Party Central

Friday

It was a very humid afternoon in work and Yvonne played the trump card and closed early so we could all go for drinks at Skye for Stephens leaving night. Most people left after their first drink and by 5pm there was only 6 of us left.
Earlier in the afternoon I got an hour after lunch to go shopping for his leaving presents. I bought a nice tie, cufflinks, fragrance set and a butt plug. I bought it in a shop behind Castle Court [where else are they in Belfast?]. I was met at the door by the owner who was Total 80's Porn Dude: Bleached blond hair, open white shirt showing off chest hair and dodgy shades. "Come on in man! Have a look around, ask any questions now or hold your peace!". I had a quick glance around the shop. The back room was wall to wall magazines all neatly set out by ruler precision. I knew what I was in so as I searched the rows my mind was saying "butt plug, butt plug, butt plug...butt plug!". There it was. I lifted it off the shelf and brought it over to the counter. "Ah, I love a man that knows what he wants!". I knew it was useless to say "This isn't for me" as it's a bit lame. It cost £15 which was a bit expensive in my mind for a squeezy gel filled rubber toy. I wasn't going to haggle. I left the shop into the bright sunshine and it hit me as the ultamite cliche. It was raining that morning and the forecast was for scattered showers so I wore my duffel coat. It then picked up in the afternoon and was pretty damn hot. So here I am sweating profusely, waring a duffel coat leaving a XXX shop. Luckily I didn't bump into anyone I knew or they would have gotten more than they bargained for.
We presented the gift to Stephen and he took it really well almost as if to say "I have a better one at home". All in good fun though. We had a few more drinks before a two man band took to the floor and started doing some really bad covers of songs. They were killing them and what's more at incredible volume. We had to leave. We made our way to Auntie Annies and stayed there for hours talking absolute gibberish before making our way to Fionas house stopping at Billy Beggs Fish N Chip shop for some late night junk food to quell the beer fuel. Fiona lives just around the corner from myself so it was an easy swagger home. She had a cool disco projector and some kind of plastic strip lighting system. It was a good night and I hope there's more work nights out.

Saturday

Despite the previous nights intake I was up and in town for 10am buying birthday cards and such for tonights birthday party at Bert and Jills. Bert is now a manly 26. After some early afternoon shopping, we taxied over and began the merriment around 3pm. I fixed myself a White Russian and we all sat out the back yard. It was very light scattered showers all afternoon but it didn't dampen the spirit of the party. Keith and Heather arrived later with Simon and Mary as their house boiler exploded and the kitchen and living room to some flak. It was a cocktail themed party so everyone mixed their own good or bad concoctions. It was funny because we all must have had around 10+ drinks but no-one seemed drunk. I think it was the intake of juice with the alcohol that quelled the buzz. We played some games later in the evening and left around 1am.
It was a great day and kudos to Bert and Jill as they must have put a tremendous effort into staging everything. The BBQ was fantastic and there was more than enough to go around. A lot of the time was spent fiddling with fridge magnets making ludicrous sentances. I believe there's some photos of all this so I'll post them later in the week.

Sunday

Woke on Sunday morning feeling peachy. I ran myself a bath and relaxed for a good bit reading the paper as my calf muscles were aching probably due to running up the gardens steps the previous night. Lou and decided to go for a walk and we tried Lagan Meadows footpath just off Annadale Embankment. Holy crap was this a pointless public way. It's just a field surrounded by developments. We quickly made our way back to the car and after consulting the map we decided to go to Crawfordsburn Country Park near Bangor. Neither of us had been there for years and we had a very enjoyable walk along the coast. It would be a great place to come back to with more people for a picnic mess about. Did some grade A lounging when we got back and cooked chilli for dinner.
That night I met up with Colin at the Empire to see Patrick Wolf. It was criminal as there were only around 15 people in the audience. The warm up musician, Robyn Shields, was having a tough time. The second act, The Misty Roses, were better but you can only clap so loud to disguise a small audience. By the time Patrick made his way to the stage there were more people but only around 30. He called it "intimate" which was a nice way of putting it. Colin and I thoughorly enjoyed it.