But the Tales Came Back, the Very Next Year

So, it has been a year to the day of hiatus for The Tales. This has been a long enough span for one to have a garnered a sense of their lack, with the conclusion that one shall once again be regaling you with regular Cautionary Tales.

Now, to catch everyone up, here are the high mid and lowlights of the missing year, in more or less chronological order:

• One's place of prominence in the nuptials of Pirate Dave and LED - particularly in the karaoke vows scene
  
  
• One’s ongoing stressful tussles with printers
  
  
• Farewelling Piggy with BestFriendSincePrep, Uncle Col and various other high school alumni
  
  
• The second annual hosting of Mt Disappointment at StumpyRudolph's since it restarted - it seems this is becoming an annual event much like The Tales
  
  
• One’s becoming a permanent fixture at the new workplace after three and one half years living on the crumbs of rolling contracts
  
  
• Further stressful tussles with printers
  
  
• The addition of Harvey to our family after a years wait on the production of this new hybrid wonder.
  
  
• An annual visit down South to My Guitarist
  
  
• A dodgy knee issue of One’s resolved by this new thing called an exercise regime
  
  
• Catching up with Mr Gates after some 30 odd years
  
  
• The continuing saga of stressful printer tussles
  
  
• The stressful journey to a Magpies premiership
  
  
• A bout of shingles brought on by unknown stress factors
  
  
• Freeloading Mum celebrating her 80th milestone
  
  
• Attending the NYE fireworks (early version) in the city with Hulk and Salsa Girl
  
  
• Yet another holiday week on the Berm
  
  
• A busy work schedule with new libraries, major upgrades, and, of course, printers
  
  
• Handy Dad miraculous coming out of a fall through the patio roof with naught but a few scratches and bruises, and maybe some lessons learned about capabilities of older gentlemen on ladders, and roofs. Maybe.
  
  
• Sportsball season starting again far too soon.
  
  
• New varieties of stressful printer tussles

So there you have it, the foundation for the restart of regular Tales posting. Only time will tell if One will be able to maintain this punishing ambitious annual publication schedule.

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Catching Up

So One is once again faced with having to catch up on happenings by having a catching up post which details all of One's catching up of recent times and should, hopefully, catch us all up on all things catch-upable.

We start our Tale many weekends in the past...

Suits You to Catch Up

First was the occasion of a fancy suit fitting in preparation for the incoming nuptials festival for Pirate Dave. It was an enjoyable endeavour but one does have to bak at describing it as excellent service when such terms as concealment, de-accentuate, hide, and work-around, were used so extensively during One's segment of the fitting.

Catching Up with Dromana Queen

The very next day Salsa Girl and I made a long haul drive to assist Hulk in attending a peer's birthday party. There was food and fun and also our first, and last, beach frolic of the summer, accompanied by the chatter of the teeth of many tweens that refused to exit the water.

Continuing into the next week...

Caught up by printers

One has been relieved to be entering the final stages of one's infinite printer rollout at work. However one did, after a hard days printering, find oneself caught up in a troubleshooting visit to attempt to deal with Freeloading Mum's home printer conundrum. Needless to say, an episode of madness ensued.

And the weekend...

Gardening catch up

One has gotten behind in One's maintenance of the garden and so it was that one caught up on the task by the expediency of having BestFriendSincePrep scour away the existing garden and commence a complete rebuild.

A Birthday board game to catch up on plays

For One's spawning celebrations this year I exercised the well known rule that guests must play whatever game I choose - whether they like it or not! In this case I rolled out Falling Sky a game of Caesar and the Gauls, for the first time since 2019. Pirate Dave won again - even though he had gone home and his tribe ran as a scripted opponent - so I shall be putting it away for another four years.

The gaming to dos...

Catching the Space Bug again...

The Tuesday Knights roleplaying group that meets on Wednesdays, commenced a new game that is a return to one's favourite - Traveller.

Catching a moment...

One, sadly was at a commemorative for a work associate - a fellow IT Man In LibraryLand - who passed far too early. One had bantered IT on many, many occasions over the years with him and sought advice on many a topic when in tricky IT situations. His full life story was quite a humbling experience and one can see that his family and friends will miss him dearly. Vale John.

The weekend again...

Catching the imagination...

One has long imagined reclaiming a part of one's desk from the accoutrements of working from home that have long laid claim to such prized realestate. Thus time was finally found to undertake a desk rearrangement and now the WFH things are the temporary items moved into and out of place as required. And now the gloriously revealed desktop space is finally awash with piles of gaming paraphernalia.

