happy big three-O to snowflake

although today is not friday the thirteenth (but it was 30 years ago!)... it is sunday the thirteenth and snowflake's (aka lipowhale) big birthday! i set the alarm at 5:05am and eventually got up at 5:20 ish... and why was that? to make a bday cake of course (in the dark)...
2 hours later... i had my chocolate banana cake and i secretly hid it under the wok cover inside my trusty cast iron wok... and i managed to dress it up in secret while snowflake was sitting 3 metres away from me surfing the internet on the sofa...
all was revealed this arvo after we all napped on the couch, nestled in our air conditioned tv room in contrast with the scorching heat outdoors...
the cake was presented with numeral candles - three - O -


but the scream and wide-eye stare was on the present mcduck was holding, not on the 5am-labour-of-love!
and what was she staring at?
the luxuriously wrapped / bagged GHD!
after many "oh my gosh"s & "yes! yes! yes!" later, the questions started to come, "where did you get it? how much did you get it??"
obviously i had to have a bargain... and this included this GHD... the story started 3-4 days ago... and previous to that i already researched and knew the best price could be only sought on ebay for around $260 (including postage and handling)... and since i did not have much time for postage... i contacted a few sellers and see if i could pick up instead of doing a delivery... and i got a bargain at $238 and journeyed all the way to marrickville (hence i also detoured to paensanella)...
and here it is... (thank you ebay seller!)