The "Freaking awesome weekend" report
Ok, so I've had a faaaaaaaaaaaaantastic weekend, and I thought I might even post about it! As I was saying in the car going home this evening, "Yeah, this weekend's blogworthy!"
So Friday night, we had the IAG "Direct Insurance SA Excellence Awards", which essentially amounts to our local awards night, in which the nominees for the national awards are announced. We have a DI National Awards night, in which the winners from the regional awards go up against eachother for glory. Or something like that.
It really just amounts to a chance for everybody to get drunk, have a good time, and hopefully not embarass themselves too much. We've had some fun ones in the past though, with scandalous trysts, and even a punch-up last year! Catfight!! Was hilarious.
Of course, the day of, we rarely get any work done. Motivation is low, as the promise of a good night means that the day passes slowly, and everybody is in a bit of a buzz. Ended up having lunch at the pub with some workmates, which is always good. This was made better by the fact that they had Knight Rider on the plasma screen. I mean, come on! Knight Rider!! You have to love it. And if you don't, the chat about 80's TV shows is pretty awesome too.
So work finished, and "the boys" stay back to have a couple beers at the Office (The actual Office, not "The Office" on Pirie st, which is incidentally not far) before heading over. After that, we head on over (with an amusing "How Deep is Your Love" moment in the elevator down, which is always hilarious) and then get straight into the beers there too, because the night hasn't yet started. So we're enjoying happy hour pints (Mmmm...$4 Coopers sparkling) and watching the Olympics, paying out the Syncronised Swimming and so on, and then it's up to the night.
This year, instead of doing a couple hours drinking, then the awards, which... to be fair is pretty stupid... "Hey, let's have drunks accept the awards!" they got straight into the awards first thing, to leave us with 4 hours uninteruppted drinking. If anything, I had kind of thought to myself "the only thing I've done of any worth this year would be the 'Innovation' award." so I pretty much wasn't paying attention.
"Oh, yay. Customer Service - Face-to-face award. Oh, yay. Assisting People - Internal Support award. Somebody. *clap clap* Come on...get back to the beer. Beerbeerbeerbeerbeer!" ... "OK, Outstanding Acheivement - Individual (essentially, Person of the Year) only a couple to go and then back to the beer." ... "Wait, WTF? My name???"
Yes, it would seem that I have won the 2008 DI Excellence Award for Outstanding Acheviement for an Individual, in recognition of my massive amount of projects, some of which are now being adopted nationally. I'm pretty stunned, to be honest. So, that means that I'll be going to the nationals, whenever they are. Sweeeet! The next 4 hours were spent drinking, laughing, having a good time. According to my handy-dandy-drinks-calculator in Excel, my BAC was only back down under the limit around 6 or 7, and I stopped drinking at 10. I looooove awards nights.
Saturday
Saturday, it was time for another installment of The-Order-Of-The-Nerd; my D&D group. Woke up around 11 or 12... I think, and then went for lunch at Maccas. Got another of those Olympics glasses. I now have 8. ^_^ Hilarious in my opinion. Show up at Flea's place, who has recently had surgery, and she's at the doctors for a checkup and more prescriptions. So we hang around for a couple hours before the game starts. Then we have dinner. Then more fucking around. Essentially, a fun D&D session, with lots of laughter as always. Being "God" is lots of fun for me, and seeing the enjoyment everybody else gets from the game that I've crafted is immensely rewarding. Especially to see the emotional response that I can invoke with my words and my scenarios. To see them react to the characters that I've created, and to respond to my situations in both expected and unexpected ways. Totally awesome.
Sunday
Sunday we'd made plans with Flea and Q to go to Hahndorf for lunch at the German Arms, so we could get some nice German sausage. Mmmmmm... I love eastern European meats. For extra fun, she made the booking under the name Clarence Carter. Oh shit! Clarence Carter! So we rocked up around noon and cruised up to Hahndorf in style. 80's music blaring, cruise control cruising. Having now done the Princes Highway on cruise control, I am so impressed when I compare it to the Festiva. I was passing cars left right and centre because I was locked at 110k and they were struggling to maintain momentum up-hill. Muahahahaha.
