In the end, I did get to see Jim, once semi-properly and the other time in passing. The first (and proper) time was on Friafternoon when Julie opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the end of her time at Old Mutual, and her imminent departure for frosty London. After that it was through to Chelle's bday thinger at One Ring, catching a ride with Candice on the way (well, with Lesley really, but it amounts to the same thing). She was very tired tho, and only barely made it to seeing Chelle in before she crashed and I walked her home. The rest of the evening was fun but largely uneventful, until 3am found Al, Lucas, Claire and myself at Gotham. Albert walked in with the largest goose-egg I have ever seen on a man's chin, and a nice split in his skin just below lip. His story kept wobbling around, to the point where I'm not actually sure what the story is (or what to believe - it is Albert after all). Anyway, Al took him under his wing to sort him out, which is great cos I was fucking exhausted and just wanted to go home to sleep. Just as I was drifting off, I heard Al come back -
with Albert. Fuck that, I thought, and went to sleep (timestamp: 4:30am). When I woke up at 10ish,
they were still awake in the lounge, chatting. Albert was a little surprised to see me (he is a little slow, especially after being knocked in the head), and they offered me a whiskey for breakfast. There followed a slightly awkward period of chatting to Al and Albert, after which I went to shower. Oh, and the awkwardness was not particularly helped by Albert's random friend being passed out at the time on the beanbag. I just ignored him. When Al decided to go to sleep, I decided to get the hell out of there and headed off for the SCA Yule event.
The Yule event was a large amount of fun. The combat was not quite as it usually was, with combatants randomly drawing weapons rather than selecting their
favourite favourite. This led to some... 'interesting' matchups. Such as the matchups where one fighter gets his Purple Caramel One With The Nut, and the other That Disgusting Orange One That Nobody Wants. If you like the orange one, then you are weird and lose all rights to comment on this blog. The food was great, very tasty and lots of it. The real amusement for the evening, though, was the Gift Game at the end. Tracy (amongst others) kindly donated extra presents to the pot, allowing me to play. Much Thievery Incorporated later, everyone was left clutching a present possessively. We were definitely the disruptive corner, and we ended up laughing a lot. Sometimes too loudly, and we would attract someone who would wander over and snatch something from one of us. Very sad. In the end, I got a fantastic goblet, Candice got the sheepskin-wrapped present she was after (books, so all good) and Lucas got some Sekanjabin. Alison ended up with the mate of the goblet that I had, after a tip-off by the goblet wrappers themselves, Sidrianna. They were very cunningly wrapped, and were not goblet-like in anyway.
Thereafter, Dave and I decided to join Lucas at a going-away party for one of his work colleagues at Oblivion (where we once again saw Jim, as he, Waynne and Jean were leaving for the evening - I swear they should all look into retirement villages, they are in Pinelands already after all). Dave ended up having a protracted and awkward conversation with Richard. It was painful to watch. I did meet Nikki and Cailey tho, who seemed quite nice (despite Richard's constant warnings about them).
Sunday was handyman day, filled with chipping polyfilla off from the cornicing and then replacing it with fresh. Not especially productive, but Lucas' place is that small bit closer to inhabitable. I was fetched that afternoon to go off for a leg of lamb at my parents, in honour of my little brother's 15th birthday. He did the lamb himself, and it was damn fine. At about 9pm I headed back home, just in time to catch Episode 3 with Candice, Lesley and Al. Shame, Candice was just about asleep when I got there, and things didn't improve as the movie progressed.
Now I sit here in an almost empty office. Most other people have gone home to get ready for the Synergy Xmas dinner at Moyo tonight. Sadly, the 2h30 between finishing and leaving for Moyo are insufficient for me to get anywhere approaching home and back. I just brought some pants in my bag. Close enough. I am very excited, since I have never been and I've heard that it is fucking fantastic. And buffet, so I had a small breakfast and no lunch. I shall tell you all about it tomorrow ^_^ Yum!
