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The WTF! Factor
Jun. 4th, 2007 10:13 amWell, it had been my intention to let the occasion slip by quietly, virtually unnoticed...
However, it seems Reynardo had other ideas ~ & other willing helpers ~ for a surprise raid on my equilibrium. Having floated the idea, about a month ago, of a "small" dinner with SarinG, LederHosen & our good selves, to acknowledge, if not quietly celebrate, our Gemini births ~ to which I was amenable, on Saturday night I walked into one of the better Chinese restaurants in Ashfield to be confronted by 15!!! of my friends from various walks & times of my life.
Surprised?? You f@*kin' betcha!! Still kind of am, in fact... the WTF factor hasn't quite worn off.
My second thought (you can probably guess the first) was how would so many of my friends get along with each other ~ I know a wiiiiide variety of people & have a policy of not mixing the different groups together. Once bitten... The third thought was to wonder how Reynardo had found 'em all. There were a couple of former flames, former bandmates & a friend I've known since the first year of high school in... never you mind. Her method was revealed later in the evening when she reminded me of the e-mail I sent out to my contact list when I changed to ObtuseNet & thus had a new address. Being patchily technignorant, I don't know how to set up a group thing, I just put everyone's addresses in the 'To' box. So, of course, any enterprising Tech Support worker could then contact the lot of them. Ah ha...
Then, almost on cue, everybody reached under the table & hauled out presents. All but one were suspiciously wine bottle-shaped. My recently emptied cellar is well on the way to being re-stocked... A reputation is a wonderful/embarrassing thing to have, but at least it makes buying presents for me pretty easy!! Which reminds me ~ Rey, when can we arrange delivery?
The poor little restaurant was overwhelmed with our number & I think the kitchen struggled to cope. The food arrived sporadically & occasionally erroneously, but was of good to great quality. Conversations from my centre of the table were varied, as predicted, but no arguments or blood-feuds were started, so I'd call it a good result for cross-pollination. Highlights include the aged champagne, my schoolfriend's appalling jokes, several silly photos I never want to see, paper bag handpuppets & the responses to ZenSiren's request for everybody to tell their best story about themselves & how they related to everyone else at the table. I got off lightly in most of those stories... I think.
At turf-out time, I lost the race to the bottom of the wineglass with Maelefic & took protracted farewells on the pavement, before heading up to the Ashfield Hotel to join a small group of diehards for several pint-sized Guinness nightcaps, lots of music talk & a late taxi home ~ I had to work on Sunday, dammit dammit dammit!!
My thanks to: Reynardo, SarinG, LederHosen, Maelefic, UnknownB, ZenSiren, my foil & his wife, Eug, KateM, Vee & Ann, ChrisT & YoungMan & StuartD for making what was meant to be a small good night into a great big one.
And it's not even my birthday yet...
However, it seems Reynardo had other ideas ~ & other willing helpers ~ for a surprise raid on my equilibrium. Having floated the idea, about a month ago, of a "small" dinner with SarinG, LederHosen & our good selves, to acknowledge, if not quietly celebrate, our Gemini births ~ to which I was amenable, on Saturday night I walked into one of the better Chinese restaurants in Ashfield to be confronted by 15!!! of my friends from various walks & times of my life.
Surprised?? You f@*kin' betcha!! Still kind of am, in fact... the WTF factor hasn't quite worn off.
My second thought (you can probably guess the first) was how would so many of my friends get along with each other ~ I know a wiiiiide variety of people & have a policy of not mixing the different groups together. Once bitten... The third thought was to wonder how Reynardo had found 'em all. There were a couple of former flames, former bandmates & a friend I've known since the first year of high school in... never you mind. Her method was revealed later in the evening when she reminded me of the e-mail I sent out to my contact list when I changed to ObtuseNet & thus had a new address. Being patchily technignorant, I don't know how to set up a group thing, I just put everyone's addresses in the 'To' box. So, of course, any enterprising Tech Support worker could then contact the lot of them. Ah ha...
Then, almost on cue, everybody reached under the table & hauled out presents. All but one were suspiciously wine bottle-shaped. My recently emptied cellar is well on the way to being re-stocked... A reputation is a wonderful/embarrassing thing to have, but at least it makes buying presents for me pretty easy!! Which reminds me ~ Rey, when can we arrange delivery?
The poor little restaurant was overwhelmed with our number & I think the kitchen struggled to cope. The food arrived sporadically & occasionally erroneously, but was of good to great quality. Conversations from my centre of the table were varied, as predicted, but no arguments or blood-feuds were started, so I'd call it a good result for cross-pollination. Highlights include the aged champagne, my schoolfriend's appalling jokes, several silly photos I never want to see, paper bag handpuppets & the responses to ZenSiren's request for everybody to tell their best story about themselves & how they related to everyone else at the table. I got off lightly in most of those stories... I think.
At turf-out time, I lost the race to the bottom of the wineglass with Maelefic & took protracted farewells on the pavement, before heading up to the Ashfield Hotel to join a small group of diehards for several pint-sized Guinness nightcaps, lots of music talk & a late taxi home ~ I had to work on Sunday, dammit dammit dammit!!
My thanks to: Reynardo, SarinG, LederHosen, Maelefic, UnknownB, ZenSiren, my foil & his wife, Eug, KateM, Vee & Ann, ChrisT & YoungMan & StuartD for making what was meant to be a small good night into a great big one.
And it's not even my birthday yet...
