Baptising the Space

Apologies for the terrible grammar in this post. I am nursing a severe hangover.

We had our first house party last night. It went very well.

The red uber-American style party cups that we bought way back in October were finally cracked out. Spurred on by week-long forecasts of glorious 'not a cloud in the sky' 27 degree weather, we bought a BBQ, made burgers and invited a shitload of people to come sample the delights of our wonderful deck.

I worked from 10 am til 4pm, looking in a forlorn manner at the baking weather outside with quivering anticipation. At 5pm, the sky went black, and a thunderstorm started.

Undeterred, we simply moved the party inside.

The result: 20 or so people in our tiny flat, getting drunk and having a fucking brilliant time. Tunes provided by the incomparable Mr Tom Anderson, spectacular ANZAC biscuits provided by real-life Aussies Lou and Bec, drinks brought by everyone; it was delightful. The rain decided to bugger off after a few hours, meaning that we (or more precisely, our friend Aidan) even managed to have the BBQ after all.

Everyone ended up pretty trashed, and at 4.30 I collapsed sideways into bed with only half my body actually on the matress. I can't wait for the next one.

I think the house party is the modern-day version of that loaves and fishes fable from the Bible: everyone brings a little, and yet there is more than enough for everyone. It's very socialist, the whole 'bring what you can and spread the wealth equally' vibe, yet it actually works!

It also proved to me that going vegetarian last weekend wasn't a bad decision. You'd think a BBQ would make you really miss the smoky deliciousness of a well-cooked burger, but the three of us (Tom, Lou and myself) just had spicy bean burgers, chips, dip and loads of salad instead. Not only did we not feel deprived, we also avoided that gross "I had to eat one of everything" stomach ache that you normally get from devouring all available meat at a BBQ. In fact, ever since we kicked the corpse food we've been struck by how little of a change it's been. We all accidentally ate fish once or twice, but that's just teething problems (and me misunderstanding the rules a little). Having said that, I do miss tuna and shrimp.

Damn shrimp.