the weekend

hey D, did you just get up?" my brother Bob enquires down the phone.
"Well sort of, I'm just watching Friends in bed" I croak back. I love watching Friends, over and over and over again. It puts me in a "happy" place. Just like watching Black Adder when I need to go to sleep, I know it so well, that the moment Rowan Atkinson says "Baldric!" I'm in the land of nod.. don't ask me why but it works!

I'm quite amazed at the amount of invites that are pouring in for this weekend, a hen's party, drinks at trendy bar, dinner for two , bbq at my bro's house (which is why he called)... I guess being in hibernation for the past few weeks has made everyone wonder what I look like now! heh heh. Ah well, the hen's party it is, as my best buddies are goin with me and I promised them first a week ago. Last time we had a hen's night the male stripper/dancer (yeah whateverrrr) kept dancing near me and sitting on my lap.... errr ok... cute but please go hassle the Miss who's about to be a MRS ... Wonder what the entertainment will be tonight.. the theme is Arabian nights.... uh huh... my thoughts exactly.. (look take the thought of 40 odd nebulous women in scantly clad see through clothes posing on cushions being fanned by eunuchs in a large tent like room with scalloped curtains and tassels.. being served Turkish delights and sugared almonds.. Out of your mind.) it's in a restaurant in town...

I'm most certainly not going to be going in some type of floaty number that's for sure! Wonder what the girls will be wearing..
Dx

Finally!

Ok, so no one frog marched me to the exit and said "RAUS!" (which means OUT!). In fact we had a little giggle at the information counter when I went to get the documents. They need a certificate of good conduct.. yes that was my reaction too... I giggled so hard.. and then when I managed to take a breath I asked where and whom would give me said certificate, and I was told from the Police.. which made me grin even harder, the lady behind the counter cought on and was grinning back at me. She waived me good bye when I said thank you and I thought to myself , at least I made someone laugh today!

It turned out to be a good day anyway, and somehow it turned into a very Parisian like day, where lunch time was accompanied with a wine, and a visit to best friends shop was also accompanied with wine, and when I spotted the owners of an outlet I did some events work for, there was .. wait for it.. more wine.. ! Fasicaniting stuff eh..

Now all I have to do is get all the docs ready, and pool in heaps of cash..
Dx

Fuzzy

I've been meaning to go to the consulate for the last three weeks, somehow or the other I've managed to procrastinate or make excuses not to go. The question is why? It's not like going to the dentist is it? heh heh.. well my dentist is a sweetie so that's a bad analogy! OK OK so it's not like going to see (oh this is a good one) a government officer who is disbursing the funds from one's late husband's estate... hah!

In fact every time I've gone to the consulate, they've been nothing but helpful, kind and really pleasant ...so what's with the mental stumbling block I say? Could it be that I'm really quite disturbed (yeah yeah you all know I am mental) by the thought of finally getting that final document that is required to blow this pop stand? Is it?

Well today is the day, I'm going in, (says she who's still on the computer... sigh) I have half an hour to have my coffee, to get ready and put my war paint on (any more of those comments about it would take forever are SO uncalled for!) hop into the tank and roar off into town. Can I do it?

OF COURSE! I'll let you know later...
Dx

catch up Time

"what is wrong with your connection babe!" I shout into the phone
"Are you sure it's my connection? I've got full bars" answers Karl
"OK where were we, ah yes, you were saying you could not believe he asked for that amount for the drama show" I continue our conversation that was constantly being cut off (all this technology and still we have bad lines!)

So Karl fills me in on some information he had gleaned tonight at an open house party he was attending for one of the productions he had recently been working on. This specific one, which was a TV drama, had given him more publicity and fans!
We were both dying to see what the film that he recently acted in would look like once it was edited for show next year.

We share a quiet chuckle about the person in question that Karl is talking about and then Karl says "so whatcha up to? Did you get enough sleep?"
We had been out last night and ended up going home in the wee hours of the morning, luckily it's the weekend otherwise I'd be a basket case. I told him I'd had a good 5 hours sleep and that I was stuck into a book as I'd not have much time to next week.
"Anyway darling, get back to to schmoozing with your production mates and have a great time, we'll catch up next week as we've got to plan your birthday party OK" I say to Karl, who rings off with a promise to have lunch next week.

