Day 51 - A birthday never to be forgotten

Being as organised as Jonno and I are we had a cracker of a day planned for Alex's birthday today.

Our first plan was to wake up after Alex, which we executed perfectly. We slept in and Alex had already had breakfast without us. It only got better. We got one present for Alex yesterday (the one that he told us to get) but we had forgotten to get the rest of his gift, so after breakfast while we were sitting around Jonno gave me that all too obvious wink, we handed Alex a weak excuse that we were going to go buy some newspapers and off we went. After picking up the rest of Alex's presents we headed home for a couple of hours before we picked the girls up from school.

Alex's birthday present from the girls at SJC

Alex happily holding Nokubonga hostage

Once we had collected the girls we headed home to grab some lunch and then headed out to Willow Park where Alex's next present was waiting for him. We gave Samantha and the other girls strict instructions to have buckets of dirty water ready for Alex's arrival today. They were ready and had it all planned out. The bucket of disgusting muddy water was on the roof ready to be dropped onto his head, but someone told Alex the plan and he was off like a flash of lightning, running to the babies home to only delay the inevitable. We regrouped and attacked him with numbers. Alex was removed from the babies home from a large group of excited girls and taken to an open area for what was going to be a messy present. Alex wasn't going down without a fight and took Nokubonga as a hostage. The other girls showed no mercy and both Alex and poor Nokubonga were drenched in a disgusting concoction of water and dirt. Alex fought back with a hose and sprinkler, which was the beginning of yet another water fight. This time we were really outnumbered. SJC was a packed house again with a number of girls back from their short holiday break. Alex somehow avoided the brunt of the fight and stood back as Jonno and I were wet from every angle with big buckets of water. Needless to say we lost and the girls made sure we knew it. It was this water fight that led to our most exciting adventure yet on our trip. 

Alex on attack with the sprinkler

All three of us were drenched, so naturally we took our shirts off for the drive home. Turns out that this was a bad idea. As we pulled up to the police roadblock we were called to a halt. We thought the policeman was just joking with us at first. Telling us that driving without a shirt is considered indecent exposure and would result not in a fine but immediate arrest and an appearance in court. It wasn't until the officer told us to pull over to the side and wait that we thought he might just be serious. Turns out he was. Even though we had a good joke with him and a few other policeman as they had a good laugh at our stupidity we were looking down the barrel of having the car impounded and being taken to the watch house for up to a week before a court hearing. We tried all the excuses we could come up with "we're Australian", "we didn't know it was illegal", "we are on our way back from an orphanage" "It's Alex's birthday today"  etc. None of them worked and things weren't looking great...Not until Alex pulled out one of the most important lines that one must know when in trouble with the police. "What must I do?" It turns out that $20 freed us from our 3 counts of indecent exposure. We gave our persuasive friend the $20 and got out of there as quick as we could. 

Alex and Madz with his birthday toffee syrup

We eventually got home and celebrated Alex's birthday with pizza and coke. We also gave him his actual birthday presents. All 8 of us individually gave him a bottle of Toffee syrup. I'm almost certain this is what God would put on his toast each morning. If you are thinking 8 bottles is too many, you clearly have never tasted this syrupy goodness. Deb gave him a nice canvas painting and Jonno and I gave him the canvas painting he had picked out yesterday. 

I'm sure Alex will never forget his 22nd birthday. He can one day tell his kids that he was drenched with dirty water and almost arrested for indecent exposure on his 22nd birthday. 

For me I hope today was the first and last time a policeman asks me to get of the car by saying "Get out of the car, I want to see your belly button." 

Happy birthday Alex. I'm stoked to be able to be a part of your very eventful 22nd birthday.