So.. the night before Darren�s 28th Birthday on May the 8th in the year 2000, he was given STRICT instructions to go to bed straight after the concert. We were in Perth, Australia at the time. (Daniel wasn�t at Darren�s birthday as he flew back to Brisbane straight after the show for 2 days at home before continuing on the tour). Darren didn�t know what was planned for him the next day, but he did know that it was going to be a really long day and he would be required to take part in all of it.

So, after the concert, the girls in the band, Nina and I went to my room to decorate it for his SURPRISE birthday breakfast the next day. Little did we know that in the suite upstairs, Darren had decided to embark on an evening of conversation with a couple of his friends (including the notorious, Bruce Ramus, SG�s lighting director.. and a man known to converse for hours at a time without ever boring his listeners.. quite a talent!) It wasn�t until I received the phone call at 7:30am on the 8th, from the birthday boy himself that I freaked out. Having woken from my slumber by him, I thought .... �He is soooo excited about the impending day he has woken up early�. He sounded very happy and I was just about to tell him to put on his dressing gown as we would be coming to get him soon, that he dropped the news that he had in fact, NOT woken up early, he merely neglected to sleep at all the night before. Just stayed up all night... just like that. I, of course, screamed my lungs out, to no avail.. oh no, nothing could deter him from his cheerful mood.

ANYWAY.. we ended up postponing the breakfast celebrations until lunch time, but as we had told everyone that the dress code for the breakfast was a towelling robe or sleep wear, the hotel staff did think it slightly odd that we were running around dressed like that at that hour of the day. I guess, you could just say that, that is the crazy kind of rock and roll stuff we do.

Darren�s escort to the breakfast was none other than DARTH VADER. We decided that rather than have the very tall and booming presence of the original Darth Vader in the room (as he sadly was not available for the party), we would instead enlist the help of the world�s shortest Darth Vader (aka Sneaky our tour manager) to go and drag Darren from his room to mine (you will have to wait to see the Savage Garden documentary that was being shot to see the look on Darren�s face!).

After our champagne breakfast and the endless gift opening session (don�t you just love birthday presents!), we headed off to the cinema. Now, I had told Darren that Chris Chard from Roadshow Music had organised a private screening of a film for him (as this was what he wanted). The only film he wanted to see was ET! I could not understand this.. but he, quite rightly, pointed out that if you are going to take over an ENTIRE cinema for a movie screening, then you really should be seeing a film that you can�t possibly see in any cinema, anywhere in the world (the fact that you could just pop down to your local Blockbuster store and rent the sucker really didn�t matter). I don�t know how Chris did it, but he managed to get us a very scratchy old print of the film and we all sat there.. rivetted to the screen.. and within an instant we were transported back to our childhoods. It was easy to see why this film was such a success as it really has stood the test of time.

After the cinema, we went to a gorgeous restaurant in Subiaco called ALTO�S. It was Italian (naturally, as it is his favourite)..... and the food really was to die for. Surprisingly, Darren still had stamina even though he had only had a couple of hours of sleep.. in fact, he kept us entertained for a major part of the evening with his impersonations of the various band and crew members. We left the restaurant and ended up at the only place open in Perth on a Monday night.. an Irish bar called THE BOG. It was quite bizarre because just as we walked in the cover band that were performing launched into BREAK ME SHAKE ME. Talk about timing!!

So... that was it.. the 28th birthday of Mr. Darren Hayes... He wanted me to post this message to you all directly from him to express his thanks for your kind thoughts and gifts.. so here it is: I wanted to say the biggest thankyou to all our fans especially the bbs members who went out of their way to wish me a happy birthday. Thanks for the gifts ..the flowers..the cards..the messages...that huge folder of stuff you sent Carla..EVERYTHING. I also want to thank anybody who donated to Starlight Foundation volunteers at our shows in Australia. Even 10 cents made a difference. You all rock my world and I�m forever grateful. See you on tour!

Leonie