Of cars breaking down and engagement parties

Saturday was a rather eventful day, not an overly eventful day, but one of those days eventful enough to be worth blogging about.

So yesterday for me started with our first Glue music team meeting of the year, which went alright I think. It was a pretty small group but I think that made it easier for some good discussion to get going.

After that, went home for lunch and got ready for Alan and Alex's engagement party, which needless to say, is the first one I've been to. Kat, Karen and I all went in Trees' car, and off we were to Alex's....that is, until we had to stop to look up directions, and Trees' car wouldn't start again.

We were parked on a relatively steep hill, facing downwards, and thought it would be a good idea to try undoing the hand brake and letting the car roll for a bit, before trying to start it again. Minor panic set in when we started rolling down the hill and Therese said "The brakes aren't working..." Luckily the car stopped again with just the hand brake, albeit accompanied by noises that didn't sound too good and the smell of burning rubber. OK, so we weren't going to try that again...

Thankfully it turned out we were only just around the corner from Alex's house anyway, so after hurried calls to Trees' parents and the NRMA, who said they might be a while, we walked the rest of the way to Alex's and joined the party. But before long the NRMA called to say they were at the car already, so Trees had to dash back out.

The problem turned out to be a flat battery....OK, I have no idea how cars work, I'm going read this article, when I get the time, to find out what was going on with the brakes...but anyway, after the NRMA left, Trees spent around 20 minutes driving around the block, but obviously that wasn't long enough, because it wouldn't start again after she had stopped it again, so then her dad came to jump start and swap cars....meanwhile, the rest of us were enjoying the food and the people and the party...poor Trees :(

But it was all OK in the end...now on to the engagement party side of things. Actually, I can't think of that much to write about the party itself. I guess structurally an engagement party is similar to a birthday party...food, drinks, mingling, photos, cake, short speech, us making Alex and Alan open our present in front of us =P (glad you liked it!)....but of course, going to these things, you're going to be talking about weddings, and other people who are getting married, or are already married, about people who aren't married, and who's going to be married next...

And you know, it all just seems kind of surreal. In a strange way, it made me feel like we were leaving school again. In the car on the way back home, we talked about what would happen to our group once people got married, whether we would drift apart, whether we were drifting apart already, and how we have been/are currently riding the wave of 18ths, 21sts, other birthdays, engagement parties, and later it would be weddings, baby showers, christenings, kids' birthdays, funerals...

I think about the people we were at school, and the people we are now...the things that defined us back then, and the things that define who we are now. Have we changed? I guess we have. I know I have. At least we don't run away screaming every time the word "change" comes up somewhere. (The Board of Studies...how do they come up with such fantastically vague topics? *shakes head* )

So it looks like a new part of our lives is coming up once again, as the first few of us graduate, and the first of us gets married. What will we be striving towards in the future? What sacrifices will we make?

As the officially youngest member of our group (even if it's only by a day, hehe), I hope that we're all still friends when I get married...cos you guys will be waiting for a very, very, very long time.