A quick catch of the fleetingly in town...

Circumstances aligned well enough for One to make a catch-up with Lord of the Small Fries. This was also blessed with the attendance of The Administrator, Supervisor Grand Chief K, and The Fox. Much was discussed in a throwback to our great days and it shall have to happen much more frequently.

And back at the old stomping ground...

Catching the changes

One attended an IT in libraries meeting at ones old home in Sandringham. While there One was lucky enough to catch up with Criket Cutter, Sonja Roster Queen,  Country Girl, and The Maple Maverick. One decided to head North and stomp around Brighton some as well, managing to catch Longstride L and The Historical Menace in the building.

So there you have it. Did you catch it all?

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Starting again

 So, it seems that One is forestalled from starting regular posting by an internalised desire to summarise all that has occurred previously before continuing onwards with shorter posts. Well, no more will that internal barrier stop me as I shall shove it aside and jump straight to the latest happenings, and the past can take care of itself.

So, the grand annual camping tradition known as Mt Disappointment was restarted this weekend past. Avid readers will remember our last resurrection was in 2015 after the annual-ness of the annual event ended with the 2009 trip.

This year saw the core group of Oneself, StumpyRudolph, MrRogers, and BestFriendSincePrep, joined by a handful who didn't have the gumption to stay the full night: Gavman, The Electric Tiger, and M. Sneaky Pete had excused himself on the grounds of having an important family birthday do on for Mirri Cat Warrior, but I ask you what family is more important, family you have known for nigh on 50 years, or family that you have known for only exactly 12 years to the day?!?

Sigh.

Anyway, we have become a lot more at ease with comfort and seem to have permanently moved the event to StumpyRudolph's property which provides a modicum of extra comforts. Easier road and track access meant that such things as a spit roast and many lights, tables and shelters could be festooned upon the revellers. In fact all that was missing was toileting facilities. Thankfully we were all afforded the get back to nature opportunity that their lack entails.

The increased maturity also lead to an enjoyable night of medium level indulgence rather than the traditional overindulgence. It does appear our bodies are very thankful for the change and it may just become the new normal.

We were also blessed with the weather holding off until we were all packed up and homeward bound - even with BestFriendSincePrep giving us an exciting flat battery challenge to overcome - another set of changes from the traditional drizzled to death of the morning after wherein it was usually one's own conveyance that provided the exciting challenges.

All in all a great time and, in the words of BestFriendSincePrep, now 100% guaranteed to be back as an annual event.

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The Holiday is Over

 So, One's holiday break is over and it's time to apply oneself to the task of getting The Tales ticking over again and hopefully reach the heights of last years 13 entries (and then on to top 2008's one hundred entries you prompt? Madness I reply).

Since One's last communique many things have passed:

• One's first XMAS gathering for the new workplace, wherat Sis drafted one for table wrangling duties as apparently "other duties as required" also applies at this workplace.
• A hybrid remote and in-person boardgaming session for the birthday of BestFriendSincePrep
• A zoological XMAS gathering (a gathering at the Zoo as opposed to a Zuulogical gathering which would involve the underling of demon Gozer the Gozerian)
• A traditional Legion XMAS with the wider Legion clan.
• More boardgaming with in-person guests, instigated by Hulk who left the game after turn one to do something else. instead
• One's annual beaching.
• A return to Zoom, I mean work, including zoom-training the whole workplace prior to upgrading.
• Bunnings-ing up some minor repairs on the household.
• Seeking Sanctuary in Healesville where Hulk rushed Salsa Girl and I from exhibit to exhibit in order to get to the nearby playground as soon as possible.
• Upgrading the work system without leaving one's home office
• Marking the return of footy with a visit to The Great Sandro wherein he could not stop remarking, over the top of the footy broadcast, about how "doesn't look right mate" One's lockdown beard was.
• Attending the celebration of the life of Fifi who had finished her 29 year battle recently outlasting the predictions by a measly 26 years. It was this quiet determination that, during one's 6 or so years of sharing an office space, caused one to fix Fifi's problems pronto and also imbibe many a team coffee run, lest one fall afoul of those looks of portent. The celebratory tone was enhanced by also being able to reconnect with the likes of Sonja Roster Queen, Big J, Lord of the Small Fries, Longstride L, Days of our Libraries, and the increasingly incorrectly named Supervisor Grand Chief K
• And finally a relaxed, run of the mill, odds and ends weekend.

