On Friday, my bestest buds, Tim and Simon, arrive from overseas. They've been away since April so it's going to be big excitement. I'm not sure if I'll see them on the Friday - they are going to the Commonwealth Games but we might meet up for a drink afterwards.

On Saturday, it's my friend's hen's night. I'll be a happy woman when this is over. Since her bridesmaid lives in London, I've been doing organisational things. Why did no one tell me how frigging annoying organising a hen's night is. I've had one friend determined to have a stripper (and of course she's the one who's normally the most conservative friend of them all) - I think I've finally got it through to her that we can't afford a stripper and no way I'm going around asking people to put in money, and even if we could, we have nowhere for him to strip.

There were two things I was set on when organising the night - 1. I didn't want to have to get money off people on the night since there are people coming I don't know and I hate dealing with money and it just becomes a huge pain in the butt and 2. I didn't want to have move people around too much. Have you ever tried to get a bunch of tipsy women somewhere? Not fun.

So the plan is to go to a bar in the city. We are having belly dancing/pole dancing lessons to start then a buffet dinner followed by karaoke. God people love to bitch - well my friends anyway. They hate buffets and they hate karaoke. Well stiff cheddar. I love both those things - I figure since we'll be there when the buffet starts, the food will be fresh and unpicked over. Also the world needs more of my singing inflicted on it.

The next weekend is the wedding. It's in the country which has caused me untold headaches - with work being so unstable, I wasn't even sure I could afford to go. But things have come together. We are staying at the local caravan park - $40 for the weekend plus we have a loan of car (for a while, because my car is kaput, it looked like we needed to rent a car and that would have been big bucks) so it looks like the weekend away will come out at less than $100. My friends are great at being frugal too - we are planning on getting rolls and stuff from the local supermarket and having picnic lunchs and I'll take my own breakfast stuff - so all that will be both diet and wallet friendly.

The other hassle has been - what to wear? I wanted to go out and buy a stunning dress but I have no stunning dress budget. I've been looking around shops and can't anything I like except for a few very expensive dresses and then there is the shoes and other extras. I was thinking of borrowing a dress off my sister but it's her favourite dress and if I wrecked it, I'd be dead. Then yesterday I remembered a dress I bought her years ago - when she used to be the cute little sister that we'd dress up like a Barbie doll - but I assumed she'd long thrown it out.

Last night I said to her, it's a pity you don't still have the blue dress and woohoo - she still has it. It's a fab outfit - I got it from a vintage shop for her for like $10 (what a bargain considering she's had it for about 10 years now). It's a knee length dress in a bright blue/black fabric with lurex bits through it. That sounds awful, doesn't it? But it's not. And it has a little jacket over the top. Very '60s, very Jackie O. She's also sending plan B - a red hootchie mama halter dress she bought to wear for her birthday a few years ago. Now I'm thinking with the money I'm saving on the dress, I can buy a pair of kickarse boots to wear. I'll check out my all time favourite shoe shop next weekend because I got my last pair of boots there for $50.

I don't know how my friend is coping with all this - being the bride - because the whole wedding is causing me enough stress. The other day, I was walking home through the local park and there was a wedding dinner going on. Everyone was sitting around on blankets and they had a table of food and a stereo playing music. It all looked so very casual and fun. I think if some poor sucker ever wants to marry me, that's the kind of wedding I'd have - no fuss, no muss.