on Tuesday. They asked to borrow my laptop, and all night long tried to load Command and Conquer on there. Eventually they decided it was too hard. But, out of this they've decided they want a new laptop of their own because they are jealous of mine, so G. is on the case, trawling Ebay for one. I heard that KrispyKreme is coming to Adelaide!!! Going to my cousin's wedding tomorrow. My Dad will be there. Great.
So, I called a taxi and got driven to work (because I'm not sure yet where the bus stop is!). 
However, I have noticed that she is a lot better at communicating now, from all the study she has done.
On Friday I had a day off, and lucky too, because I had to take my car in, to get a muffler re-attached! The only time I could get it in was 1:00pm, so I spent the morning trying to sort through my stuff, and getting frustrated. I drove to Midas in Glenelg and checked in. The guy was really laid-back and chillin. 
I can see why my brother recommended him. He mentioned that he'd worked a fair bit on my brother's Merc.
Mum rang me when I got to Moseley Square and picked me up to go home and have a cup of tea, then drove me back to Midas. $180 later, the Barina's all fixed. Then I was rushing around trying to pack. Finally made it to G's by about 5pm. Drove into town to stay at the Hotel Grand Chancellor to celebrate G's 29th birthday. The present G. got for his birthday was the Delorean - the time machine from Back to the Future. 