So, as you can see, there was not much to write about and no stories lost to the vortex of not being got around to writing them down.

Hopefully some interesting times shall arise this coming year...

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The Age of a Stump

Well nearly a fortnight has passed, and that is surely enough time for the dust and various other substances related to the momentous events of the half century of StumpyRudolph to settle - not to mention the several upset tummies that one was in far too close proximity to on the day.

The first warning sign that one should have heeded was when Sneaky Pete withdrew his attendance to said event - the Sneakster has oft been like a canary in a coal mine in regards to sensing when things will go awry.

The next ominous sign was when BestFriendSincePrep declared that he wasn't really drinking anymore and then a scant five minutes later was clutching a beer like it was the ultimate prize. "oh, just a light beer then" One enquired, "Nah. It has to be heavy"

Warning the third was when MrRogers took off early citing having things to do whilst the wild eyed look of one who has recognised impending doom crossed his face.

The fourth sign was when the aforementioned BestFriendSincePrep began a vigorous wine tasting sprint.

After that the signs began to tumble past in a flurry - the next 9 odd signs were shot-glass shaped and One has never been more chuffed to be the designated driver at a celebratory event.

Shortly after that, surprisingly, StumpyRudolph was apparently suffering some form of paralysis in the corner of the kitchen while goodbyes were begun, and then rudely interrupted everyone with some quite raucous sounds.

After making a mess of comforting him in the mess, BestFriendSincePrep and I took our leave despite one of us having taken to displaying a paler than normal visage.

We had covered the huge distance of half a kilometre down the road when BestFriendSincePrep sighted some delightful scenery at the side of the road that required urgent close inspection.

BestFriendSincePrep espied several other scenic locations on the 20 minute drive home that took over an hour before I had him home and nigh mute in greeting his family.

One then trundled on home with a rather debilitating slight headache from One's three glasses of wine.

All in all the ageing of StumpyRudolph was a timely reminder of the wisdom that comes with age.
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Traditional Easter

So, this Easter break was another traditional Easter with all the traditional Easter holiday activities and holiday day names.

Starting with the traditional Evening-Before-Good-Friday footy watching, wherein it was good to see the pies back on track.

Continuing with the traditional Saturday-After-Good-Friday-and-Before-Easter-Sunday gaming day of Magic playing with Sneaky Pete, Gavman, ElfBoy, and Commander Fry, all partaking in some traditional Magic card playing (absent were BestFriendSincePrep and MatrixMan, both partaking in non-traditional going away for Easter).

Next was the traditional Easter-Sunday-Two-Days-After-Good-Friday-and-One-Day-Before-The-Monday-After-Easter-Sunday early wakeup and hunt for fluffy little chickens and eggs with Salsa Girl and Hulk. One will be discovering the things in odd places for weeks to come.

And finally today on the Monday-After-Easter-Sunday holiday it is time for the traditional what do we do with an extra day of holidays day. Incorporating all of the traditional too much chocolate events.
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The Holiday Break

And so it seems that one of the first things to break on the holiday is one's determination to keep posting to The Tales.


One of the next is the peace and quiet at home as Hulk's first year of school ends and she is home with Salsa Girl and I, as a raucous bundle of energy with nigh insatiable play demands.

The Xmas days in sweltering Bendigo conditions along with Grandma J caused a break in one's mental faculties.

The trip away was a break the family was looking forward too and one managed to survive despite no break in the frequency and variety of insectile creatures determined to feast upon one's delicate flesh.
Time with Doctor David, and Grannie A, and also as a family in a tent in a storm helped provide a break from the ongoing itching and scratching.

Next to break was one's belief that BestFriendSincePrep had not played in the previous Tuesday Knights game of Judge Dredd. The sight of a well used character sheet began the breaking of one's mind.

And now, with the return to work just a scant few days away, one is looking forward to the break from holidays.

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The Tiger Ticks On

So yesterday was the day that 80 of The Tiger's years ticked by - that's 16 of your Earth years.

It was celebrated with many allowances being made:

• An allowance for extra canned food distribution
• An allowance for an extra-long Hulk-bedtime-delaying brushing session on One's lap
• An allowance for staying on the dining table
• An allowance for drinking from the glass of water on said dining table
• An allowance for sleeping on the special pillows

And according to BestFriendSincePrep we have to do it all again in a couple of months as the 81st Tiger year ticks by...

