Drublic Punkery...

It was absolute bliss to get out of the house yesterday, I was developing a mild case of cabin fever, if there is such a thing as a mild case. That's pretty much the same as saying I've got a mild case of psychosis, I only scream a tad and you'll hardly notice my insane blood lust. Shane last week whilst rambling 'round South Bank with some of his mates noticed an area by the name of 'picnic island' which bore several plaques stating something along the lines of 'drinking alcohol permitted here as long you also have a substantial meal.' Strange we'd not heard of that place before...

So we purchased a modest amount of beers, a whole bunch of sausages and pilgrimage'd our way to Picnic Island. Being that it was a beautiful sunny Saturday we were beaten to the punch, I blame that on Carmen actually she said it would be perfectly fine if we went in their a bit late :P, I'm glad she doesn't read this very often. he he. Anyway, there were already a few other groups of people with the same idea as us, so we just found a spot, cracked open some bottles and waited till a BBQ was free. Zoe, Shane and Jeremy abandoned us so they could get a swim, which left the rest of us to slowly souse it up.

Wasn't long before we were finally able to start frying some meats an we even got our own seats. There's something about public drinking that is very attractive to me, not so much the people that do it, but the sport of actually drinking in public. Maybe one day I'll be able to lay a finger on what the actual cause of that is, after a lot of experimenting and practice of course. After Joel's rabid rabbit impression with the salad we chose to move onto the next stage. Carmen, David and Alan going home to finally educate Carmen with the original Star Wars trilogy, mad girl has never seen them! It's always been a point of surprise for me as long as I've known her, guess I've always been to lazy to actually sit her down and educate her myself. That and she would have driven me crazy with her infinite questions about the film...

The rest of us went to West End to continue the fun, back to Jeremy and Joel's house, two mad Canadian legends. Legendary in the sense that I'm not sure if they're real or not, they seem more like fictional people really. They live in the loft of a 14 room heritage listed which due to its historic standing may not have been renovated for a very long time. Upon asking to use the bathroom Joel simply turned the tap on in the sink and said 'go for it', being the gentleman I am I asked if there was an alternate method. The pair have the greatest view from a house I've seen thus far in my life. One door leads out on to the actual roof and they've a selection of chairs and mattress set up out there. Having the balance of a cat I had no fears stepping out, even with the absence of railings.

I loved the simple ironies of the situation, the heritage listed site that looked like an Escher nightmare. The phrase 'heritage listed site' invokes images of history and tradition, yet it's filled with what I would warmly describe as the left overs at closing time at any pub. An interesting bunch of characters kept popping their heads up from all directions, stumbling over from different parts of roofing which for all intents was like a street path or perhaps the largest tree house you've ever seen. I felt a bit nervous for their safety but figured they'd done it a million times before. Besides I was not of the most sober disposition by this stage myself.

We stayed for a while, chilled and enjoyed the scenery for a while. The Gilby brothers arrived at some point, the younger of which began discussing his next kickboxing match this Friday, of which I am excitedly looking forward to. Around five we decided to make our own ways back to Graceville and keep going for a while longer. Great day... Later on today I'll hopefully be heading back 'round to Graceville for some tennis before going over to see Grisha this evening, fingers crossed. Pretty broke for the week coming up, so will probably have to spend more time at home this week again...not so bad for the first few days, but by Friday I'm quite fidgety. For now I have a Coen Brothers film lined up and I'm going to attempt to make a chicken sandwich without waking my brother... 5 AM cookery IS on the verge of rudeness and you can quote me on that.

Andy Scott