I pick up the book that I was reading,  but instead get lost in thoughts of my other outings!

On Thursday I had a girls night out at Aileen's house with my former work buddy Evil. Poor Pierce had to be kicked out of his own home so the girls could bitch and gossip with total abandon, however loving boyfriend to Aileen that he was, he made the baby mozzarella and tomato salad , plus the green salad and put a few bread rolls in the oven for us before he left, to accompany the steamed crab that was going to be delivered later on for dinner! Yum, and was it good!

4 bottles of wine later, and the girls had concocted some kind of TV program that involved wine which they wanted me to host , drowning out my vehement 'NO I WILL NOT DO IT" cries with, their incessant talk about how they'd come up with an award winning show..

Thankfully Pierce turned up at the end of the night, as the talk was escalating into a bullying match of blackmail and gentle goading. He put a stop to it by laughing his arse off and explained in a very patient *we've done this before* manner why it wouldn't work, which then led to the girls picking on him..
Well he was brave is all I can say, most men wait till the women have gone then stagger home!

Karl had taken me to the showing of a short film he was acting in that was held at the Actors Studios on  the Wednesday before the girls dinner.  Interesting stuff, not sure about the horror flick, but then again I am a complete coward when it comes to all that heavy breathing, wall a-sweating, doors slamming, heart thudding, finger nail biting ... well you know what I mean(you see I can't even write about it) I remember the very first horror flick I went to see was Exorcist, it scared me so bad, I kept crawling into my brothers room every night for almost a month to sleep with them, much to their horror and disgust ( I was always their personal horror flick). The nightly ritual of checking under my bed and sleeping with the lights on was certainly not worth it, so now if anyone wants to go see a horror, it's without me.

Anyway we ended up at a lovely Italian restaurant/bar in the heart of town for dinner and drinks and caught the Dj and live percussionist show on the roof top later on. Needless to day we bumped into some good friends of ours,and the night carried on till I had to be the responsible adult (who me?) and call it quits!

Tuesday I was at a launch of a new Food Guide Book and I had taken Aleco, not to impressed with the canapes for a Food Guide launch, however it was an eclectic bunch; and we managed to network with some very interesting people

I always think to myself how it is that in a town like this we manage to either see the same people over and over again or not see a friend for years and then bump into them consecutively for the next few days... coincidence or the laws of the universe?
Dx

Winging it

My good friend and tormentor, Nora has flown back in from that hell hole of a country she's been seconded to, for a few days of non stop mindless meetings here, and has decided that instead of being civilised and go out for drinks at a reasonable hour, she wants to do so NOW, now being 12.30 am. Well she's driven, that I'll admit!

I told her to go home, and that I was in bed and I'd see her tomorrow ... 'biaotch' .. is the response I get from her via sms. Charming as always I think, it seems the closer your friends are, the ruder the name calling heh heh! I send her a rude remark in reply and she calls me up,

"I'm coming over now to pick you up and we're going out" she growls at me.
"forget it mate, I'm not going anywhere at the time of night" I growl back (we growl very well as both of us have very low voices)
" Listen D, you're the one person I always make sure I see when I come back and I'm not sure how much time I'll have in the next few days and so we're going" she says
"Then make the time tomorrow you twat !" I respond, a load of expletives ensue from the other side of the phone.. even more charming I think ( I do love her to bits and this is our usual way of hostile negotiations!)

Ten minutes later she storms into my home, hurls some not so motherly advise to my eldest who lets admit it, is a rebellious adult, for want of a more polite way of explaining the late teen years.. oh yeah.. you all know the feeling. She rapid fire goes through all the things he's done in the last couple of months since she's seen him, presses some money into his hand to go get a hair cut (what an incentive eh...) and then literally frog marches me out the front door and bundles me into her SUV and says "drive!" (like I said... hostile negotiations!)

I hoist myself into the drivers seat, she pumps up the volume in the ahh.. not so pimp mobile, and says "lets go karaoke!" (don't you all start groaning ok!.. we LOVE to Karaoke! and we're not afraid to admit it!)
"Nora, it's almost 1 a.m, and everything will be shut around here", I remark, as she starts to give me instructions to go into town.
" Ok Ok" she concedes, "lets go to the burbs and see if the pub is open, should have live gigs there."
I u-turn the wanna be Dr Dre truck and we hip hop it till we arrive at the Pub. She finally notices I've cut my hair... "um it's cool, but I still prefer your long hair.." she says with her usual brand of honesty. "Thanks buddy, I still like your poofy hair too... " I grin at her, She gives me a dirty look and calls me another name, smiles and we head in to the Pub.

