A half-quiet weekend

Ah, a long weekend. Time to tackle big projects, take a winter’s coast trip, or just recharge the batteries.

I was pretty social for the first half. Friday night I caught up with a former Canberra girlfriend. While we were dating, she was always late. On a cold, wet, windy Friday I told her Tony Starr’s Kitten Club was on Little Flinders, not Little Collins, and then went to the wrong place myself. She found the bar first and I was twenty minutes late. She crowed with good reason.

There are well- and ill-advised ways to pass a Friday night. Seeing an amicable ex is fine, three or four (or maybe more) G&T’s, wine with dinner and a cocktail at Smitten (upstairs, or more accurately, up-even-more-stairs at the Kitten Club) is less advisable on anything other than a hearty dinner. The fish of the day at Café Miro, however so tasty, counts as a perfect light meal – not a perfect white-spirits soaker. Ah well. It was a pleasant evening that also took in a little of the atmosphere at the Stray Kat, before heading back to Smitten to catch Julie O’Hara onstage at 10.30. The crowd was noisy, and the acoustics average, but it was fun. Some partying swing-dancers added atmosphere. A pleasant evening. Odd to hang out with someone you used to date and find yourself recognising little half-forgotten ticks and habits, small ways in which neither of you has changed much. Odd, but fun.

Saturday morning, I felt the previous night. Yay for aspirin. I finished my party shopping, napped, and set to work preparing. I wasn’t entirely done when the 6.45 dinner guests started showing up. (Nothing like guests who are willing to run errands and lend a hand.)

The best part of dinner (other than people liking my spinach fettuccine chicken pasta and my beef and sweet potato curry) was the “Venn diagram“ discussion: how I knew everyone and which overlapping circles they fitted into. There was Daniel, Marcus, Beth, a friend from work, Miriam the BCOIF member, and Nichole - the one non-blogging friend I’ve met as a result of the internet. Counting me, this made: four bloggers, three lawyers, three students, two IT people, two arts-administrators and two friends I’d made before moving to Melbourne.

After dinner, there would have been over twenty people through the house by the evening’s end - not bad for someone who’s been in town under eight months. The last to leave at 3 am were some of the first to arrive, which also felt good. Slept too late on Sunday for yoga, though. Bad me.

The rest of the weekend was videos, reading, a library-run for travel books and crime novels and a look at a room available when I leave this house.

Pleasant down-time I’ve needed for a while.