I got my stuff together and as I was tip toing out of the bedroom, when a voice said,
“Spending time with your new BFF?” says Sam dead pan, as I attempt to leave the bedroom with all of my gear, without making a sound. Invariably, the box on my power cord would slip through my hands and hit the floor, bonk.
“No… I’m just awake, so I am just going downstairs to make coffee.”
In the dim light of the morning, I heard his head rustle as it slid around on its pillow, “I see you have your favourite herb in you hand, anyway.”
“She’s not my new BFF, besides, it saves me coming up and waking you up late.”
“Bullshit.”
The floorboards were warm on my bare feet. Light seeped in through the balcony door windows, but only faintly.
Sam maybe have groaned a contented get comfortable kind of sigh, but he didn’t say anything else.
In the cool half dark of the very early morning, I sat at the coffee table and sipped coffee… and rolled a j.
Open the Age, ignore their observation that I am a regular reader, once again, start scouring the headlines for loons.
A bit later, I made my second pot of coffee.
I let Buddy in. I bathed his crusty eyes and washed the muck out of his folds on his face. There was a nice clean bulldog looking up at me adoringly.
Sam got up and we lay on the couch, legs intertwined, it was warm and comfy. I love that feeling, skin on skin naturally. Togetherness. Enchanted. IPads in hands. The morning drifted, on not a care.
Then I am reminded to clean the kitchen; slovenliness and pot go hand in hand, apparently.
“Always,” said Sam. He knows I hate him saying that, and now he says it with just that little more gusto, because of it. Always with a sparkle in his eye and smile on his lips.
Sam made pancakes. Yum. Butter and Maple Syrup, and I ask why I’m getting fat.
Buddy is his lovely laid back self.
We walk to Killeny and ate lunch, with Buddy behaving impeccably all the way. It was a lovely sunny day.
Anthony arrived before 2pm. “Look right on time.”
LouLou rang at the time she was meant to arrive, to say she was just driving out of her driveway. Lisa just split up with her boyfriend and is therefore homeless, with five bulldogs. She needed a moment of LouLou’s time. We all rolled our eyes, start to say something, then stopped, adjust our stance and exhaled and pulled a face.
LouLou arrived at 3pm.
We got to the park around 3.30pm.
Shane was hammered and loud. Ali was shirtless, most of the time.
Dante bought English coffee cups and served up coffee.
That really annoying Gail woman arrive – some course friend of Jane’s – and proceeded to speak loudly over ever conversation. That woman would talk in her sleep, that woman would talk under water.
Jane got pissed and dished brother Lachlan. Apparently, he wanted to see Grandpa one more time, so he asked Lissa, who he has befriended on face book and he asked her if she could ask Uncle Rob if it would be alright. Lissa passed the message on to Uncle Rob. Apparently brother Lachlan wrote Uncle Rob and long and heart felt letter, in which he professed his love for Uncle Rob. Uncle Rob text Lachlan back, Looking forward to it, or some such message. Lachlan cracked the shits that he put himself out on the line for Uncle Rob, and he felt he didn’t get enough back from Uncle Rob. So he rang and left an abusive message on Lissa’s voicemail and then shot off a whole lot of dirty and fowl emails to her as a follow up. And now everyone is wiped again.
Then Jane said crazy things to Anthony, the likes of which he could hardly understand. “There’s my father all alone, not that Luke has left him in Hanoi.” Weird stuff, said Anthony.
There was a lesbian with a dog, of course. We left Buddy in his house for the afternoon.
I smoked a lot of pot and “grazed” on everything in front of me. I never stopped eating.
The sun crept up the grassy incline to us, we retreated further under the shade of the tree, despite the sun being welcoming and warm.
Gail’s a new age swami voodoo healer, blah, blah, blah… what? Just shut up. Shut up! Shut up! She never stopped talking for the afternoon, in her American accent… spared nothing…
“Love thy self, meditate, be empowered!”
New Age School
We lay back on the picnic rugs and closed our eyes, Anthony and I. I mumble Jesus to Anthony, or the other way around, we both laughed.
There was a discernable silence after American Gail had left. Relief.
“Thank God that is over,” mumbled Anthony, as he (uncharacteristically) poured another mineral water. Age is catching up, once that would have been nothing but vodka and tonic.
We staid until we got cold, the sun’s heat dipped. Then we walked home with long shadows in the later afternoon sun in lines across the park and then up the street.
I had agreed to go see mum tomorrow morning with Roz, she was picking me up at 9am. I had people staying the night, and I have lunch tomorrow. That doesn’t all work together. I text Roz and asked if we could change it to next weekend, she agreed.
Shane ordered three of the biggest pizzas you have ever seen.
We spoke to Mark on Skype, twice.
The old clan gathered. One of us was leaving, after all.
Miss Pat arrived late. She smoked hard on the joints. She drank red wine. She entertained the troops. She bought a present for Shane, because he is important to her. She gave him a medicine box, full of Xanax, valium, serapax, vocdyn, you name it, it was in there.
“For the plane luv, I hear it is more than ten hours, you’ll need them.”
Old School.
Then they discussed the appropriate drug mix for a flight of the length they were about to board, Thursday at 10pm.
“Take one of those and half a one of that one.”
“Why not the full pill?”
“Do you want to be relaxed, or out to it?”
“Out to it.”
“Then go ahead, take the other half, by all means.”
Shane laughed.
Miss Pat said, “It is the only way I can fly.”
She arrived at 11pm, half an hour after she was supposed to be at work. She downed the last of the wine in her glass. “Better go, luv. Here, give us a hug. Oh… you enjoy yourself.”
