happy birthday nick

nick by night! here we are at helvetica in perth, nick brandishing a jug of fishbowl punch in honour of our fredag punch tradition in stockholm.

and nick by day, arriving on his white steed to whisk us to the golden triangle

don't you think day/night nick look the same? ;)

our friendship was forged that last sunny summers day in the park as we fell into step en route back to jeanne's for the post-picnic. my first impression of him was that of the world's most devoted boyfriend. get him started on lauren and the man will not stop... in the best possible way, of course :) we swapped stories about our immortal nanas, his in lebanon and mine back in singers. we puzzled over how they'd managed to pickle themselves and not show the ravages of time or gravity then attributed it to a lost art. there was effortless friendship from the word go, and then nick did the sweetest thing, thus cementing his place in my list of favourite friends. (yes, i have a list. don't you?) he escorted me to london. he'd been planning to visit family for awhile and i was hell bent on being a solo backpacker so he gallantly booked the same flight, was delightful company for the 12h it took us to get door-to-door, such is the sorry state of budget travel... and then he took the tube out of his way and ever the gentlemen, saw me to safety in the big smoke. so much for my pseudo-independence! plus we share some quirks and nick would come up with the funniest nicknames for people who got our goats. thank goodness they were none the wiser. then lauren came to visit and i liked nick even more because i became a lauren fan too and off we went on little excursions to tidemann's and sofo and gamla stan.

and nick's graciousness didn't stop with the end of exchange. oh no! swung by down under over the hari raya long weekend and he was all warmth and hospitality. suddenly we were traveling by car and it was funny because in stockholm all we ever did was take the bus or tunnelbana. or ryanair -_- seeing perth through nick's eyes and enjoying his and lauren's excellent haute gastronomy recommendations made the short break all the more memorable. all too soon it was farewell round two but i'm pretty sure the wind will blow him north soon, or lauren at least.

it's been a year since we surprised him with an army of revelers in claudio's kitchen, and here we are again. so happy birthday nick and many happy returns. exciting times, he's in for a sea change come next year :)

here's one for the album, of us freezing our tushes off in sigtuna, reputed to be the oldest town in sweden but we're not so trusting of guidebooks...

(sigtuna photo credits to simon of http://simonsk.blogspot.com)