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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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 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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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 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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Spin me Right Round...

... Like a Record baby

So last weekend was one's 45 birthday.

I had a smallish gathering with the minor theme of "Bring a 45".

There was some excellent catering by Salsa Girl assisted by Freeloading Mum - although I do have to take issue with the idea that I had to give everyone a piece of MY cheesecake birthday cake!

Being the theme instigator I dutifully hauled my pristine collection of 45s from the late 80s downstairs - about 50 of them in all. Amongst their number where such gems as Samantha Fox - Touch Me, of which, with my newly acquired mature status, one is not ashamed (although probably 15 year old Phill should be).

Several others provided their own input including ElfBoy with an extensive compilation collection; Legion2 with his hauntingly familiar collection (in that shared bedroom growing up kind of way); and Badger with some prime Brit Punk. I was, however, disappointed to see no Smith & Wessons brought along.

Badger's standout contribution was providing the whole audio and phonographic equipment, without which we would have been unable to hear these gems of the songwriters craft. Impressively the turntable was a vintage 80s Marantz still in perfect working order.

Dropping the ball on the theme front were BestFriendSincePrep and StumpyRudolph, representing one's school friends neither of them had any knowledge of their 45s, or indeed of which number drink they were up to.

Representing the creative side of music were past (and future??) band mates FridgePower and Judge Mingus, along with their own personal creations.

Most parts of the party went well, although Hulk did insist on being sensitive to strangers and require alternating bouts of individual care from Salsa Girl and oneself which was the sole reason there are parts of the party that one cannot recall.

After most had taken leave Legion2 and Pirate Dave (returning from DragonMim's overshadowing 50th event which kept many others away) stayed long into the evening playing the Magic card game and helping one with ones overabundance of whisky. In fact I believe I may have been playing the game on muscle memory at one point and events and my thinking became decidedly fuzzy around the 1:00 am mark.

All in all a most excellent occasion.
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The Final Graphical Entertainment Collection

It has been a week now and one is finally able to bring oneself to speak of the immense change that has occurred in ones life.

One has made a final pilgrimage north to collect ones standing order of Judge Dredd and 2000AD comics.

I had initially thought that I would make the final odyssey in the fittingly lone wolf style that the vast majority of trips had been made in the past decades. However Salsa Girl - ever aware of the opportunity for some alone time - quickly added Hulk's attendance into the event.
Once the journey was underway it did seem fitting that Hulk was along for the ride as she is a big part of the impetus for this change.

Upon arrival and collection I felt a twinge of nostalgia for those heady days when I began my collection. At the time the newsagent was in a different locale in the shopping complex, and I had to make a weekly trip up to collect my supermarket job pay - in an envelope from the pay office.
Of course I thanked the establishment for allowing me to collect every six weeks instead of the mandated fortnight for years on end, and found out that the staff member who I first signed up with still worked on Tuesdays.

All in all it was a wonderful farewell to a tradition that has now been supplanted by going digital and the resultant late Wednesday evening repeated clicking of the refresh button until the latest issue shows up for download.

The only blemish on the whole experience was running into StumpyRudolph at his place of business and spending a quarter hour chatting to him.
I guess it was my own fault as I did go there to see if he was around.

Now that one is saving money as well as space I am faced with the dilemma of what to do with my savings - perhaps another several hundred dollars worth of big boxed board games for the cupboard?
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The Tragedy of Pizza-free Poker

Sigh, bX-1fv8xl, sure is playing havoc with my regular posting schedule. Although some may say that it is merely acting as the enabler of my laziness... I can't be bothered responding to that acusation, it would take too much effort.

Anyway, here's one I've been preparing for a week or so:

This Saturday last (now Saturday, Saturday last) myself and Legion2 made the great trek out to MrRogers new-ish abode for a poker night that had been in the scheduling for nigh on half a year.