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M, Part the Second

Today's post refers to the other "M" entry of One's A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors -  Altered Carbon by Richard "I added the K later" Morgan.

It's provenance is that, upon being returned to me as One was already underway with One's legitimate M choice, one was nigh bullied by Pirate Dave and BestFriendSincePrep into replacing legitimacy with their forceful recommendation. However I was able to remain strong and extricate myself from the situation by placating them with making Altered Carbon one's next read.

So without admitting anyone was right or correct this was a fun 4.5 star cyberpunk detective read with it's only failing, in one's eyes - so therefore it's only failing, being a surprising lack of addressing the the issue of destruction of the true self and replacement with copies.

So I believe I shall be reading the follow up books at some stage and also embarking upon the eponymous televisual series in short order - lest Pirate Dave and BestFriendSincePrep come calling again.
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The 30 year Reunion

So two Saturday's gone was the event of One's 30 year high school reunion.

Getting there was a carefully staged affair commencing at BestFriendSincePrep's demesne before being chauffeur driven in style by MrRealEstate to collect MrRogers and arrive fashionably on time.

Once there we reintroduced ourselves to the fabulous organising committee and other early arrivals. Others arrived throughout the early evening until we reached the lofty heights of 40 odd attendees.

One had a great time catching up with the likes of Eggers, Piggy, Serbo, Plumb, Shill, Ross, Jo J, The Twins, Stivey, Whitey, Maz, Mima, Maria, and countless others I've forgotten in the blur that the evening became.

Apparently one has, once again, not changed a bit - although Eggers theory that a man still having his hair at our age was the only qualifier for that statement did take some of the chuffedness away.


One would have liked to catch up with many who didn't make an appearance such as Leno, Mr Shatilko, Mr Gates, Stevie Nicks greatest Fan, and really any other to see where we'd all been taken on our paths of life.


Finally, to top the evening off, One had a true High School moment when entering the Taxi for home as one's trousers, unable to bear the load of drinking and snacking gave way requiring concealing manoeuvres until one could make it home.


One looks forward to another get together in a few years to celebrate our joint half century.
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Replication

So yesterday one ticked off the number one priority on one's performance plan as set by Supervisor Grand Chief K - a viewing of Bladerunner 2049.

It occurred at the instigation of BestFriendSincePrep who was surprised at one's availability and then further surprised when it transpired that Sneaky Pete was also available.

As to the film - nay experience - well, one still has to absorb it all before full commentary is possible.
I will say that the visuals, sounds, and feel were very close to the original, whilst also taking the plot in new directions.

I rate it just shy of 4 stars at the moment and will see how it changes with repeat viewings - which are, I believe, the second, third, and fourth priorities of one's performance plan.
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The Month of Things

So suddenly, it is a month since The Tales have graced screens nation wide and it is time once more to fill that void in all your souls.

So what has been happening, you may ponder?


Well a long outstanding computational device problem at work was finally solved and the backlog of work that rushed forth to fill the now available time was of a high dauntingness level.
But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.


One commenced catch up watching of a half dozen episodes of the new Twin Peaks and experienced the resulting brain melt caused by the 80% or so of it that was Lynchian weirdness for, apparently, it's own sake.
But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

Salsa Girl and Hulk headed north for a weekend which became extended and thus resulted in a blur of gaming activity in The Gaming Garage. The Magical Gathering of the regular crew of ElfBoy, Gavman, Legion2, Pirate Dave, and even BestFriendSincePrep making a return after a decade, overtook the Friday evening. The Saturday saw the boardgames commence with Badger and FridgePower subbing in for ElfBoy and Gavman, for a gentle run through 5 hours - and half of - the Game of Thrones boardgame. During these proceedings FridgePower played true to Queen of Thorns character by talking one's favourite tea mug into self destructive cracking.

The third day of extended absence almost saw gaming again as BestFriendSincePrep was pressing for it but wisdom and the weight of chores held out and a day of pottering about the house was enjoyed by one.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

One's return to mountains of work was brief as a rescue mission to retrieve Salsa Girl and Hulk  had to be undertook resulting in an hours long drive through tumultuous rain and trucks along the Calder, and a clandestine handover with Grandma J in the vicinity of the halfway point.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

In amongst all of this Pirate Dave has taken the reigns of the Tuesday Knights roleplaying sessions (now regularly scheduled on Wednesdays but what can you do about a name?). Thus requiring one to actually read the background for a game for once rather than wing it and hope the players don't notice.

But that is not the excuse for the delay of this posting.