So we arrived an hour early. Ended up walking around (not much, since Flea still can't walk much due to surgery) and checking out a few of the gift shops. The ladies bought some gloves and so Q and I went and checked out a shop selling foodstuffs and chili. He bought a Chili-Punch cordial and some "Black Chili sauce" from Tanunda. I bought some Sarsparilla cordial and a fresh loaf of Sourdough bread. I freaking love sourdough. By the time we finished, it was about time for lunch.
So we head over to The German Arms, and at the reception, I get the lovely chance to say "Good afternoon, I have a booking for 4... Clarence Carter?" with the response "Ah, yes Mr Carter, right this way." Roflcopter. We had a fricking brilliant seat, just down from the piano, right next to the fire, and a window seat. Clarence Carter commands respect! I had myself a trio-of-wursts, which was esentially German potatos, saurkraut, wholegrain mustard and 3 "-wurst" sausages. Huge plate of food. Mine arrived last, yet I still finished eating first. Everybody was amazed I could put it away so quickly. As I said, I love my sausage.
So while we're eating, we decide "Hey, let's go to The Pancake Kitchen for dessert!" since, it seems that Flea has never been before. How odd. At least I think it is. Anyway. So we drive back to town, and head on over. Have myself a nice stack of chocolate pancakes with strawberries and icecream. Mmmmmm... Then we get a call from Kingsley, returning a call we placed from earlier in the day. We knew he'd be on a first date with Tina. So we usher them over, as it seems they're only a couple blocks away at Night Train!
So we hang with them for a while, and then decide we're off to the "Super store" next to Night Train. You know the one. Yeah, that one. So we do a bit of shopping, I drool over some of the more...exotic...items (discovering, to my surprise that perhaps Tina shares an interest in this...?) and settle on a few wish-list items which I'll get at some other time. We make a couple purchases ("Attack of the 'Clone'" for Q hehehe) and head on out, leaving Kingsley and Tina to their date which we assume went well. I entrusted Kingsley with the mission of stealing Tina's katamari shirt for me. Failing that, I have to buy one myself. It was awesome.
So we head back to Fleas for coffee (yes, actual coffee) and then back home where I finish off my day of excess with a bowl of popcorn and a bath/book. You know me and popcorn. All up, this has been a freaking massive and awesome weekend, which I've really needed given how depressed I've been lately. Maybe things are turning around, I dunno. All I know is weekends like this don't come around very often.
-Bob ... out.
So Friday night, we had the IAG "Direct Insurance SA Excellence Awards", which essentially amounts to our local awards night, in which the nominees for the national awards are announced. We have a DI National Awards night, in which the winners from the regional awards go up against eachother for glory. Or something like that.
It really just amounts to a chance for everybody to get drunk, have a good time, and hopefully not embarass themselves too much. We've had some fun ones in the past though, with scandalous trysts, and even a punch-up last year! Catfight!! Was hilarious.
Of course, the day of, we rarely get any work done. Motivation is low, as the promise of a good night means that the day passes slowly, and everybody is in a bit of a buzz. Ended up having lunch at the pub with some workmates, which is always good. This was made better by the fact that they had Knight Rider on the plasma screen. I mean, come on! Knight Rider!! You have to love it. And if you don't, the chat about 80's TV shows is pretty awesome too.
So work finished, and "the boys" stay back to have a couple beers at the Office (The actual Office, not "The Office" on Pirie st, which is incidentally not far) before heading over. After that, we head on over (with an amusing "How Deep is Your Love" moment in the elevator down, which is always hilarious) and then get straight into the beers there too, because the night hasn't yet started. So we're enjoying happy hour pints (Mmmm...$4 Coopers sparkling) and watching the Olympics, paying out the Syncronised Swimming and so on, and then it's up to the night.
This year, instead of doing a couple hours drinking, then the awards, which... to be fair is pretty stupid... "Hey, let's have drunks accept the awards!" they got straight into the awards first thing, to leave us with 4 hours uninteruppted drinking. If anything, I had kind of thought to myself "the only thing I've done of any worth this year would be the 'Innovation' award." so I pretty much wasn't paying attention.
"Oh, yay. Customer Service - Face-to-face award. Oh, yay. Assisting People - Internal Support award. Somebody. *clap clap* Come on...get back to the beer. Beerbeerbeerbeerbeer!" ... "OK, Outstanding Acheivement - Individual (essentially, Person of the Year) only a couple to go and then back to the beer." ... "Wait, WTF? My name???"
