November 2007

November started out much like any other month. It started on the 1st. However, unlike any other month this year, the 1st was a Thursday. Well, any month other than February and March. Not that it matters - it has no bearing on what follows.

Actually, looking back it was a surprisingly quiet month (which partly explains the waffle in the previous paragraph in a lame effort to fill column-inches). There was the usual smattering of dinners. The first one was with Geoff-the-sparky and his boyf, Joal. It was more an excuse for them to get together with Greig and talk about all the clever home automation things and do things like log into their home via the internet and turn their lights on and off randomly as they are wont to do. I tend not to ask too many questions for fear that they may actually answer them.

We also invited Bailey, Sam and Chris over to help us go through some very old wine that we have inherited from Greig's parents. They are not big wine drinkers so every time they have found themselves in possession of a bottle over the past thirty years, they have simply stored it away. Unfortunately they haven't stored the wine in exactly ideal conditions so the chances of any of it actually being drinkable, are pretty slim.

So, the plan was to open about a dozen of the old bottles, taste them and then either throw the contents out or drink it, depending on the outcome of the tasting. It's a bit like alcoholic Russian Roulette. You open a random bottle, the next person in line takes a sip and if he doesn't go blind then the wine is not considered poisonous. The wine is then rated in terms of colour, aroma, body and character and then swiftly flushed down the sink after it fails on all counts.

Which every bottle did.

So we cracked a couple of bottles that we bought down the local bottle shop and tried to drown out the bitter taste of vinegar in our mouths before settling down to watch the cult classic, (T)Raumschiff Surprise. Well, cult classic in Germany at least. We watched it with subtitles which is no mean feat after you've already started to go blind from drinking engine coolant with a red wine chaser.

Geoff-the-sparky and Joal also held a housewarming party at their new unit in St Peters. Naturally, Greig and I attended, although I'm sure we could have simply logged into the party via the web. It was quite a busy affair in a very nice unit with views over a ditch. Joal was an absolute whiz in the kitchen.

There were lots of people getting very, very messy. Not many familiar faces to me, however quite a few people did come up and address me by name, so I guess the issue is more with my memory than anything else.

Greig flew out to spend a couple of weeks in Thailand with "D2" (otherwise known as Daniel from the UK). They'd arranged to meet up somewhere in the middle between London and Sydney. Thailand seemed a suitable place to spend time laying on a beach drinking expensive cocktails.

Ma has started holding his 2008 Mardi Gras Float meetings, which Greig and I have so far totally managed to completely avoid.