A wise person once told me that you should always remember your 30th birthday, as it is for obvious reasons, the beginning of a new decade in one’s life. Your 20’s were all about self discovery and playing with fate, whereas your 30’s is a celebration of life where one is comfortable in their own skin. I don’t know how much of this is true, seeing as how I am 27 years old. (Ehem… 6 times over. But whatever. ) In any case, you understand my point. There is great importance in celebrating your 3oth birthday in style, grace, joyous exuberance, copious amounts of vodka and above all else - inappropriate times of doing the “running man.” This is the story of my weekend away with friends as we celebrated the anniversary of the birth of a good mate… Jo Tan.

Byron Bay is located 759km north of Sydney and just 2 hours south of Brisbane and is the most easternly point in all of Australia. Named after the the famous grandfather of poet Lord Byron (who wrote the poem Don Juan - my hero), the town is primarily full of tourists, backpackers and hippies - as it’s a great destination spot for surfers and surfers alike. As autumn was in full swing, it was easy to find accommodation at this time. We managed to find this beautiful summer home to hire out for the week, just a hop skip and a jump away from the beach.

The Cast:
(In order of appearance ,based on who was at the airport first)

Mark Aquino
as the annoying team leader and music provider

Sam Lee
as the perpetually sick girl

Jo Tan
as the Birthday Girl and star of the show

Daryl Tan 
as the quiet, cool tempered brother of the birthday girl

Fran Dwyer
as the sister in law, notorious for making up words

Darren Chek (aka Checker)
as the poker teacher and the bourban drinker

Steven Dal Molin (aka Steve)
as the guy who just wanted to watch AVP: Requiem

Sue Dal Molin
as the cinnamon french toast maker and cousin of Jo and Daz

Adrian Chua
as the “I am still working but on holidays” IBM staffer

After a close brush with death, we landed with whiplash and concussions, as our pilot (who I believe might have been Stevie Wonder) landed our plane on a very windy Ballina Airport strip. After sharding our shorts and peeing our pants, we managed to find a safe mode of transportation to take us to our summer house. It was during this 2o minute drive to Byron Bay that I discovered from my fellow housemates, that they have never been to Byron before, or that they don’t remember much of Byron. I soon realised that it was I, the tourist, the foreigner, would have to be the one to enlighten. As you might remember, I was already here about a year ago with my backpacker mate Sue (revisit my post under the category Beautiful Byron Bay) and I stayed at a hostel by the beach. So, needless to say, I had no qualms taking up the challenge of playing tour guide. I love playing host. I just reiterate a couple of things that I read from the first paragraph of a Lonely Planet and sound like I am the biggest nerd in the world. Too easy!

We finally arrived at party central. A summer home with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. A large kitchen and lounge area. Definitely party central. At the door was the already arrived Sue and Steve. We greeted eachother with familiar hugs and kisses and as I came through the door, I shook Steve’s hand and said, “Hello. What’s your name mate?” To which he replied, “Steve. What’s your name?” To which I responded, “Oh, my name is Mark.” “Morrick?” “No, Mark.” “Oh. Maaaark. Got it.” I reckon that was the best ice breaker ever.

We took no time at all getting into party mode as we found ourselves at our first pub rather early - like 4pm early! The Byron Hotel. We drank, we conversed, we drank some more, we conversed a little more loosely, we drank a little more, then the food came, thank god. I was about ready to upchuck some of this alcohol and it was only 8:30pm! As we continued our jovial conversations, poor little Sam was in the corner fevering up a sweat. I told her to drink some alcohol as a remedy to her ailment, cause I figure it makes sense - alcohol is strong enough to rid your system of any bacteria right? So why not drink?!

Close to 6 hours later, we found ourselves walking the streets of Byron Bay as a loud obnoxious group of asians and one white person, who I am sure everyone thought was our tour guide or translator. We came across a pedestrian crossing, to which the birthday girl took as a stage for her dance. Without even realising what was happening, we turned around to find Jo in the middle of the street, blocking traffic as she did the “running man” the way the “running man” was supposed to be danced - like M.C Hammer. We yelled at her and told her to come back to us, but she was gone. She finally managed to cross the street, and venture into a lonely club that played RnB music - music to Jo’s ears. As we were the first ones there, we took the opportunity and danced every inch of that club. Before you knew it, the club started filling up. Clearly, people saw how much fun we were having in there, that they needed to come in and follow us.

