Being social is damn expensive at times, especially when your friends appear to have expensive tastes... I paid $30 for a dinner on Thursday and $40 for a dinner on Friday (and believe me, that was far less than my share for the night). The company was indeed well worth it but I think I now have about $80 until I leave the country in about two and a half weeks time. Sheesh. Adelaide certainly ain't as cheap as it used to be... but I think in the restaurant department, there's always been plenty of upmarket, expensive joints in town.

Anyway, don't worry about money, honey... I've had a good couple of days. On Thursday I was catching up with my old friend who I call the Optimist, and finally met his wife - it seems like every time I've been in town she's been overseas, they've been married for nearly two years and I still hadn't met her. I found myself talking to her as easily as I would to him, which didn't surprise me somehow - after hearing him talk about her for so long, I knew she'd have to be someone pretty good. We ate Greek in Glenelg, which was a part of town that I knew quite well when I was a kid (dad used to play lacrosse at a reserve near the foreshore) and I barely recognised a thing... it was gorgeous, even if the new $million plus apartments looked a little sterile. The restaurant had a lovely casual atmosphere but high standard service and food, dinner was delicious and the conversation was great... my friendship with the Optimist means a lot to me, a reminder of what it is to be in the right place at the right time.

Friday night was more old friends, girls that I used to dance with. By strange coincidence, they'd booked a Greek place for dinner too, slightly more upmarket place in Rundle Street... service again was excellent and they gave us $30 off the total bill (we'd spend about $300 between six people). We had drinks first at the Austral (the Nostril) and then afterwards at some other pub, and then we ended up at a cocktail bar on Hindley Street... really not what I needed after spending so much on dinner, but people had been buying me drinks all night so I did eventually get guilted into buying a round of cocktails... man, being poor sucks, but at least it's not for long! Anyway, the night went on and on, ended up having a very long and weird conversation with another old friend of the birthday girl (I think he was trying to pick me up, he told me that I didn't look like a hippy... right...) and although the last bar we went to was a really cool salsa bar, I just did not have the energy to dance anymore. We ended up home at 4am, and slept until 1. It's been ages since I've had a night like that... I'm getting too old for this shit.

On Saturday night there was another dinner, at the home of someone I used to dance with, people who hadn't been able to make it the previous night. None of us are dancing anymore but everyone seems to be doing so well for themselves. Our host for the evening is an office manager, had just built a beautiful warehouse style house with her fiance in a new development and everything there was just so classy and tasteful... we're all grown-ups now, aren't we? Another girl, who was arguably the most talented in our course, has been to South Africa helping to build homes for AIDS orphans. The birthday girl has just spent four years in Ireland and is back doing a course in fashion design, and another girl is doing her PhD in something to do with placentas (don't ask me). They seem equally proud of me and what I'm doing, and I have to say I feel okay too, we're all getting on with life and finding our way. We still talk a lot about the past and the bad times as well as the good... there are times when I would like to contact my old teacher, just tell her what I'm doing and stuff... but I don't know whether I could shut up about the stuff I was angry about. Though, I don't feel angry anymore... I'd like to think it's behind me, and I don't ever regret having done the course... I just don't know what to say anymore. It was weird to be there with all of them though because in so many ways nothing has changed, and yet we're all so different... makes no sense, but there you go.

Anyway, got home from that one and mum's best friend was here having a few drinks, so I got to catch up with her a bit too and have a chat, which was really great but meant another late night as it was nearly three by the time it all finished up. Today has been a quiet one, breakfast at Henley Beach with mum and Ric and Sis too, and then I've just been watching movies and reading trashy magazines and developing a crush on Bruce Willis. I was thinking if it didn't work out with him and me because he reconciled with Demi, at least I'd be there to comfort Ashton Kutcher...

So I have dinner tomorrow night, and dinner Tuesday night, and the next day I am leaving Adelaide. It feels like I've been here for ages, but lately a lot has been happening so it hasn't occurred to me to mind. I haven't been doing the things I should, like learning Japanese, but I have had a good break. I've been playing around with a new weblog purely for the travel stuff, and my laptop was delivered on Friday so I've been setting that up too. There's still a few things that need to be done before I leave, but I'm feeling pretty organised thus far.

Strange that I haven't spoken to the Boy since Thursday. I haven't been home to take or make any phone calls, but we had been speaking every day before that. It's strange mostly because I haven't really noticed, except in the midst of the really good times when I find myself wishing he were here to enjoy them too... like, I knew he'd get along with the birthday girl's boyfriend, and I was sorry that he didn't get to meet the Optimist's wife too. I like being part of a couple, although I didn't feel uncomfortable at dinner with other couples when I was the only single. It's nice to know that I still feel comfortable being alone (after all, that's my life for the next year) and at the same time, it indicates that the reason I miss the Boy is because I want him there, not because I need him there. I still don't know what's going to happen with us... but we'll see what the next two weeks will bring. I am very much looking forward to going back to him on Wednesday.

Before After

© Blueshoe 1999-2005