Saturday 10 November 2007

What a hell of a day(s).

I left my house at 9.30am on Thursday, thinking that I'd probably be back in an hour or three, maximum. Obviously my grasp of how the Australian court system works is faulty, because it was somewhere around 4pm when finally my brother had his minor case heard. It's not such a bad thought considering that neither my brother or I had ever been within the grounds of court before, let alone inside one.

I was there in support for my brother over a matter where he failed to stop a door from slamming shut as the door in question naturally does, which caused a glass pane to shatter. But who could blame him, he was too busy chasing after his girlfriend who was in tears after both he and her had been heavily insulted by an officious bureaucrat at an employment agency - one that in this town has failed the vast majority of people to have ever had the displeasure of being registered with it. But I digress.

After my brother was ordered to pay for the damages, rather than simply having been asked to, we left and decided to meet up with some friends at the local Workies club for a few games of pool and drinks. A nice way to wind down a stressful day before winding back up again to a small extent for Thursday night pub trivia.

Before trivia, the crew were invited to Matty and Marnee's for a few more drinks, topped off in grand style by Marnee's cooking. The girl is a damn fine chef at that. I'm not quite sure what we ate though. I should have asked. A kinda taco looking tray of stuff.. but it vanished rather quickly. Just like all the alcohol I bought for everyone did.

So after Matty won the round of Trivial Pursuit and we had devoured Marnee's dinner offering, we all set off to the pub for our weekly trivia game. It would seem that the warm up game of trivial pursuit didn't help too much. Not that it ever matters!

What did matter was the company. This evening in particular had a new injection of interest. J-Lo had joined us for the evening and with him came his daughter Cindy, who was quickly dubbed C-Lo. Now is this the part where I start writing like a gibbering idiot? Here's hoping some dignity shines through!

I don't tend to give much thought to first impressions. They so often tend to be scratching the surface of what one tends to learn as time progresses, where you are able to learn to appreciate a person for their true worth. So having said that, it's all the more baffling to me how this girl managed to hook me in so readily. And not just me. She made a fan of everyone she spoke to. J-Lo made the comment that Cindy had made more friends in one night on the town than he has in the years he has lived here (on and off)! Some people are just incredibly magnetic I guess.

So, apparently people didn't think I was too subtle in making sure I always had an empy seat next to me. Was I that pissed? I don't recall doing anything too overt, except really enjoying the company and conversation.

Anyway, like I said - we lost pub trivia, but so what. Afterwards we all headed off to Mark's karaoke at the Court House Hotel. Top stuff, as always. A cold night and the fireplace burning, good tunes and great company. I did my usual "My Way" by Frank Sinatra, and it turns out Cindy can knock out a tune like a natural. "Simply the best" by Tina Turner was the choice. We considered a duet, but I didn't fancy my voice in handling Bon Jovi! J-Lo made me smile when he said as a proud father and in reference to his daughter's singing "hey when I make something, I make it well."

The evening wound down, but with some of us still wound up I saw my brother and Jas off to home and I headed out for post karaoke drinks at J-Lo's, with the man himself, Cindy and Jill. More scotch, music, German neighbours complaining, fried garlic prawns, and steak with pasta, the night only died when 7.30am rolled around and Jill headed for home. I stayed, slept on the couch and then rose at 12.30, had a shower, changed into clean clothes that Jill, Jardine and Jas brought me and then headed off after an excellent cooked breakfast made for me by Cindy.

An excellent 24+ hours. I must admit though, for one reason or another I'm now finding it very hard to concentrate.

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