Yes, it would seem that I have won the 2008 DI Excellence Award for Outstanding Acheviement for an Individual, in recognition of my massive amount of projects, some of which are now being adopted nationally. I'm pretty stunned, to be honest. So, that means that I'll be going to the nationals, whenever they are. Sweeeet! The next 4 hours were spent drinking, laughing, having a good time. According to my handy-dandy-drinks-calculator in Excel, my BAC was only back down under the limit around 6 or 7, and I stopped drinking at 10. I looooove awards nights.
Saturday
Saturday, it was time for another installment of The-Order-Of-The-Nerd; my D&D group. Woke up around 11 or 12... I think, and then went for lunch at Maccas. Got another of those Olympics glasses. I now have 8. ^_^ Hilarious in my opinion. Show up at Flea's place, who has recently had surgery, and she's at the doctors for a checkup and more prescriptions. So we hang around for a couple hours before the game starts. Then we have dinner. Then more fucking around. Essentially, a fun D&D session, with lots of laughter as always. Being "God" is lots of fun for me, and seeing the enjoyment everybody else gets from the game that I've crafted is immensely rewarding. Especially to see the emotional response that I can invoke with my words and my scenarios. To see them react to the characters that I've created, and to respond to my situations in both expected and unexpected ways. Totally awesome.
Sunday
Sunday we'd made plans with Flea and Q to go to Hahndorf for lunch at the German Arms, so we could get some nice German sausage. Mmmmmm... I love eastern European meats. For extra fun, she made the booking under the name Clarence Carter. Oh shit! Clarence Carter! So we rocked up around noon and cruised up to Hahndorf in style. 80's music blaring, cruise control cruising. Having now done the Princes Highway on cruise control, I am so impressed when I compare it to the Festiva. I was passing cars left right and centre because I was locked at 110k and they were struggling to maintain momentum up-hill. Muahahahaha.
So we arrived an hour early. Ended up walking around (not much, since Flea still can't walk much due to surgery) and checking out a few of the gift shops. The ladies bought some gloves and so Q and I went and checked out a shop selling foodstuffs and chili. He bought a Chili-Punch cordial and some "Black Chili sauce" from Tanunda. I bought some Sarsparilla cordial and a fresh loaf of Sourdough bread. I freaking love sourdough. By the time we finished, it was about time for lunch.
So we head over to The German Arms, and at the reception, I get the lovely chance to say "Good afternoon, I have a booking for 4... Clarence Carter?" with the response "Ah, yes Mr Carter, right this way." Roflcopter. We had a fricking brilliant seat, just down from the piano, right next to the fire, and a window seat. Clarence Carter commands respect! I had myself a trio-of-wursts, which was esentially German potatos, saurkraut, wholegrain mustard and 3 "-wurst" sausages. Huge plate of food. Mine arrived last, yet I still finished eating first. Everybody was amazed I could put it away so quickly. As I said, I love my sausage.
So while we're eating, we decide "Hey, let's go to The Pancake Kitchen for dessert!" since, it seems that Flea has never been before. How odd. At least I think it is. Anyway. So we drive back to town, and head on over. Have myself a nice stack of chocolate pancakes with strawberries and icecream. Mmmmmm... Then we get a call from Kingsley, returning a call we placed from earlier in the day. We knew he'd be on a first date with Tina. So we usher them over, as it seems they're only a couple blocks away at Night Train!
So we hang with them for a while, and then decide we're off to the "Super store" next to Night Train. You know the one. Yeah, that one. So we do a bit of shopping, I drool over some of the more...exotic...items (discovering, to my surprise that perhaps Tina shares an interest in this...?) and settle on a few wish-list items which I'll get at some other time. We make a couple purchases ("Attack of the 'Clone'" for Q hehehe) and head on out, leaving Kingsley and Tina to their date which we assume went well. I entrusted Kingsley with the mission of stealing Tina's katamari shirt for me. Failing that, I have to buy one myself. It was awesome.
So we head back to Fleas for coffee (yes, actual coffee) and then back home where I finish off my day of excess with a bowl of popcorn and a bath/book. You know me and popcorn. All up, this has been a freaking massive and awesome weekend, which I've really needed given how depressed I've been lately. Maybe things are turning around, I dunno. All I know is weekends like this don't come around very often.
-Bob ... out.