Which more or less brings us up to today and finally a posting.

With no real reason for the delay - unless you wish to count one's legendary laconical approach to getting things done?

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Gaming the Band Back Together

Sunday last was another of one's regular board gaming sessions.

This one however was pre-advertised longer than usual and thus attracted both FridgePower and Judge Mingus. It was therefore a mini band reunion of sorts. Although, in the words of that great philosophical treatise from back in nineteen hundred and eighty four - Revenge of the Nerds - "Sh*t, we forgot to practice!"

With most, nay, all of the regulars also attending we struggled to find a game that could also accomodate Legion2, Pirate Dave, Badger, Miasmakat, and BestFriendSincePrep, given that Legion2 vetoed Block Mania and I no longer have the second set of blocks required to take it up to an 8 player monstrosity. 

We settled on The Great Dalmuti in which the  decidedly left-leaning Judge Mingus orchestrated a rather hypocritically rapid rise into the privileged aristocracy.

Other highlights included my finally winning another game of Samurai Battles thanks to my general in crime FridgePower who's "I don't know what I'm doing" tactics helped win the day; a return to Dominion basic and simple cards; and Pirate Dave's Epic 8 minute final turn in Eight Minute Empire.

If this level of attendance continues we may have to resort to multiple games running at the same time - or I could return to my usual last minute flash-mob style of alerting people it is on.
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The End of Footy Parties

So the end of the footy season saw all the usual partying happening.

The first party was the traditional celebration of Salsa Girl's birthday. This year in the form of a Dinner and a Murder mystery. Our participants had a lot of fun - even with BestFriendSincePrep going on a murder spree - although one suspects that Baroness Badger was behind it all.
Salsa Girl herself won best costume, while Pirate Dave's inspector was a crowd favourite as he helped himself to the riches of body looting. FridgePower and Judge Mingus made a great effort to attend despite suffering from some sort of plague and FridgePower made a brave face of being murdered twice. In fact only Legion2 escaped being murderised - probably thanks to the protection of BestFriendSincePrep's real world wife the Lovely Lea.
All in all a great night and even Hulk's murderous upstairs screams about not going to bed enhanced the theme.


The second tradition of Footy's End was the Magic the Gathering night at Gavman's. Legion2, ElfBoy, Pirate Dave and oneself all made the pilgrimage to participate.


The main event itself was the traditional Grand Final Party hosted in inimitable style once more by The Wiggs. We were all excited for the match - Hulk made a flag to wave and even waived it twice before becoming bored and going off to explore the house. BestFriendSincePrep, MrRogers, and StumpyRudolph were all in attendance and concerned with the sweep results until we all became swept up in the Bulldogs victory and bet-winning margins lost all significance.
It was a wonderful emotional ride only tinged slightly for one by knowing that The Hellenic Hoofer would have been rejoicing ten times as much as any of us.
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The Miasmakat's Partay

Saturday last Hulk, Salsa Girl, and I attended the city venue birthday celebrations of one's gaming associate Miasmakat and her non-associated (well except via The Viking Hat GM's Geektogethers) gaming husband.

This party was sensibly held in the afternoon.

One had a proud father moment on the train journey in when metro announced "The next station will be Collingwood" and Hulk responded with "Collingwood? Good old Collingwood forever, ..." and sang the whole song replete with mid verse corr-blimey. I've definitely brunged her up right.

One will only be prouder when she destroys one in a board game some time in our future.

The party was a fun affair in an indoor tent room that involved a couple of hours of catch up chit chat, playing who is that person from 20 years ago, and also playing keep Hulk away from the cup cakes.


The party continued the next day with Sunday gaming wherein Miasmakat, BestFriendSincePrep and I proceeded to doom the world by failing to save it from a deadly bout of swine flu in Pandemic.
We were joined by Legion2 for the chaos of Stellar Conflict - aka the rubber band game - wherein BestFriendSincePrep snapped one of the said rubber bands thereby ruining an irreplaceable game component.

When Pirate Dave arrived we decided to save the world for a change by stopping the infected leaving the Dark Moon in my cooperative variant of the The Thing in Space game.

We rounded out the night by being caught attempting a pet store heist in Burgle Bros.

After so much fun failure Miasmakat's party weekend was called to close and we all* went to bed early for a good nights sleep.

*Nobody can prove that one played Magic with Legion2 until late!!

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Scything through Productivity

So, one's new board game Scythe arrived the other week and is this month's choice reason for reduced posting.