Upon arrival we traversed our way via secret stairway to the basement location of the festivities to find BestFriendSincePrep and StumpyRudolph already in attendance. As it was a completely reasonable hour of the evening, and a tradition of poker nights, one suggested that we order pizza to satisfy ones lurking hunger. You can imagine how taken-aback I was to be told "nah, we already ate before coming over".
As the evening progressed and further participants arrived,(The Electric Tiger & The Wiggs)  they joined in the chorus and also took up the new refrain of "just eat the chips and chocolate". Which is all well and good if they'd just leave said chips to me but seems a tad hypocritical as they continued to take great handfuls of one's rapidly disappearing sustenance.

In the end I made it through the evening none the worse for wear and may have discovered a new diet sensation - although Salsa Girl seems to be disagreeing with one about that insight.
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The Golf Trip

This weekend past I had my arm twisted by BestFriendSincePrep to go on a two-day golf trip with the likes of himself, StumpyRudolph, MrRogers, The Electric Tiger, and sundry other hard-drinking golf players.

It may have been somewhat of a miscalculation.

Friday afternoon is when our tale begins as I collected BestFriendSincePrep and managed to avoid having to drink anything on the trip up when he grudgingly accepted my excuse of having to do the driving.
However this changed for the worse upon arrival where the number of downed beers quickly reached double figures by early evening. The late arrival of dinner did not help the situation and one was feeling quite seedy as the evening wore on. Luckily several games of pool interrupted the drinking and my constitution was able to restore my internal balance somewhat before the final session of the evening began. This final session was, of course, one of "drink whatever the bar is selling cheap". Hence some sort of sweet vodka drink was imbibed before turning in for the evening.

I knew I was not feeling the best the next morning when I was unable to eat more than a mouthful of toast and a sliver of bacon. Four holes of golf soon sorted that out and I was back to my usual level of hunger by the time we finished our round and commenced our club house lunch. My game was at my usual standard and the leader-board remained unchallenged.

The Saturday evening was a much quieter affair and one was even able to make it to bed both without an alcoholic drink and before midnight - thanks largely to BestFriendSincePrep tiring rather quickly towards the later stages of the evening.

The Sunday golf was a slight bit worse thanks to the many water features beside the course and then we were heading home a little redder about the sun-exposed portions of our bodies and gladly looking forward to a good sleep in our own beds.
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StumpyRudolph, the Coffee Date, and Footy

Despite the misleading headline one did not go on a coffee date with StumpyRudolph at the football - perish the thought. This is merely another post collecting several topics together.

Last weekend was the much anticipated fortieth celebrations for StumpyRudolph. I made good my attendance despite the monsoon-like rains however both Gavman and BestFriendSincePrep excused themselves from attendance. As I had been pacing myself for the inevitable drinkathon once BFSP arrived I was a little more sedate than expected and left for home at the reasonable hour of three am.


During the past week one was fortunate enough to be able to arrange and then go on a coffee date with a Candidate. All went well and coffee became dinner over a few glasses of red wine (without the feared staple of online dating, 'reading the weekend Age', rearing it's ugly head).
Conversation flowed back and forth relatively well although I do have a Caution for you: after consultation with the girls at work I have determined that apparently it is bad form for one to allude to one's date as matronly in the midst of jovial repartee. (A secondary Caution is that one may receive a light arm punching from said girls at work for even having to ask that question.)
In any case the evening ended with the Candidate having amusing credit card issues and oneself footing the entire bill. On walking away I realised I had been freeloaded upon and began wondering if we were in fact a match made in heaven.


This remainder of the weekend involved a long overdue catching up with Rugrat Twin - not seen since one's long past ageing event; the latest football outing with The Great Sandro, wherein it was all business as usual; visiting Mirri Cat Warrior to see if she had learned any new tricks; and finishing up with a quiet night at home in front of the telly.

One feels almost fully refreshed and ready to take on another working week but we shall see as the proof is in the pudding, mmm pudding.
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The Missing Weeks. Part the Third

As we continue on with our investigation we find ourselves coming to one of those regular seasonal events that seem to occur naturally whenever the season is right.

