Monday, November 20, 2006

The Weekend That Was

OHMYGOD you guys, old people are exhausting.

I just thought I'd kick off with that little nugget of insight, and get it off my chest. We sent out like 100+ invitations to our frail aged clients for our work Christmas function at the end of last week, and this morning the phone has been running hot. RSVP central. Since 8.59am the phone hasn't stopped, and as nice as these old folks are, I just need the first hour or so of my day to be me time, you know? There's coffee to be drunk, email to be read, blogs to be surfed, shit to be pulled together.

::ring, ring::

Anyhoo, so a nice weekend. How about you? Our sudden arctic snap of late last week passed on and we went back to Summer weather. The mighty Quin [sadly, no longer updated] was in town for a visit and on Friday night she, Bodes and I went for a yummy Thai dinner, and then on to watch the drag shows at The Imperial Hotel. It was kind of a strange night, because the dance bar of the Imperial was closed for renovations and the place was deserted. Tumbleweeds type deserted. The shows were still fun, but we left to go home after the midnight one.

Saturday I caught up with Mikey (the lovely ex) for a shopping expedition. I had to buy a birthday present for one of my Flickr mates, and Mikey was starting his Christmas shopping what I consider early. I cannot think "Christmas" when it's still November, I'm just not built that way. We flamed our way around the stores, and had a lovely lunch in the food hall of David Jones at Bondi Junction.



One slightly boozy lunch later, one gift purchased (Isn't the paper super cute, btw? Just what is it with gay men and gift wrapping?), a swish through Hermes, and then we headed our separate ways. I had a lovely evening at Ana's birthday party, met some nice new people and caught up with a bunch of my Flickr mates.

Sunday morning I kicked off with breakfast with Bernard and Stewie and then hung out with Quin for a few hours, wandering the streets of Newtown in the Summer sunshine, prior to her heading out to the airport to head back home. A Sunday night of slugging out on the couch watching tv, and that's my weekend. Done and dusted. Good times y'all.

::ring, ring::

10 comments:

Ur-spo said...

it must be interesting indeed to have traditional winter holidays during the summer time.
Does Sydney get all lavish and silly at Christmastime?

The Other Andrew said...

Christmas in Summer always involves some odd doublethink. I mean, sweltering and dashing between air conditioned stores - stores that have window displays of snow covered trees and urchin carol singers in woollen mittens.

I have to tell you that NOBODY does Christmas like Americans. I used to travel to San Francisco twice a year for work, once around Christmas time, and I was always taken aback by how completely over the top Christmas is in the U.S.! It's a bit more of a laid back affair here.

Anonymous said...

The thing that used to get my goat when I was younger was the Christmas meal. It takes a special kind of... dedication to serve up roast turkey etc etc in sweltering 38 degree heat.

The Other Andrew said...

a) You had goat? At Christmas lunch? Wow, we only had boring lamb, turkey etc.

b) 38C is for pussies, I grew up in Adelaide and Christmas just wasn't Christmas if it wasn't 40+... Hot enough to sear your eyeballs, and just perfect for a full roast lunch with all the trimmings, plus airconditioner.

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

we gave up roasts so long ago. seafood, barbie and salad. I miss my parents pool... straight from the water to lunch to the pool again. mmmm....


btw TOA, have you cut out wheat completely? I actually reckon that wheat is not Teh Big Eeeeval unless you're a coeliac (or The Naughtiest Little Coeliac, like Delightful Nanna is. she's SO naughty!).

it's just that we eat too much of it in the modern western diet. I blame mechanisation for giving us white bread as a cheap commodity instead of the specialty it used to be. you don't have to go back far in time to a diet which had a much greater variety of grains.

for what it's worth, I cut back on wheat but I'm not excluding it. I eat more corn, barley, rye and rice, but there's no way I'm missing out on pasta or toast, dammit! anyhoo, just a thort.

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

ooh, btw! that wrapping paper is DIVINE!

The Other Andrew said...

James, and you two bitches didn't contact me to see if I wanted a beer?... :) I heart Newtown, that's certainly no secret.

Speedy, I'm just trying the no wheat thing at the moment to see if it changes how I feel. If there isn't a big enough difference I'll try adding some back, but for the moment I'm just giving this a long enough go to see if it makes a difference.

BTW - the paper is from Pepe's Paperie in Bondi Junction. Fab papers and stuff.

Anonymous said...

re: Christmas being a laid back affair...

I have to say, I think it's mostly because it's too damn hot to get excited about...

And obviously you took the roasting Xmas Days with you when you left the city Andrew... because the last few especially have actually been very mellow and cloudy...

Plus the whole sweltering in the kitchen thing is why they invented the good old spherical Weber Kettle... Ma does our Turkey in there, and the kitchen stays pleasantly cool... :)

The Other Andrew said...

I'm English by birth, and we ALWAYS had the full roast dinner with all the trimmings. In fact, we pretty much did that every Sunday... even through Summer. It could be 40C outside and we'd be sitting under arctic airconditioning eating yorksire puddings. Cultural imperialism or something, the Empire still shone on one little corner of the world.

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

yorkshire puuuuudddddddd!!!

*drools ever so slightly in a very lady-like way*


The Delightful Nanna makes a very fine Yorkshire. oh yum. isn't it utterly ironic that she's one of the best pastry cooks ever? her shortcrust is out of this world. no wonder she's the Naughtiest Little Coeliac.

btw I dig where you're at with the wheat, TOA.

and as for the paper - you mean you went east? oh my. I don't remember the last time I packed the survival rations and headed into the unknown of the east ;-)