A birthday party... in a spa... in Hamilton... for about fifteen 10-year old girls.

My friend Janet, who owns the spa, and books me shows in the Hammer a lot - and whose girls, Nancy and Jade like my tunes - asked me to play their joint birthday party - which apparently they've been planning since they first saw me play... how could I say no?

I'll be honest - I wasn't sure about it. I love the girls, but my knowledge of Hannah Montana tunes isn't great. But I rented High School Musical and learned "We're all in this together" and "Breaking Free"... no idea if I'll ever be able to use them again...

I got there late due to "a police action" according to the radio which involved a ton of cops in swat team outfits blocking off the entire QEW - followed by an accident a couple klicks later. Craziness. And then I realized I'd forgotten my microphone. If there's one thing you want at a birthday party of screaming girls... it's a microphone. But my voice put up with belting tunes for 4 hours.

I started off with "Breaking Free" and got... blank looks from the girls. One whispered to another "I think this is from the first High School Musical" - first mistake - learn the songs from the latest movie... Still, the other HSM tune proved more popular and for some reason in the back of my head, I pulled a surprising number of Spice Girl tunes, which was the hit of the day. 10 year old girls like Spice Girls a lot.

So the party was a hit. The girls got their nails and toes done - I played a number of songs written before they were born - and we all hung out and had a pretty great time.

As I was leaving, one of Nancy & Jade's friends made me promise to come back and do it all again next year or she'd (and I quote) "die and haunt me forever."