February 16, 2003 - 6:04 p.m.

even though i went to bed at 2:30 this morning, my body managed to wake up at 8. why?

i was technically awake, but i felt very weary. i had inhaled more than a few packs of other people's cigarettes the night before, thanks to the best-ever candle concert at the corner hotel and crappy (my opinion) smoking legislation. in case you weren't there but wanted to be, you missed out on the following things:
* darren hanlon, tim oxley (dearhunters), tali white (lucksmiths) and ryan james (mabels, ruck rover) performing a barbershop-quartet version of "title fight: heart v mind" with tali singing bass (!)
* atko's announcement that kimba mitchell (tee hee) is preggers, and a full-band mabels reunion for three or four songs
* easily some of the best performances i have seen/heard. too much value for $12!

but back to this morning. i decided to make scrambled eggs with cheese for breakfast. i don't normally eat eggs, but they were in the fridge, so i wanted to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

it was a very grey day outside, and the weather was what they like to call "spitting" - little bits of rain just existent enough to make you notice and perhaps poke you in the eye, but not enough to require an umbrella.

while the eggs were cooking, simon shouted, "look out the window!" i looked, but i didn't see anything except grey. then he pointed to something specific in one of the trees that is planted next door but falls directly over our yard.

"oh my gosh, what are they?" i asked. "parrots?" simon replied that they were rosellas, but after a careful web search, we both agreed they were rainbow lorikeets.

it was quite a shock to see them, but in our backyard, and on such a grey day - i thought my eyes were playing tricks on me due to my lack of sleep. as a kid, the only thing i ever saw so brightly colored was breakfast cereal. sad but true.

and what were the lorikeets doing there, you ask? eating the ornamental apples on the tree, the same apples that commit suicide in our yard and drive simon crazy because he is perpetually cleaning them up. he noticed the apples have been pecked at, too, so now we know the culprits. birds have no affinity for tidiness or landscape design, it seems.