Dina, Ness, Dougal and I went to the Orchard for lunch but when we came back the 'net was down so I still couldn't do any work (I needed to source images from Getty) so Ness, Dougal and I ended up playing mini-soccer and then mini-cricket with the mini-soccer ball and a piece of cubicle.
Then Nick announced that it was Kris Kringle time so everyone gathered round for gifts. Nick loved his - unfortunately Clint hadn't bothered to credit me as the photographer, which I was annoyed about. I received a packet of strawberry cream tea from T2 and a notebook, which was very thoughtful. I found out later that either Kylie (chairman's wife) or Leanne (chairman's PA) picked me and Sarah had to help them out.
After all the unwrapping Nick called it a day (it was 4pm by that point) so we all went down to the Orchard for a drink. Sarah and I ran a bit late because we changed into our party gear first and managed to collect Colin on the way. Who is still irritating and still tries to follow me around. I managed to shake him off when we got to the pub though - I took a few pictures of everyone, then started chatting to Clint and Ben. Lindsay was there too but embedded in the middle of a whole bunch of people so I didn't want to intrude.
I had a champagne and started to half-watch the cricket and talk to various people before we had to head over the road to catch the bus. At some point we lost Lindsay. I thought he was coming to the party but he never showed. Today he told me that he'd intended to go but something came up but he would tell me the full story on Friday, assuming I was going to the pub. Okay.
Waited around a bit for the bus, then boarded. The back seat rebels consisted of Dougal and Ness, Ian and Rod, who was wearing his elf suit (without the reindeer attachment). Nick took charge like a teacher (it's easy to forget that he finished school in the same year as me) and forbid Rod from mooning traffic, which was just as well for the rest of the bus who would have seen more of Punk Pirate than they'd ever want to.
Anyway, we made it to Gladesville in one piece. The pub was sectioned off so that we got the mood lighting, the pool table, the jukebox, pinball machine and a swathe of lounges, which was actually pretty cool. There were also two poker tables set up with chip stacks and cards. Considering it was such a terrible day outside, I'm actually glad we didn't make it to Bondi - the beach gets ten times more depressing in bad weather and we wouldn't have been able to appreciate the view to its full extent from the inside of a bar.
We had our first drinks and explored our new surroundings. Somewhere in there the night descended into speeches, hermit crab racing, a couple of jager bombs (a shot of Jagermeister literally dropped into half a schooner of Red Bull), poker, pool, pinball and a dance-off (Clint vs Rodrigo - no contest, Rodrigo is a break dancer). At some point I went and played pool, paired with our chairman, against Paul and Sarah. Sarah, who hates Paul, left the cue to Jess halfway through, who finished off a close game nicely for their team. Had a lot of fun dancing with everyone who would dance. Andrew G and I managed to last the entirety of Nutbush City Limits.
Anyway, our time at Gladesville came to an end and we were all bundled into a mini-bus to Minskys in Cremorne (or the city for homeward bound staff). We began at the lounge just drinking (I'd started on water by that stage) then moved into the piano bar to dance. It was heaps of fun. I remember getting caught up in a conversation with a guy at the bar (I was still drinking water).
- Hi, I'm James, what have you been up to tonight?
- This is my company's Christmas after party.
- Oh, you're an Apple are you?
- How did you know?
- I used to go to school with Nick.
Anyway, he had an American friend with him and she had remarked that she'd never heard an Asian girl speak with an Australian accent, a comment that he passed on. Then she started dragging him away and he motioned for me to follow but I decided to stick around with my crew. Today Nick and James told me that the James I met at Minskys - 'Woodsy' - is crazy and I was right not to follow him home. Duh.
Dom bought a tray of Jager shots but had spilt half of them, so ended up drinking them from the tray; Ben, who is anyone's after six drinks, started claiming he couldn't dance while dancing with Melanie, taking his evening's tally to five plays; Ian started dancing with Mick; Gill danced around the bar wearing Ricky's hat; Rod started jumping on everyone and everything and Sudeep asked me if I wanted to go home with him.
What? Yes. Hmm. Well, no. It was easy enough to reject him at the time, but I'm not sure what it'll be like when we next face up at work. I mean, we work in different sections and I barely see him from week to week (THANK GOD - that will make things easier) but what do you do? Seriously. I mean, I'm going to pretend I don't remember him asking that of me, and to tell you the truth he was quite far gone so he probably won't remember that he did, but it's going to grate on me for a while. I haven't told anyone at work and I don't intend to - the only person I would tell would be Ness but I can't trust her to keep her mouth shut, even when I tell her not to tell ANYONE AT ALL.
Bah... well, in the end I left just after 2:30am. Ian, my homing buddy, had disappeared so I decided to catch a taxi by myself because I had to go to yum cha with writers group friends the next morning. It only ended up costing $12, which wasn't too bad due to the fact that I hadn't actually spent anything the whole night (and had won $100 on the crab racing).
Yum cha was great. We went to Bodhi, which is near the Domain, and chatted for two hours about Casino Royale, Borat, books and whose staff Christmas party was the best/worst. I think mine ended up coming on top. I then went Christmas shopping and managed to polish off my list. Went home, had a nap (like an old lady), did some grocery shopping and then Sir and I went to see The Maladies play at the Gaelic Club. They were supporting Bluebottle Kiss, who are all right, but the second support band was quite industrial and we were so tired that we decided to go before the main act.
Yesterday I went to Wollongong to see Peta, which was quite a nice ride down (reminding me of hikes to Otford and such). I'm never sure what I'm going to get each time I see her because our paths have diverged quite a bit, but I think it came right in my head when she said that we'd "always been dags" (and, I might add, never been ashamed of that), hence had parallel mentalities in our different lives.
This, I applied to my thoughts on Erin as we spoke about her. Peta had gone to the wedding and hadn't had a great time due to a large contingent of high school alumni who'd ignored her. I suddenly awakened to the feeling that all along that's what Erin wanted, to belong to a particular kind of group, and that dags didn't fit into the lifestyle she aspired to so there we were, shoved in a corner - or not invited, as it were. Well, you know what? There's dignity in accepting what you are and where you belong, and I'm not going to give that up for some kind of conceded semblance of friendship from her. Just as well I know it - I truly know it - now. Pity it took the best part of 14 years. Still, I don't regret the times we had in high school, but that is past.
Anyway, Peta seems well, apart from deciding that she wants to do obstetrics (as opposed to finance or marketing, which were her two last changes of direction). Her kids are both fun and gorgeous. J is five, so will start school next year - I feel kind of old all of a sudden because I remember when he was a baby. I hope that all will go well in the next year for them and I really hope she finds a path she enjoys.
On the way home, having finished the parts of the newspaper that I'd brought along for the commute, I started thinking that right now, I am as happy as I've ever been. It's a hard thing to call, but for all the things that have gone wrong, so many things have turned right and although I sometimes look back at all the things I've already 'done', I still realise that I have the rest of my life to look forward to. And you know what? I hope I say that for the rest of my life.
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