The Branch Xmas drinks
This years occurrence was located at a different establishment than is the usual case for events such as this.

We gathered in a drinking house recently converted from being an automotive repair business - one presumes that easily hosed concrete floors are an exciting thing for those who earn their livelyhood from the alcohol imbibing industry.

Anyhoo, in attendance were: Mr Prada, Days of our Libraries, Kiwichick, The Pragmatist, Fifi, and even Supervisor Grand Chief K put in an appearance after fixating on my costume accessories for the next evening's party - in particular the handcuffs which just happened to be a part of the pack - and showed a shocking amount of ignorance of who the character I was going as actually was.

Much fun and frivel was had by all. The evening finished relatively early which was fine as the rest of my evening could be spent storing up energy for the next big event.


The 40th
The very next evening was the 40th birthday affair for BestFriendSincePrep. As is his want he had made the whole thing slightly more annoying as it was a costumed ball and therefore costumes had to be prepared. I do suspect though, that it was done purely so that he could wear a wig and experience a warm head all night.

Legion2 and the Brotherstealer where there as were Gavman, StumpyRudolph, MrRogers, MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic and Couch Killer.

My choice of costume - the legendary Snake Plissken - revealed some shocking statistics.
95% of women at the party had no idea who Snake was (one guessed the actor)
20% of men had no idea either - and that's allowing Gavman's guess of Jack Russell in Little China to stand as a success.
This country is obviously in need of a strong education campaign in the area of B-grade sci-fi movies from the early eighties.
I'm not even going to talk about the horrendous sub-100% recognition rate for Legion2's Han Solo costume.

But aside from all that the brilliance of BFSP in having a slushie machine was just one of the many masterstrokes in the nibbles department. All in all a good night and perfect preperation for the next days adventure.

up next: in which our hero traipses from one end of town to the other
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... The Regular Round-Up

Well my bountiful social activities have once again left me unable to write for the past week.

My roller-coaster week began last Sunday with my hosting of the regular Sunday gaming day.
Despite many regulars being in attendance it ended uncharacteristically prior to midnight leaving me at somewhat of a loss about what to do until my usual Sunday Gaming bedtime of 2am.

The Brownlow
Monday night was spent watching my first Brownlow medal telecast for many a year. The nigh unbearable mixture of cheesiness and tedium was made more bearable by my sharing the evening with The Great Sandro although I doubt I'll make a regular event of it as I can now recall why it is that I've not often brought myself to watch it in the past.

The Return of Supervisor S
Tuesday brought the return of Supervisor S after a two year parental absence. The omens are not good as her return was heralded by a great flooding of the library - although this happening a scant fortnight before new carpet was laid and also not affecting any IT equipment at all may actually make it a good omen.

The Umpteenth Geektogether
With the dramatic end of the game at The Viking Hat GM's last week, this Wednesday saw a gathering at the now usual Southgate watering hole. Numbers were low so it was mostly an enjoyable post-mortom of the events of the previous week in which TVHGM pointed out all our failings as players and we, in turn, his as GM. Fun all round I think.

The Free Food Day
Thursday was a day of morning tea, catered lunch, and afternoon cakes, all punctuated with moments of meeting. If only such events were held on a weekly basis.

The Sad Farewell
All of Friday's hectic workday events were overshadowed by the fact that it was the final day of Devil's Advocate's stint at HQ. There were goodbye hugs and tearful mutterings aplenty as well as much bubbly (thanks to the expedition organising skills of Big J).
I was so overwhelmed by the emotion of the event that I had to stay on into the evening until enough emotion was out of my system that I could legally drive home.

The Grand Final
Saturday dawned bright and, well, stormy. Amidst a day of hail and torrential rain I made good on my much awaited promise to The Great Sandro that we would be able to watch a Grand Final together.
So together we made the great journey out to BestFriendSincePrep's and, along with the likes of StumpyRudolph, The Electric Tiger, and MrRogers, made a great day of watching a game in which neither of our teams was participating.
We made a complete day of it and stayed into the evening as I had to once again wait for the emotion to leave my system before chauffeuring him safely home.

