A funny thing happened to me the other day in an internet cafe: I ran into the barmaid from the restaurant in Dunedin where Bernard, Craig & I were going to have one for the road on the day after the stag do, and ended up in a lock-in until 1am! She was just leaving as I was arriving, and we were both stood at the counter waiting for the woman to deal with us. I looked at her, she looked at me, I thought 'I know that face!', she thought 'I know that face!', I said "Do I know you?", she said "Dunedin?", I said "aha! the stag plus one lock-in!", she said "aha! the drip tray!", it was smiles all round.

So anyway, we swapped numbers and then a few days later we got together for a few drinks. It was really nice to get to know Jodie better. She's moved to Melbourne to earn money and save up for a trip to Africa to teach English and help build village amenities for a few months. Good on her! We ended up in that nice bar e55, and got chatting with this group of lesbians at the next sofa. They were so lovely! We're going to meet with them again. Hooray! New people to hassle!

A scary thing happened to me the other day in a bike repair shop: I said "g'day" without any trace of irony! In my defence, the guy behind the counter said it first; it still wouldn't be my greeting of choice, but in the circumstances it felt worryingly natural to repeat his words. Eek! Get me out of here!

A cool thing happened to me the other day in a penthouse suite in Docklands: I was in a penthouse suite! on the 27th floor of a swish new apartment block! with views all over the city! In a Six Degrees Of Separation kind of way, the flat belongs to a guy who is overseas, and has a friend flatsitting for him, and she is friends with a guy from a group of people I met in a pub the other week when I was having a drink with Rainnie, and he mentioned the flat in conversation and asked me if I wanted to get a photo of the view from this penthouse suite for my website.

I couldn't resist the temptation of a cool cityscape to photograph, so Craig & I headed up there with wine one evening and had drinks with the Anne the flatsitter and another friend of hers Susan. The view was fabulous, especially when, as night drew on, the cloud base dropped and slowly swallowed up the tops of the tallest buildings, while diffusing the ambient light from the city below in a magical way. I can't wait to share the image with you all!

A gorgeous thing happened to me the other day: my phone rings, I answer, and it's Natasha! She was remarkably coherent for a three-year-old on a phone, I thought. Apparently she still asks after me and wants to know when she'll see me next. If only Sydney wasn't so far away, I'd drop everything and visit Julian & Fleur again immediately, just so I could play with Natasha on her swing or in her paddling pool or chasing her round their spacious living room. Talking to her gave me sweet pangs of longing for my nephews & nieces, as well as bitter pangs of guilt at what a lousy uncle I've been recently in not ringing them more often. I will, I promise!

Whoa! I've come back to this blog a few days later, and I'm freaked out by the total lack of chronology and general not-every-instant-of-my-life reporting. But perhaps it's better for you, my dear readers, this way. After all, my life has become a little less exciting recently. I'm working in an office (okay, only for a few days, but anyway), living in a house (with a bunch of younguns who are amusing) and generally being a Non Traveller. I haven't even seen the inside of a backpacker hostel in months - except for a brief visit to Jodie's room while she got a jacket the other night, because it was a bit nippy.

But what shall I tell you? Well, I've been eating & drinking with Rainnie my lovely friend who is like a sister to me. I've been shopping with Rainnie my evil nemesis who makes me buy clothes just for the preposterous reason that they look good on me and all my others are too big and worn out. I've been walking about enjoying Victoria's warmest April on record with Rainnie the girl who reckons she has never walked as much in all her life until I came along and don't have a motorbike.

I've been spending time with other people too; it's just that often it's people I don't know very well - like people in my short-term temp jobs - and can't be bothered to write about at length. I mean, at the end of the day, people are people: they're all lovely so you only need to record specifically fabulous events, don't you. Or it could be that I resent having to go to internet cafes and spending some of my hard-earned cash, when I had it so good at Jackie's.

So it's May now. Only a few weeks to go to my 32nd birthday. I somehow have never imagined myself being 32. 31 yes, as the natural progression from 30 which I'm sure everyone has thought about at some stage. But 32? It seems so nothingy somehow. I'd better make sure it's not.