Sunday, July 28, 2002
The Weekend Wrap-up
Friday
Friday was busy, but I got a great little e-mail from Paul; he got into the Greenhouse Office grad program starting in February.
Friday night began, as it always does, at home. The plan for the night was to meet up with Dan, Shannon and Dan's cousin for dinner and then head to a pub for a few quiet ones; a low key night. Things didn't go quite as expected, with Jason and a girl whose name I can't quite remember (but may have been Sarah, or not) coming along for the ride. After a quick pit stop and a discussion on financial pressures it was off to the restaurant, only to find out Dan hadn't listened when I told him that all of the Kingston eating establishments were usually very busy on a Friday evening & hadn't booked, thus forcing us to the HMAS Kingo* for steaks and beer, which turned out to be pretty good regardless. The family resemblance between Dan and his cousin (whose name I've also forgetten) was remarkable; those of you who know Dan might want to picture Dan with straight hair and a bigger chest to get some idea of what she looked like, then again you might not.
After steaks and a couple of beers the group decided it was time to have a look at the zoo that is the HMAS Kingo's nightclub before heading home. If ever there was an appropriate time to use the line "The horror. The horror." this was it. The less said about it the better; there's no way I can get those 5 minutes of my life back, so lets just move on. The rugby league game had just finished (with another Broncos victory) on the big screens, so I guess it was around 10.30; I headed down to HMAS Filthys* to catch up with the regular crew. The pub was a bit more crowded than usual for a Friday night, but the crowd had a different feel to it, so I didn't stay long.
Problem was that when I got home I couldn't get to sleep. I stayed up until 3am reading Filth (which Cardinal Cin gave me for my birthday) but didn't get very far; it's written in strong dialect and I'm finding it very challenging reading, but I will finish it - the drive to know what happens next and how it ends is strong.
Saturday
Round 7 of the Happy Christmas Professor Ovington 1970 Cup Plate Shield comp saw Team Red get up in golden-goal time resulting in a full time score of 3-2. While not quite the goal frenzy of Round 6, the introduction of Patrick, Dirty Bob and Lachlan, the return of Cynan and Suzie, as well as the absences of Big Kev and Tyson, made for a very different on-field dynamic and a great game. My one attempt at stopping the ball with my head was comically thwarted by my cap, with the ball sailing about a foot over my head much to the amusement of all involved (I misjudged the trajaectory and then couldn't see the ball because of the cap).
The afternoon was mostly spent bumming around on the 'net before Ross and Emma came around to watch Friday and Next Friday and eat pizza before heading out for... Glow in the Dark Disco Bowling! The occasion was Curtis and Elenor's 25th birthday. We got to the Woden bowling place too early for Disco Bowling, so wasted time drinking beer, playing computer games and banging the ice hockey game until it would work. Come 9pm it was game on. There was beer, there was music, there was dancing. For someone who claimed to never having bowled before, Curtis suspiciously scored over 100 in all three games. Post-bowl-o-rama we returned to Casa de McCracken where everyone kicked back while Curtis played DJ. All in all a top night.
Around 1.30am the combination of beer and red wine took me from boppy to snoozy, so I headed home...
Sunday
... only to be ripped from my deep dream-filled sleep at 4am by my phone (that I'd forgotten to turn off & put on the charger at the foot of the bed, but rather was on it's loudest setting right next to the head of the bed). Ange had left her keys in her bedroom when she & her drop-in-overnight visitors had decided to hit the Kingston clubs. Got up, pulled some shorts on & opened the door, quietly praying that they'd be drunk-on-the-verge-of-passing-out. Alas, no. Equipped with their super-stomping shoes and piercing shrieking laughter the festivities continued in the lounge.
I did eventually get back to sleep and woke to the sound of slamming bathroom doors and whining hot water systems around 9am. Lay in bed listening to a Background Briefing story on missing people (which was interesing but not very well put together) before getting up to face the embarrased half-assed apologies of two of the three before the third emerged from the bathroom to reschedule my day with the line "hehehe - there's no hot water left". I killed the now-necessary hour wait by cleaning up the kitchen and catching the last part of Sunday. Besides noticing Helen Dalley's JM** I watched to see what the film review would be; turned out Pete was reviewing About a Boy and very favourably too. Not being in the best of moods I decided that I best keep away from people in general & decided that an outing to the cinema would be the best solution. Not having hung out for a long time with just Ms S or Louise like we used to, I invited Ms S to come along.***
We headed down to Woden to find that The Importance of Being Earnest was playing an hour before About a Boy. Ms S was keen to see that, so we did, after eating and wandering around looking at hippy stuff in Tree of Life, digital cameras in Dick Smith, the Hogwarts Lego set in Big W and all the geeky cool stuff in the new shop Socrates. For the first time ever, I managed to get in and out of the shopping centre without buying any media to take home; no books, no magazines, no DVDs, no CDs - I was quite proud of my self-control.
~~~
Looking Ahead
I have quite a few ideas floating about in my head for pieces to write, but given how busy I expect to be at work for the next fortnight I'm not sure if I'll have the energy and desire to sit down to work on them. This Wednesday will see me subjecting myself to another interview for the job I already do (albeit at a higher level), and the following Tuesday sees the return of Must-See Movies with Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
My general objectives now include: cleaning up my bedroom and lounge (always on the chart); thinking up some appropriate examples of my talents for the interview panel (climbing to number 1 with a bullet); getting more sleep; spending less time at the pub; finishing the creative projects I've already started before starting new ones; and dealing with the fact that a good mate has started dating the one girl in Canberra I absolutely detest while denying it to my face (which is not only disappointing, but insulting to my intelligence - writing haiku has helped, and there are more creative outlets on the way). I think going to the gym a couple of times this week will help with a couple of these.
~~~
* - HMAS designation now given to the pubs that picked up the refugees from Mooseheads (aka SIEV-11).
** - For Tyson & Kat
*** - I know that sentence doesn't read well, but I can't be bothered fixing it right now.
~~~
...now lets go back to the music; here's Garbage with Stupid Girl...
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