The Aimless Day
And so we come to today.
After a luxuriant albeit feline interrupted sleep-in I have found my first real free day to have far too easily evaporated away leaving me with little to show in terms of results other than relaxation.
Hopefully that shall see me through the coming week in good stead.
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... The Traditional Disappointment

Those of you who have been following The Tales these past two years - or indeed any recountings of my bountifully exciting life - should be aware of the annual pilgrimage to all things blokey from the previous occasions I have informed you of my attendance at the event.

This years event was staged under conditions unlike any seen in the previous 20 odd years. The biggest break with tradition was the move of our location to one of the 20 hectares on the property of StumpyRudolph. This change was necessitated by our traditional camping ground having been in the path of the Black Saturday fires earlier this year.

Those in attendance this year - yours truly, Legion2, StumpyRudolph, Gavman, and BestFriendSincePrep - gathered at the crack of midday and set out on a visit to our old campsite to pay our respects. Upon arrival it was a stark reminder of the horrors that the fires had wrought to the area. Despite the green growth sprouting from many of the surviving eucalypts it was remeniscent of photographs I had seen of the battlefields of the Somme - trees jutting skyward, dirt and mud with no undergrowth and a sense of barreness and destruction.

After a short side trip to stock up on the much needed supplies such as bread, chips, chocolate, and drinks. We finally arrived with all our belongings at the chosen camping spot at the base of the hill.

The evening proceeded in a more-or-pess expected fashion with much merriment, lots of firewood gathering expeditions, 4 to a tent crowded sleeping conditions, and various other hijinks of which we are forbidden to tell lest we lose our membership in the cabal that is our brotherhood of attendees. Suffice to say that amongst all those goings-on I managed to make one of those rare visits to the magical 10,000 steps in a day and also received several small cinder-burns in unusual places.

The other major break with tradition was several brief visits by StumpyRudolph's spawn - a fact that we let him off the hook about for now but shall call him to account about later on when it suits the furtherance of our collective agendas.

As is also typical I have returned home this afternoon to while away my time in sleep deprived meanderings about the house merely counting the hours until I could once more fall into a proper bed for a good night's rest.
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... The Great Slide into Irregularity

Once again my self-imposed goal of one post every four or five days has slipped away from me. Looking back I can't understand how I was able to succeed at the whole 25 Blogs of Xmas thing.
I guess I can blame this tie on old-age or the heat or the huge amount of work I am doing (take note Supervisor Grand Chief K).

In any case here is a selection from the previous week or so - although with the elapsed time several ideas/pontifications have slipped away never to be brought to life on these pages - whomever it was that said "if it's a good idea you will remember it" is completely wrong, I've lost so many good ideas to the aether that I now make sure I write them down whenever possible.


The Plethora of BBQs
My birthday weekend was marked by an over-abundance of BBQs - so many, in fact, that I had to decline one. The regular family one was first up and was followed the next day by the real-people housewarming BBQ for The Viking Hat GM. Much good food and conversation was had - all without a single dice being rolled!


The Haze of Summer
Speaking of He of the Horn-ed Hat, he has written a succinct post called Fires and Silence (in his Viking-hatted Hippy mode) saying pretty much what I would say about the current Victorian bushfire situation if The Tales weren't so focused on food and frivol.

I must say though that I have been awed by the effect on familiar places and the haze of woodsmoke that has been over the city for much of the week turning the sun into a looming orange globe in the sky.

The media is also full of people and organisations big-noting themselves over how much they are giving to help the victims which tweaks my cynic impulses no end, but at least they are giving.


The Planning of a Conference
On a lighter note I was in the city on Wednesday with Skeptic L and Comrade Treasurer making sure that the food and drink facilities for this years conference would be more than adequate. There was also some talk about halls and IT equipment but I'm sure that will sort itself out on the day.


The RFIDs Again
We had another branch go live with RFID on Thursday. Everything went exactly as I had expected - right down to the great network slowdown of the middle afternoon.
Oh well such is the IT life.


