The Week that Was

Squally pocker dum. Oog. Walter the Wallabee has been spending the day week drinking beer with his pals Isembard the Iguana and Roger the Rabbit. This time, there was no inkblot to prevent them and Walter imbibed much amber ale. In the absence of real Belgian beer, I have Walter has opted for Becks, Hahn, Little Creatures Pale Ale, Redback, and - at a stretch - Tooheys Extra Dry. But no wine.

So far it's been all good. I feel like I've been drinking beer since Tuesday, December 7, and apart from a few breaks to ride my bike, it's not too far from the truth. Tuesday was fun - we came dead last at the Recognition PR Trivia Night at NSW Leagues Club and we were actually trying. Even if I had been there for the first two rounds and got questions such as "Who wrote the Nutcracker Suite?" correct (Hint: it wasn't bloody John Pachelbel, it was Mike Tchaikovsky) we still would have been shafted. Apart from getting our wooden spoons and Kit-kats for coming last, the highlight of the night was probably when each table was given a bag of straws, paper, blu-tack, scissors and elastic bands and asked to build the tallest free-standing tower possible. We started by joining straws together and that probably wasn't the best plan. We eventually built a foundation from rolled up pieces of paper and propped up our superstructure against the table.

It goes without saying that we lost the tower building competition quite miserably.

And so it continues...

Forget the hair of the dog. I find the best hangover cure to be a four and a half hour ride in 30 degree heat. So on Wednesday I set out north, bound for Berowra Waters and Galston Gorge, two climbs I haven't done for yonks. It was a fun ride, and Berowra is still a tough little climb, averaging about 7 percent for 3 km. Galston is much more fun because of all the hairpins, and it's only 5 percent for 3 km. By the time I got back it was mid-afternoon so I had to rehydrate in time to go to the pub with Steve later.

Thursday: repeat, except the ride was only 75 km and I still had a hangover. Evening. Pub. Paul M., Dave, Kristy, Kate M. Missed dessert and got home late. Worked on the hangover again. Hangover coming along nicely.

Friday: repeat, except the ride was only 40 km, I still had a hangover and I had to go to the dentist. I needed two injections to make my mouth numb enough for the Friendly Dentist to go in hard with the drill. It was only one filling, but I've been putting it off for the whole year. Tricky. I couldn't talk properly for about five hours afterwards, and even drinking out of a glass felt strange. Thus, I had to drink straight from the bottle for the office Christmas Party. That was at Tanman's rather fine apartment in Randwick overlooking Coogee Beach and a whole lotta other bits of the Eastern Slurbs.

Crikey it has been a tough week, despite being on holidays. I would have to backtrack to Noosa (199?) to find an equivalent week. I'll have to dry out over the weekend and race a couple of times, provided the weather eases up. It's pouring here at the moment, as it has done all afternoon.

In the meantime, I've been brushing up on my Bach and Chopin, and can now play that bloody Nocturne Op. Post. in C# minor without buggering it up halfway. I'm so proud. I've also sorted a couple of Bach Preludes, but I'm still nutting out Number II in C minor. Bit tricky, but I'm getting there. It's been fun playing the piano again!