The Pub is on it's last call for drinks, we manage to get a round and head for the pool tables, I'm totally a spaz when it comes to Pool, unlike Nora, who loves to compete and pretend she's a Pool shark... my friends.. what can I say.

When she's finally had enough of playing Pool, (I think it's more enough of playing against me... I'm so utterly ka ka at the game!) we hunker down and catch up, I tell her I'm going to Australia to go have a "working vacation" .
"What the heck is that D" she asks me
"Well Stash wants me to come down and have a look at some possible business ventures with her and to look around the area she's in as a possible place to move to" I explain
"Ah.. OK.. I still think you'll end up in NZ.   She stands up, grabs me in a hug and says "c'mon lets go eat... I so miss the food here".

We have a pleasant supper, I outline my plans for the next few months, Nora is relieved I'm back to work and getting it together, she's always been there even if it's to shout at me about the "realities" of life. Sometimes you do need to be checked, even better if it's by someone you admire and one who has a good head on her shoulders. She benevolently loads me off at home, and with a cheeky grin , bids me goodnight. I never know when I'm going to see her again, it could be tomorrow or the next few months, but it's always good to catch up with her no matter how little or much time we have, good friends know the difference between quality time and quantity time, and the cow made me think of NZ again... bugger.
Dx

New Year's Eve

Where are you tubs?! shouts James down the phone.
"I'm at home man" "where else would I be! he he he!" I reply.
James says " hey, you forgot you were supposed to be with us tonight for New Years Eve"
I say "after all the crapola that has happened to me in the last couple of days, I really don't feel like heading out, I'm perfectly happy here drinking champagne and talking to M on line!"
"No way am I going to let you celebrate alone at home, Andy is going to be coming by in a bit I'll get him to pick you up on the way!" James says
"James it's already 11.30pm, there is no way I'll be there on time, go ahead an party on " I say, sipping more bubbly and grinning.
"No tubs, you're coming over and that's that. Get ready and we'll see you in a bit" are James' parting words as he rings off.

I look at M on our skype video call, and we both giggle, "oh well D, guess you're going out mate!" she says. "well if I'm going so are you, I'm bringing the damn laptop along!" I hiccup merrily! "eeekkk " says M, "NO thanks!" "go on and have a great time, I'll catch you later!" "OK" I slur back, "I'll be back for your NYE countdown !" M is 7 hours behind my time line, so I can go out party, and be back in time to party more with her!! PERFECT!

Andy calls up and says he's waiting to take me to the venue, I'm laughing as I know that the only way we will  make it for the countdown is if we had a time machine!( and since I haven't built mine yet...)  My kids  call me as soon as Andy speeds off into the night, taking us closer and closer into the twilight zone! I realise it's gone past 12 midnight when Andy says "hey D, Happy New Year!" I grin at him and all I can do is pat his arm, as he's driving and the kids are still on the phone and wish him back.

At approximately 12.07 am we arrive at the venue and Jeff, who's James son is waiting for us outside, once he's bear hugged Andy, he grabs me off my feet, swings me around and laughs out "I'm going to carry you in D!"
"Put me down " I squeal to no avail, I enter back first, two feet off the ground into the party, and get smacked, tapped, pinched, patted and finally put down in front of the table that was heaving with drinks and many many merry faces!

James begins to put the obligatory party favours on top and around me, and eventually I look like a Christmas tree gone wrong, but as it's New Years Eve, it's actually pretty right! he he he. The music swells and they are playing our songs, everyone stomps off onto the dance floor the waiters are standing in shock at the flailing of arms and feet! More drinks are pressed into my hands, and I'm taking tons of pictures, so much so that I've captured the entire sequence of James and his boys dunking his daughter's boyfriend into a bath, yes a claw foot bath on the side of the dance floor, that was filled up with ice and left over drinks!

