Vegging, Vegemite & Very Late Night!

This morning I got up, dressed and settled down with a cup of tea and my laptop. Sarah came down and we had a chat before she went off to uni, she was feeling a bit under the weather, with the beginnings of a cold. I then spent a couple of hours just chilling out, clicking about, sorting out my photos, with half an eye and half an ear on the tv and chatting to Tom when he got up, he mentioned feeling like he might be coming down with a cold too.

For lunch, Tom insisted that I try Vegemite, so he made me toast and put the iconic Aussie yeast extract on it, then watched me expectantly as I ate it. I was indifferent to it, much in the same way that I am indifferent to Marmite. He was slightly disappointed that I did not have a definite opinion one way or the other, so has vowed that I will have to try it again at another point in time when he will put the Vegemite on thicker.

After a bit more fiddling about on my laptop and half-hearted tv watching, I decided to go for a walk to Maccas so as to be able to go online for a bit. The walk itself was not too far, but I decided to pop into the pharmacy on the way and pick up some cold/flu medicine, just in case I started feeling the same as Sarah and Tom. Once in Maccas, I got online for the first time in ages and set about reading the ridiculous quantity of emails that had piled up in my internet absence. Time passed very quickly and before I knew it, it was time to go as I was supposed to be going out to the pub with Tom and some of his friends.

Back at the house, I threw on some different clothes which would be a little more appropriate for going out and we set off to the Prince Albert, where we met Hilary and Melissa. We sat chatting and having a drink, then Tom’s best friend Ewan arrived. After a few drinks, we went over to ‘Barry’ – the pub’s quiz machine. We played several rounds of the Cluedo game, where you have to answer trivia questions and move around the board, tying to guess ‘who dunnit’ – this caused much amusement as we actually did quite well. After a bit, we decided to have some time out from the game, to regroup and collect our thoughts, over another drink. Hilary managed to get hold of a roll of sellotape and then spent the next half an hour sellotaping anything and everything together. To move away from the sellotape relted frivolity, we went back to Barry and played Cluedo again for a bit, before changing to the Ned Kelly game, which we decided was not as much fun to play as a group. Mel left to go and meet some other friends and Tom, Ewan and I went to a tiny place called Don Tojo, a Japanese restaurant, where we chatted away over a delicious dinner – called a don don box.

Full to the brim with Japanese food, we left there and went to another pub called The Clyde, where we sat in the beer garden, hiding under the big umbrella from the torrential downpour that started more or less as soon as we arrived! The guys thought it was about time I boarded the ‘rum train’ so I had my first Bundaberg rum with coke of my trip. I don’t particularly rate Bundy rum, but it’s not too bad. We eventually conceded and went inside, where there was a women’s football team having some sort of big, loud gathering, so we had to shout over the top of them to be heard. Mel arrived with two of her other friends, and we all sat chatting (with raised voices!) for a while and discussing AFL.

Tom and I left The Clyde and went to the last venue on our list for the night – a pub entertainingly called The Lambsgo Bar. It took us both a while to get the joke, as before we’d arrived, he hadn’t realised that they include the word ‘bar’ in the name. We were there for leaving drinks of a friend of Tom’s ; Penny who was going travelling. I met Penny and some of Tom’s other friends. I got chatting to a couple of girls who are learning Makaton as they work with people with Down’s Syndrome, so that led to comparing BSL and Makaton signs and then further people joined the conversation and wanted to know more signs. Before we knew it, there were people signing all over the place! The music in this pub was really good and we had a bit of a dance to some classic Nirvana, before they called time at midnight and we started heading home, feeling quite done in!

When we arrived back at the house and started walking up the drive, we could hear music which confused us – we turned the corner and found the lounge and kitchen full of people! Sarah had brought a load of uni people over, so we grabbed some beers out of the fridge and joined in the party!

It was quite funny because Sarah is usually really quiet and reserved - I hadn’t ever seen her even remotely intoxicated, but she had definitely had a few to drink and was so different and incredibly lively! Suddenly at 1.30am there was a mass exodus and the throng started getting into taxis to go clubbing. They tried to convince Tom and I to join them but neither of us fancied clubbing and we’d been out at the pub since 4.30pm, so did not really have the energy. I was relieved as I know that I am never going to be a clubber – I definitely prefer a pub or a bar, and I doubt I could keep up with this lot!

They left in a whirlwind and Sarah was overly apologetic for the mess they’d left the house in, but we insisted that it was ok and ushered her into the taxi with her friends. There was still no sign of Becs, who had gone out clubbing with some of the teachers from school, so Tom and I cleared up the most immediate mess and watched a couple of episodes of South Park, before I let my age catch up with me and flagged!