... and speaking of 'waking up Hicks', housemate was watching Aliens when the cubs, their father and I got home this evening from the Japan Festival in Box Hill.
Not a bad day, far too many people for comfort but there were plenty of good things to drool over. The cubs were thrilled to see their father up on stage with his naginata group and it was definitely worth staying for the taiko drumming which concluded the day's program. : )
Picked up a cute wee (4") gashaphon (I think) toy of a perky red-head in a bodysuit. No idea who she was until I got home and googled her. <g> Arisa Glennorth from Stellvia of the Universe.
The cubs got a cheapie robot action figure each as well as having fun making a couple of little origami things. (One of the cubs was terribly disappointed cos he couldn't find any Transformers toys this year. There were some last year but I couldn't afford them. The robot toys made up for that, though.)
Manifest is on again in September (hee! Might get there this year) and I also discovered there's an Australian manga group - OzTaku. They had copies of their publication for sale but not surprisingly I couldn't afford them. Might try tracking them down in a couple of weeks, they looked very interesting and I think it'd be good to get behind locally produced manga.
Lots of food! I had some inari there for lunch and got a couple of packs of california rolls (priced 2 for 1 at the end of the day) to take home for dinner. (And the cubs' father had got me a sushi pack as well. Mmm... spoilt!) The cubs shared their fairy floss with me and we scoffed some delicious chocolate cake before the drumming started. I treated myself as well to a couple of bottles of Tsunami, a 'sparkling sake cocktail'. Very yummy. (Drank the lychee and Muscat flavour with my sushi, and I'll open the Muscat and berry flavour once the cubs are in bed...)

Oh, in other news, the cubs' father has finally got himself another car. He's a happy puppy again.