It began with a late night unboxing, but not the sort of unboxing it is popular to film and provide on the you tubes. No, this one was a private affair with oneself revelling in the sights, sounds, smells and textures of the fresh cardboard, plastic and even resin in the privacy of The Gaming Garage.

The following night was absorbed by the sleeving of the cards for protection and the organising of the storage so all the gorgeous bits could go back into the box safely.

The third night was rudely interrupted by having to go to the footy with The Great Sandro and Legion2 to see the pies triumph over the ancient enemy.

The very next gaming night was consumed by the initial play of the game with BestFriendSincePrep taking the victory narrowly from Badger and Gavman and Legion2 somewhat behind and yours truly ending on a dismal score.

Despite thinking that I would have to return such an obviously defective game I decided to give it another go Sunday last, with the same crew sans Gavman. And Lo and Behold it turns out it is an excellent game as I magnificently triumphed over all opponents.

One was rather relieved that the game was worth keeping now.

Although when I mentioned this relief Salsa Girl did give me one of those "as if any game would ever leave your collection" looks.
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Daddy-Daughter Weekend

With Salsa Girl away for a few days this weekend past naturally became a four day Daddy-Daughter weekend for Hulk and I.

Of course once he got wind of this BestFriendSincePrep naturally decreed it would be Daddy-Daughter-BestFriendSincePrep weekend with three nights of visits for gaming and other suchlike debauchery.

So, on the one night he did turn up, much gaming and bourbon fun was had - although one may have enhanced the other (as bourbon isn't usually such fun).

It was also Daddy-Daughter-Zoo weekend as we once more attended said institution to enjoy the attractions such as: chasing seagulls, stomping in the gazebo, climbing the frog statues, and accidentally seeing the odd animal or two.

All in all an excellent weekend that one wished would never end... or was that thought would never end
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Deep Game Thrombosis

So this Sunday last one hosted a board gaming day in The Gaming Garage.

It was quite the excellent affair with BestFriendSincePrep affirming his recently established 100% attendance record and Legion2 joining him for most of the heavy lifting.

Badger, Gavman, and Pirate Dave all made their contributions too- as did Commander Fry for the Magical evening.

A disturbing development, however, was the deep ache that developed in one's right shin in the afternoon in the middle of the 12 odd hours of seated gaming making it quite painful to walk.

Now that one has slept it off the only conclusion can be that one needs to cut down on the amount of extra walking Sidekick has been inspiring one to undertake,  as that must be the culprit.
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Going Back to my Old School

This Saturday past Salsa Girl, Hulk and oneself returned to one's old primary school, Viewbank Primary, for it's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Of course we first visited BestFriendSincePrep to see his new house which is located quite nearby - and by new house I refer to the one he has been in for nigh on three years without having us over.

Eventually we made our way up to the school and explored the grounds to see what had changed - and the large amount that was the same. We also had rather a futile attempt to locate any old class mates in the throng, which proves that any occasional bouts of laziness one may exhibit are generational in nature.

We did run into Handy Dad revisiting his school committee days, Freeloading Mum, Legion 4, and numerous members of the BestFriendSincePrep clan.

Hulk enjoyed herself exploring many things and even the obligatory trip to the library was made - although one was sorely disappointed to find the reading mezzanine space was now given over to several dozen computers.

All in all a good day spent marvelling at how much things have shrunk since the late seventies.
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The Resurrection of Disappointment

This weekend past saw the reinstating of a long standing tradition.

Oneself, along with BestFriendSincePrep, StumpyRudolph, MrRogers, Legion2, Gavman, The Electric Tiger, and one other, made a return to our annual camping trip - although Gavman's attendance being counted is in dispute as heading home for a dinner after several hours is either commitment to turn up at all or abandonment of the cause for the flimsy excuse of attending the one chance to catch up with a friend he's known 7 years longer than us.

Sorry that previous sentence should read "camping" or far too much civilisation is implied - although the use of no less than 3 tents this year created ample sleeping space which is a bit of a departure from the usual cramped situation.

It was a good return to form, after a four year break, as we notched up our 22nd trip with a minimal incident count - just a few scratches here and there and some minor burns. Maybe some muscles ended up a little achey as well.

There was the required roaring fire, much rubbishing talk, consumption of beverages, chopping, throwing, footy kicking, and many trips into the dark for harvesting bonfire fuel and other requirements.

One feels that one's blokey quota for the year has been adequately fulfilled.
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