There is something about overtly drunk people finding the like. It’s like they have a honing device that allows them to easily find other equally drunk people to join forces to make bigger asses of themselves to us amused semi-sober folk. Well Jo did just that. Let’s see, first there was DRUNK FALLING DOWN GIRL, who tried to keep up with Jo’s Janet Jackson dancing ways, who always fell down on her ass and needed to be picked up. Literally. Then there was SCARY MOTORCYCLE MAN whose dance moves were time warped from the 1970’s. Oh god bless him, he was dancing like he was going to pick up Jo, but little did he know that his seductive dance moves was also his biggest demise.

I woke up at 6am the next morning and ran on the beach. The sun was still warming the morning dew and I had to pick up the pace a bit in my run to muster enough heat to keep me mobile, but other than that, the morning was majestic. There is something about the rising sun and the sound of surf washing the sand that makes me happy to be living in Australia. Byron is beautiful. I needed that run in the morning to remind myself of that.

Adrian joined us that night as he flew in from Brisbane via Los Angeles. Quite jetlagged and groggy, he had no qualms joining us drinking beers almost immediately. Night 2 had us cooking up a storm at home for dinner. As the annoying team leader, there was a format for the evening. There was a team who was on pizza. Another team on salad. A team on SPAM sandwiches and for those not associated on a team had to clean up. Guess who was the leader of that group??!! ME! Whoo hoo!

After enjoying the delicious effort put in by all teams, we congregated around the table for some great conversations, more booze and my favourite part of the evening - a singalong. I busted out my favourite party trick and played some old 80’s music. Good value. We reminisced about some good times and tugged at our nostalgic heart strings. I even played some great 80’s television theme songs that I had on my iPod, from Family Ties - sha la la la, to Growing Pains - show me that smile again… ooh show me that smile. I even had The Greatest American Hero - believe it or not, I’m walking on air, I never thought I would be so free…. Ah. The memories. Good times, good times.

The next morning was a lazy morning. I was up again at an ungodly hour, and everyone took their time getting up. By the time it was 10:30am everyone was awake with the notable exception of  Jo and Sam. Sue and Fran didn’t want to knock on Jo’s door cause they knew Jo too well. She was never up before midday. Well, I decided that I was going to wake them up and so I barged outside to their loft and pounded on the door. Next thing you know, I see Sam’s face through the window glaring at me like I had murdered the family dog or something. I knocked another 3 times to no avail. We ended up leaving them at the house and took the group for a tour of the beach and lighthouse.

So, Sue, Steve, Check, Daz, Fran and I packed up our swimmers in our packs and headed out to the warm inviting sunshine. We walked along the beach and watched as the school of fish surfed the waves. Daz showed his talent of stone skipper off to the rest of the lot, whilst Check and I walked along the beach discussing life, relationships and work. Sue and Steve were still busy trying to figure out how to pronounce my name (ha!) and Fran was happily taking pictures in the background. We walked to the very end of the beach and found a lookout point.

We took the paved roadway up the hill to the lighthouse on our way to the easternly point of Australia. The tall free standing structure of the lighthouse was drawing closer and closer to us, and the more it did, the more beautiful the sights around us got. We were higher in elevation now and we could see as far as the blue sky can reach. From above, we can see dolphins playing a game of “Look - I’m a shark!” whilst the sea turtles took turns bopping their heads above the surface of water for air. We kept our eyes on the horizon in the event we might see a passing whale, but alas it wasn’t going to happen. It would have helped if it was whale watching season, but whatever. We dared to dream. Ha! We took pics at the most easternly point of the country, and enjoyed our gummy worms overlooking the bay. Down below was the last of our trek to the beach. We hiked another 40 minutes down the hill and jumped into the cooling waters.

Day 4 was the last day for some of us as we had to go back to work the next day. So, we made the most of it and hired bikes for a couple of hours. Just picture it. We looked like the VonTrapp family on bikes in their curtain made dress as we rode around town singing Do Re Mi. We were happy as larks. We hightailed it into a the manufacturing disctrict of Byron where we shopped to our hearts content, err well, some of us did. We bought cookies, shoes, and even managed to get a meat pie in there as well.

And as quickly and easy as the party started, it was now time to go. For Sue, Steve, Adrian, Sam and I, work was lurking its hideous face around the bend. Whilst Daz, Fran Checker and Jo got to enjoy the next 3 days without me waking them up early and in complete relaxation mode. Ha ha!

I often wonder who that person was that told me that you had to remember your 30th birthday. It’s bloody great advice if you ask me. What they failed to tell me though, is that your memory tends to faulter after 30, so I reckon you really need to celebrate your 30th with a big shabang cause otherwise, you would simply forget. Make it memorable. Make it good. Make it fun. Jo surely did.

This is Morrick signing off.