Tuesday, June 11, 2002
In Retrospect
Friday
With the culmination of most of my work for the last few weeks happening on Thursday, Friday started and continued slow. I tentatively planned to disappear after lunch, tentatively because something might come up later in the afternoon on Fridays, which happens a whole lot more often than we'd like. My prediction proved correct at 2pm when attempting to leave, I stuck my head into the bosses office to say goodbye & was asked if I'd distributed the spreadsheets that needed clarification. "What spreadsheets?" I ask. "The ones I haven't forwarded to you yet." replies Luke. Walk back to the desk, log back in, send out the sheets with a short message along the lines of "Don't bother calling my desk this afternoon, I won't be here by the time you get this" (I love "Do Not Deliver Until..." options).
Went home, changed and met up with Ross & headed into Civic; one red cap, two Diana Krall CD's and a gift package later I descended into the Aree Bar where Ross, Mad Dog and T-bone and others had already started into the beers on what was meant to be a quiet night (for me) given the big day planned for Saturday. Sometime, somehow the conversation got spiced with Zoolander quotes; a Ross vs T-bone walk-off was inevitable, even if T-bone had no idea what he was meant to be doing. Not finding Beat It on the jukebox, Mad Dog decided S Club 7 would suffice. There was strutting, there was artistic and provocative use of props. Alas, it all came undone when the ankle of table-riding T-bone clipped a tall stool, which fell, hit a chair which knocked a table and sent an ashtray flying into a pint glass. It all came undone for Ross when he & Mad Dog went flying into the pavement in the rain next to the fountain outside the Canberra Centre. We managed to hobble home ok though.
Saturday
I spent most of Saturday morning in bed reading American Hero while Ange, her brother and accompanying girlfriend all woke up, oriented themselves and began the occupation of the single bathroom. I was quite snug in bed and given the probability of a cold shower at that time I opted to stay snug.
Upon rising (around 11) I dressed, trekked out for the papers and returned home to invade the cooked breakfast that was in progress; my timing couldn't have been better. After breakfast the visitors ventured forth to "mini town" (Cockington Green); I ironed clothes, went out for wine for lunch (got a nice bottle of Capel Vane Merlot for $25 - definately recommend it), came home & got ready & headed over to Rubicon.
Rubicon was somewhat smaller than I remembered it, and contrary to the booking the party didn't have the whole courtyard area - but really if the other patrons were annoyed by our noise it wasn't our problem, what do you expect when you're seated next to a 20 person party? We decided to go all out with lunch; Bisque made on a prawn stock with prawns and calamari, 12 natural oysters, 12 kilpatrick, then veal tornados under pate sitting on mash with a bunch of beans wrapped in bacon for mains. Dessert came in the form of a "french influenced" (whatever that means) apple tart caramelised and upside down. Oh yeah, and wine, wine and more wine. Total bill: $641.
Post-lunch drinks were held, as usual, at Filthys. Kelly and Louise played well in opposition to the combined testosterone of T-bone, TJ, Mick, Jeff & I, but in the end the conversation hit lows Lou could not match, at least not at the time. Not long after she departed I hit my wall. I was committed to Kat's birthday drinks at Trinity, but I needed a break from festivities. I wandered home and crashed on the couch in front of the Camden family, who this week were having issues with truth and cover-ups or something, but of course everything ended on a happy note with everyone having learnt a lesson. If I'd been paying less attention I might've listened to the little voice telling me to change before heading out, but I didn't, so when we got to Trinity people started asking me if I was bored, but it was just my stomach not feeling so good, probably because of indigestion and pants that were a bit tight around the middle.
Once my grumbly stomach was under control it was a good night; met new people, got to pitch our game idea to a real games producer and found out just how bad a real martini really tastes. As the night progressed the DJ's started with some tunes that had most of the patrons nodding heads and/or tapping feet and at just the right volume (who wants to shout to talk to someone?). Later a Radford 10 year reunion group showed up, and not wanting to be outdone or drowned out the DJ upped the volume to the point where glances and body language had to make do as far as communications were involved. Little by little the group exited, until it was the core again. Given the cold and the wind-chill at the end of the night we were all very very glad the maxi-taxi was prompt. Some opted to party on in Green Square, some opted for bed; bed was cosy, cosy was good.
Sunday
Breakfast, as usual, at lunchtime. Conversations, as usual, in the gutter, or rapidly approaching it. Ross & Emma were impatient and had eaten before most of us were concious; we saw them walking back home as we converged on The Durham, where everything is big. Big breakfast platters, big pots of tea, big buckets of Coke. We found out that the word "doodle" made Liz blush where many others wouldn't. I discovered that I could stop internal/external monologue errors mid-sentence (I saved my own butt twice in half an hour).
After brunch, we tried to get to Woden, twice. The first time we watched a bus go past while having coffee, then after waiting for 20 minutes in the wind for a cab at the cab rank and not having any luck, we wandered back around to Green Square and yes, you guessed it, into Filthys. Louise disappeared only to reappear not long later with an activity backpack with which to wile away the hours; Scrabble, Boggle, paints, sponges and a scrapbook, a deck of cards and a jigsaw puzzle. Kat stopped in to place her tips down for this weeks World Cup round in the pub tipping comp and T-bone sent everyone in his phonebook on a mission to bring us walkie talkies, but alas it was not to be.
Around 5.30 my hunger got the better of me, and I couldn't wait for the rest of the gang to finish their pints. I headed home and had a bowl of leftover pasta and some OJ and watched Fight Club with Ange's clan before reuniting with my clan at Lou's place before returning to the pub for the Japan vs Russia game.
At the pub, Kat & Chris had decided to host their own Fantasy World Cup show. Kat & Chris, being the hosts, were on camera 1. Lou, as guest commentator, was on camera 2. Tyson had cameras 3 through 9, and evidently those cameras were in a porn production set somewhere in Mitchell. That won't mean much to most of you, but I throw it in for the participants as much as for my own memories, but it wasn't all laughs; Brett's laughs ended not long after we found out that he had no idea what Monkey was and after Tyson's razor-sharp rendition of the yet-to-be-recorded "Ugly Man in a Single Bed" got shouts and applause from anyone within hearing distance, and the table of tech geeks laughs were quieter after Lou, in old-school Star Wars t-shirt, loudly pointed out that "the nerds are all looking at my boobs" & had a lot of looks in their direction, none of them congratulatory (but really what were the nerds going to do about it?). I called it a night at full time, somewhere just short of midnight.
Today
Today I was up early, and after farewelling the visitors I had intended to go over to Belconnen to look at clothes and to go somewhere I don't normally go to do it. This plan was hampered when I missed the bus, not thinking that it was a public holiday and that less passengers would alter the schedule, and not in favour of someone who's always a few minutes late like me. I returned home & called my lil' cousin in Melbourne who turned 10 today - the transition from single to double digits is a big step when you're a little kid.
After that call, and another home, I wandered up the road for coffee, having already eaten at home for once. I picked up Wired from the newsagent and wandered around to Zest on Emma's advice; it was for naught, the toast was soggy again and the tea was weak, so I paid and began to wander over to the bus stop again (buses were running hourly) but was intercepted by a phone call from Kat requesting my attendence at breakfast at Lou's place.
Breakfast was fun, and delicious, as breakfasts at Lou's place often are. I gave up on the idea of getting to Belconnen when Kat brought up the idea of an afternoon with the Game Cube. The evening was spent with Mick and TJ and the rest of the multitudes at the 6.45 screening of Spiderman at Woden, which I would recommend if you're after a movie with a decent bad guy in it.
And with that, it's goodnight from me...
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