A couple of hours later, everyone said "right! we're off," and Andy whisks me off back home and deposits me in one piece at my doorstep, a little more inebriated that when I left, but happy.
I stagger to bed and somehow manage to wake up at 6 am, flip on the skype and count down the New Year with M online !! two celebrations in one day! I'm time traveling to the max!

An hour later, I give up and tell M I have to go to bed as my eyes were closing on their own, bid her a great New Year and crashed out!
The last thought I had was that I'm so grateful and lucky that I've got such a bunch of wonderful wonderful friends who love and cherish me. Bring on 2009 it's going to be Fandabidozi!
Dx

O X doo

Ahh the Bash on Friday.. welll ... sigh.. I think there was definitely very much of too muchness if you know what I mean! You don't? Ok well here goes...

I had three men with me, Carl, Ian my gay friend whom I asked first and his partner Rick (Rick is a very colonial Englishman.. who happens to know my dad.. imagine a very plummy voice, velvet dinner jacket and that's Rick).

The hosts really threw on a show for the party, they had dancers decked out in glittery outfits and feathers dancing on stage in the theme colour of the party which was.. uh.. PINK AND BLACK.., they had the Emcee's (whom were both former Miss Malaysia's .. ah.. well the recent ones...heh) get driven to the stage on two massive Harley's. They had men on stilts walking around and entertaining the guests, they had two stages on either side of the ballroom with bands playing and flanked on either sides of the walls were different food stations for the guests. So there was a vast variety of food. Champagne was in your face as well as some of the people.

Of course walking in with Carl, caused a stir, a good looking actor with cheek bones so sharp you could cut glass on them, a cheeky smile and roving eyes that got tongues a wagging, some old gossips came up to us and said, "is this your boyfriend?" I look to Carl with an amused smile (we were actually very good friends, and have been from the first time we met which was on a shoot I had booked him for, a few years back ) and say,
" Are you my boyfriend?" and Carl, who's eyes have stopped roving and were now locked and loaded on an exotic asian actress behind old trout face who posed the question, just says "yess.." (he goes into acting mode when not paying attention) and the gossips go all twittery and do the 'oh how wonderful' bit as I look at Carl and hiss
"why the hell did you say that..?"
He's Like "What? What?.. "I didn't hear you?"
I said,"yeah I know, cause you've just said you're my boyfriend and that's going spread faster than a bush fire in OZ mate...." geezzz.

The night carries on, I catch up with my old radio colleague , we're cackling away, watching in amusement as Carl flits about, comes back and forth, for a drink and a taste of the food. Singers, composers , you name it, all the industry people are there, I end up at the island bar in the ballroom with Ian, Carl and lan's girl pal Jacqs.

Carl and I are having a conversation about our future and where we're heading as he props himself at the bar and I lean on him , I'm telling him about my intention to go to NZ and he's asking me why, (geezz everyone does, it's always WHY NZ? why not OZ?) so I'm explaining,
when he says, "well D, I'm Australian, you can always marry me, the process takes a year and it will help you get into NZ without a hitch"
I'm looking at Carl.. "seriously mate....."
and he's like " no, I mean it, I can help... plus you're easy on the eye.. we'd have fun together." I roll my eyes, however, as we're having this discussion, Rick, who's been evesdripping, gets the wrong end of the stick because he hears the "Marry me" bit and all gaydom breaks loose..

Just imagine me standing in a black cocktail dress, glass of champers in hand, Carl sitting on a bar stool, talking to me and Rick leaning over to Carl and running his hands through Carl's hair and saying "ARE YOU SURE YOU"RE NOT GAY??? because I think you are, and I need to know these things if you're going to marry D, as I know D's dad very well.. you have no idea who he is... " Carl looks at me, I'm grinning and I think payback time!! Rick's all ready to speed dial Dad up, Ian at this point is muttering in my ear ... ( "says he the one night stand that never left!" ) I cover my mouth as I choke down the laughter!  I watch Carl act his way out of this little pickle!... he's good... very good... but that doesn't mean he's off the hook!

Ian has had enough and says "come on, come back to my place we can drink there and have a chat." So that is what we did, and after Carl and Jacqui left , I stayed on and chatted into the wee hours of the morning with Ian about matters of the heart, mind and soul. If only he was straight, I'd marry him in a heart beat... now how many times have you heard a straight woman say that about a gay man??? ... thought so...
... Dx