The Endless Poker Night
My weekend has been consumed by yet another of BestFriendSincePrep's wacky schemes. This one was all about the best way to spend Valentine's Day - poker!!
So along with StumpyRudolph and The Electric Tiger we embarked on a card-crusade with BFSP's goal of seeing dawn hanging over us.

Well I made it, thanks to not being allowed to leave when everyone else's stamina gave out at 4.30 because apparently "only drunk people say they have not had too many drinks in the last ten hours".
I bided my time watching The Island and then made good my escape in the morning haze to finally reach my much needed bed.

I awoke late in the afternoon once again without most of my day and swearing to never follow BestFriendSincePrep's lead in anything ever again.
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... Movies, Footy and Music

Good things have continued to happen as, not long after making my last post, Mr Prada finally released his vice-like grip from Doctor Who series two and allowed my reservation to allocate. I recommenced catching up with the good doctor that very evening.

Friday night's good thing was a movie outing with Rugrat Twin and Alecto in celebration of the Rugrat Twin's birthday. The Twin chose a double of both X-Files movies at the Astor (pronounces Ass-toor by the staff, I mean staaaff). It had been a very long time since I'd graced the venue with my presence and I was pleased to see that she hadn't changed a bit. My bum was a bit displeased that they hadn't changed the seats one bit though.
Rewatching the first movie - now 10 years old - gave me a weird sense of deja vu as things happened that I vaguely recalled. Obviously it was an unforgettable experience the first time I saw it.
The new movie vindicated my expert search skills when Skully, conducting doctory research into stem cell treatments, used Google - and only Google - and found exactly what she was looking for. I believe that since I do not go beyond the big G, that makes me eminently qualified to be a reference librarian.

Saturday's good thing was, of course, the Grand Final BBQ.
This year it was organised to be at StumpyRudolph's chalet in the hills - the scene of my rather unfortunate run in with BestFriendSincePrep's idea of a good nights drinking. Everything was much more sedate this time however I did have some nam-like flashbacks on visiting the rest-room I had spent so much time in.
The game itself went well and for once Legion2 and I were supporting different teams so we had a legitimate reason to abuse each other. My team won of course.

Leaving the BBQ early - i.e. the same time as everyone else - I rushed back to civilisation to join the festivities at Rugrat Twin's birthday slash flat-warming party. This kept me up until pumpkin time listening to the verbal acrobatics of Evil Twin.

Sunday was a prearranged get together with Tuck to go through our musical memorabilia from the band we were in together, oh, FOURTEEN YEARS AGO! The pictures were the most interestingly scary. Unfortunately my scanner was misbehaving and, not having anyone IT savvy enough around to fix it, I won't be able to show you any of them for a few weeks so forget I even mentioned them. In any case we unboxed many fascinating relics from those Malaclypse III times and whiled away the afternoon in reminiscent conversation.


The most recent good thing to happen was everyone believing me that I was working from home today. A few strategic emails and phone calls and the rest of day was mine.

My luck may have turned though. I unthinkingly used my bountiful non-work time to have my flowing locks trimmed so I could look all spiffy and suchlike for this weeks conference - ignoring that Svetlana has decreed that my locks must stay at least a certain length (I think so that they are easily used to guide me towards her side of any discussion we may have).
I may be forced to have hair extensions installed in order to escape her wrath when she lands in, oh, 15 more sleeps!!
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... 20 Years of Disappointment

This weekend just past was the twentieth anniversary of the blokey camping night at Mt Disappointment.

My blokeyness got off to a slow start after an early morning phone call from Svetlana delayed my arrival but we got there in the end.
We being the core group of: yours truly, Legion2, BestFriendSincePrep, StumpyRudolph and MrRogers (Gavman pulled out sick with a bad case of being weak and girly).

We indulged in many of the usual activities: bush golf, drinking, firewood harvesting, drinking, exploding things on the fire, drinking, jaffle making, drinking and eating lots of chips and chocolates. We also squeezed some drinking in. I survived to make it home and only twinged my knee three times so I think I got off lightly.

