Sunday Evening

[bugshaw]

MC phoned to say that after the Hendon Air Museum trip they went to a pub so he'd be back late. A pub! How could I not have foreseen this? There I was, sat at home, thinking they'd just be talking about planes... I could have been at that pub!

BBQ was good: we are of course left with a sausage mountain (more of an Aztec pyramid if you stack them properly) but only one bottle of wine. More people were drinking beer than bringing beer (naughty people!), and 6 litres of Diet Coke disappeared in what felt like seconds. Lots of people, lots of talking, only a tiny bit of hamster and a brief interlude when I decided I really must write my TAFF platform (and did).

We have new neighbours at 105, but as there's a 6-foot fence between our gardens our interaction has been somewhat limited. B sits in garden, reading River of Gods, hearing new young international female students introduce each other. Ball sails over fence and startles B. B takes ball to fence and gently drops it over the side so as not to land on anyone. Neighbour is sitting against fence, and is startled when ball drops on her. Oops! Mutual apologies are shouted over fence. Later, neighbour waters garden beds with hose - water sprays through gap at bottom of fence onto B who has nodded off and is quite startled.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Rule 1 of parties - people bring crap wine, and drink good beer.

Glad you BBQ'd happily :-)

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

That rule would have meant there would have been bottles of crap wine left.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Sure, but if you prepare using that rule of thumb, you won't get caught out by the people who drink more beer than they bring :-)

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

We were caught out by the pattern being markedly different from previous parties, where we have been left with a couple of jugs worth of fresh beer and 4-6 litres of soft drink. This time we bought the same amount of beer as usual (it all went) and more soft drink than usual (it all went)!

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, so Tobes is at the *pub*. I wondered why he hadn't come home.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Well, the pub wasn't planned - I think it was more a case that by the time the Museum had been finished wth, it was much later than a certain person had expected.

(And no, we made out excuses and left.)

Many thanks for the BBQ - I'm glad I didn't contribute any sausages, though I thing the burgers went down OK. (Next time, I'll do some without the cheese in.)

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

We started taking twice the amount of beer we were planning to drink, and we still found that people had drunk all the beer we'd brought after an hour or two. With some parties I'm now resorting to taking extra stocks of beer and leaving them in the car so that we can rescue them halfway through the evening.

Worse, incidentally, than bringing wine and drinking beer, as far as I'm concerned, is bringing totally shite beer and then drinking the real ale, and then cheerfully saying 'oh, there's a can of John Smith's' to the people looking around for the gallon of beer they brought through the door 25 minutes earlier. Honestly, the only conclusion I can reach is that I have friends who believe that the purpose of parties is to drink at other people's expense. Whine, winge.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

It's not?

I think there is an ingrained instinct that, when going to a party, you take a bottle of wine.

There's a tendency in the Cambridge area for the host to get a polypin or two of Milton Brewery beer. This seems an excellent idea, and next time we throw a party, we'll need to be organised enough to do this.

And then there are the cider drinkers.

And the soft drink imbibers.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

I decided I really must write my TAFF platform (and did).

Been there, done that. So when do we get to read it?

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that.

Me too - and I've just realised I've not made mention of previously standing under a different name... I expect people will make the connection. I don't know when the ballot will be published, but here's what I sent James. I only cringe a bit on re-reading.

Bridget "Bug" Bradshaw
I’m an active fan (since 1990), conrunner and fanzine writer (Obsessions, Squiggledy Hoy) I work for the SF Foundation and the UK’s League of Fan Funds, and I keep a LiveJournal (bugshaw). I’ve stopped using my wheelchair - hurrah! - thanks to dairy intolerance and cheese avoidance - boo! I would like to give myself to fandom in the US and Canada for six weeks, to meet new people and old friends. I am (I’m told) witty, interesting and enthusiastic. Expect my fund-raising to be imaginative, my accounts meticulous, and my report full of my sense of the absurd. And hamsters.

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

It's odd: IME the "drink more than you bring" tactic was present with students (partly due to finances, partly due to the drinking capacity vs carrying capacity of your average 18yo). By the time people got to their mid-twenties, the concept of a beer dividend was firmly entrenched: you start with x bottles, hold a party and end up with x+n bottles, albeit often of lower quality.

Now my chums are entering their 30s, I've noticed the beer dividend has vanished and I often end up with fewer bottles than I started with (typically evenly split between good wine and godawful lager/alcopops). Which is a bit crap. I think part of the reason is that my parties are still fairly boozy, and many of my friends have got into the habit of just bringing a bottle of wine to more sedate parties.

Sorry we couldn't make your do by the way.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

We maybe need more practice at parties ;-)

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Wasn't this post used as a plot in a comedy starring Penelope Keith?

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Maybe they're not students - maybe they're a crack sitcom reenactment squadron. If I see them tomorrow beating their car with a branch, I'll know it's true.

[numbat.livejournal.com]

If you see them beating the car with a branch don't mention the war, or the hamster. . .

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

After posting this, I went outside and found a large branch on my gate!!!

Looks like the dead branch of the allegedly council-protected elder finally bit the dust, probably "helped" by various barbecue attendees tugging on it and proclaiming it to be dangerous.