It’s the end of November so it’s time to shave the itchy excuse for what no one would mistake for a real moustache, off.

I enjoyed sharing each workday with my team who have all remained dedicated to raising money for two very important men’s health issues – prostate cancer and depression. We pulled in close to a $1000 – a great effort.

 

This is me with the Faux Maux. 

Along the way we indulged in eating some free burgers from grilld – a gourmet burger chain – who offered a free burger per day for all those who participated in growing a stache.

 

Unfortunately, this is all I could grow :( 

The shave tearing this monstrosity off of my face was one great experience. Ooooh yeahhhhh!

My Dad has been doing some spring cleaning of late, going through 40 years of accumulated warez, deciding what should be kept and what should be thrown out. Thankfully, he’s passing on all the stuff that belongs to or is significant to each one of his kids.

Last week I got three boxes full of old BMX trophies that I had accumulated over my 7 year career as Stathpine’s most feared novice level rider.

Upon receiving the boxes of trophies my immediate thought was, “What am I going to do with these?”.

Turns out, there is a very simple way to preserve my memories without having to find a dingy corner in the depths of our downstairs area to store the boxes.

We spent the weekend up at Alexandra Headland on the house courtesy of one very lousy Property Manager, a letter of complaint and LJ Hooker.

While we were renting our house out last year the Property Manager we had looking after the place did a lousy job, so Michelle wrote a letter of complaint to LJ Hooker Management and we received 2 nights free accommodation at a resort at Alex. Headland. Sweet!

We drove up Friday night and enjoyed some Fish n Chips out on balcony before calling it an early night. The next day we shopped, walked on the beach and then spent an awesome night out at a restaurant – Il Secondo – with the Steel family to celebrate a whole swagger of November birthdays.

A greasy breakfast burger from my new favourite restaurant – Envy – helped take the edge off some very fine wine drinking from the night before.

Parking real-estate is rare at Cotton Tree so if you see a spot you do whatever it takes to get it. While we enjoyed our breakfast we watched about 30 cars try and fit into what seemed like a gold mine of an parking opportunity only to find that the space – while big enough to fit a car – wasn’t big enough to open your doors. It was amusing and frustrating to watch – over and over again.

Then it was off to visit Nanna and Poppa – Michelle’s grandparents – before stopping by to visit my Mum at work.

We made at home about 4:30pm on Sunday, just beating the most vicious storm Brisbane has seen in 25 years. I don’t think a single house got away without some damage. We have a collapsed retaining wall that we have to sort out.

And that was our weekend…

Yesterday, a couple of my workmates and I were going to the IGA to get lollies and I asked for a Chocolate Billabong ice block. I handed over $2 expecting about $1 change.

Guess how much? $2.35. for a Billabong!!!! and it was really small too. Magnums must be like $6!

As you already know, Halloween just passed by and it seems to have been embraced by more Aussie youngsters than in previous years.

Americans aren’t the only ones who can have fun dressing up and scoring free candy.

Anyways, on the night, Michelle and I were sitting on our side deck drinking Champagne and nibbling on some pick-n-mix lollies when we received our first knock on the door from the street urchins wondering our neighbourhood. We were caught off guard as we completely forgot that it was Halloween and we didn’t have any lollies to give the kiddies.

We scrambled through our kitchen cupboards and the fridge but couldn’t find anything. I finally suggested to Michelle that we just give them the left over pick-n-mix lollies we had. A look that could freeze Satan shot back at me with a booming reply of “No way”.

We kept scrounging through the cupboard and coming up short. Eventually I saw some cans of soft drink and suggested these and tried my luck one more time with suggesting the left over pick-n-mix, thinking that she was just semi-joking before.

Turns out she wasn’t. There’s no way that Michelle was going to give up her pick-n-mix to help make a child happy.

As Michelle snacked on her pick-n-mix, together we explained that we didn’t have any candy for them and gave them the two cans of Stones Ginger Beer. I can’t help but feel a little ashamed of our actions that evening.