In order to unwind and dissipate some of the blokeyness I had Sunday night dinner with Alecto and Rugrat Twin while we watched the latest Dr Who Christmas Special before making Rugrat Twin redress her error of never having seen the classic metaphysical comedy that is Groundhog Day.

... The Evils of BestFriendSincePrep

Yesterday was the wedding of MrRogers. As is his way BestFriendSincePrep had planned everything out for us to have a huge session as part of the celebrations.
It began with my not being on the complementary bus but instead ordered to drive out to StumpyRudolph's place where it was all going to happen, so that we could both stay the night and still have transport back home in the morning.

Once ceremonial proceedings were underway BFSP began to force feed me beers and didn't let up until we last four survivors trundled off to bed at three in the morning. Oh to have Svetlana there to protect me by drinking my beer as she did at Gavman's wedding.

It was almost twelve hours later that my body began to win the battle against alcohol poisoning and as I type this right now, a further six hours on, I'd say that I'm back to about half human.


Ooh I can make this into a caution.
Never, ever, ever, think that it's even remotely possible to keep up with BestFriendSincePrep. It's just not humanly possible and you'll end up spending most of the next day incommunicado and, most importantly, be a tad too seedy to partake in free bacon and eggs for breakfast.

... The High School Reunion

Last night was my 20 year HSC reunion.

Despite having found my old school jumper the other week when I was cleaning out the last of my clothes boxes from the big move I decided against wearing something that would be skin tight nowadays. (Although the number of times I was told I haven't changed makes me wonder if I shouldn't have squeezed myself into the jumper after all...)

With BestFriendSincePrep, StumpyRudolph, and MrRogers all away at a golfing weekend it was up to me to hold the fort for the group that I still see regularly. I had a great time and was a little overwhelmed at seeing the older version of close to 100 people despite having relatively fresh memories of the 20 odd who went to the smaller 18 year get-together.

There was a little too much noise - music and chatter - to have a really good conversation and I even had to just nod and smile a few times.

Some of the highlights: two sets of twins, short conversations with the two guys who gave me some low level bullying in year 7, not even noticing it was 3am, people who looked 50 and others who looked 18, a wide mix of jobs (surprisingly few IT Guys), reminding people of nicknames and incidents they'd forgotten, hanging out with the popular girls.

Apparently we're going to aim to have one every 5 years from now on, like a mis-timed 7Up. I look forward to going to the next one.

... The Power Failure at the 'G

I spent an enjoyable afternoon yesterday at BestFriendSincePrep's for a Grand Final Day BBQ along with Legion2, Gavman, ArchEnemy, StumpyRudolph, ElfBoy and many others. It was fantastic to see the arrogant Port humbled in the game and we were all cheering for the same side for once.

I think we need to start a petition to have pies placed second for the season as we clearly outplayed both of the other top four teams against Geelong.

... Poker, Simpsons and Father's Day

After a day back home at Sandy branch on FridayI headed off to a poker night at Micko's. Most of the usual card night gang were there: BestFriendSincePrep, StumpyRudolph, Legion2, Gavman, and Bradley. We had some great games of Chase-the-Ace with our own variation on the rules and a late game of poker.

Trying to sleep in the next day to recover was a bit difficult with the Tiger jumping on me all the time and then strange phone calls from crazy Italian people and Sister Serials having issues at Hampton. In any case I had to be up for a visit from My Guitarist who was this side of town collecting some ebay winnings. We had a good catch up and I found out that Redneck Ben is getting married next weekend.

In the afternoon I finally used one of my awards for being the best person in the library and saw the Simpson's Movie at the local. It was good but not great and I didn't think it pushed the boundaries beyond what could be done on TV as much as I'd been led to believe. After the film GavMan came by for some Space Hulk action.

Today was the gathering of the Legion for Handy Dad's day Lunch followed by general blobbing around at home in preparation for the long hard week ahead.