weekend adventures

Busy Busy Busy!

Saturday I headed out to Garra Gorge with Tess, Laura, Nick, [big]Dave and Scotty. I had never been anywhere near the place, however since I'm a fan of a good roadie decided it was worth the treck. Forming our gender alianses Nick drove one car with Scotty and Dave, while I drove the other with Laura and Tess. Not knowing the way myself, I was completely at the mercy of the boys car, as we followed them through the streets of Armidale, out through the bush, until finally we came upon a small BBQ area about 30 minutes out of town.
We cooked up some snogs, with the boys building impressive salads. As we were turning on the BBQ we noticed a sign which read "Only to be used if a responsible adult is present" the laughs began as we all argued over who should be responsible, of course none of us wanted to be. If age was the deciding factor then there is little doubt Scotty or Big Dave would take the role, as both are 35, however after logic was considered, they were probably the biggest pair of goofballs in the place, and so the youngest member of the party, Laura [20, that day in fact!] was voted Leader [aka responsible adult] for the day.
So we ate and chatted, about Tattoos, drop bears, Japanese gameshows and vomitting inside covered facial moterbike helmets while riding at 120kms/hr, among other things.

At one point, Tess headed to the toilet. Scotty had us all in hysterics as he made eerily realistic wild pig squeals while screaming "look-out!!" outside the toilet. By the time Tess emerged, rather timidly, she looked petrified! we were all grabbing our stomachs as we rolled about in laughter.

After the snogs and salad, I made a dash to the car and grabbed the cake I'd stashed in the back, which I brought back and surprised Laura with. We sang a hilariously off-key, opera version of Happy birthday, then gorged ourselves on cake.

Eventually we decided to check out the gorge, with the intention of making it up to blue hole, about 5 minutes up the river; 5 minutes that it, when using the designated track. We however decided fairly quickly, that the track was for the city slickers, and so headed down into the gorge. I cannot even begin to describe how awesome it was. I love this sort of adventure! we were climbing all over rocks, down into crevaces, up near vertical dirt walls! oh it was fantastic!
It is here that I impress you with the fact that I did it all in my flip-flops, oh yes! hardcore! :P
The rest of the team was highly impressed, as I didn't slip or fall once, and stayed with the pack the entire time.
At some point, we split in half, Laura, Dave and Scotty headed one way, while Tess, Nick and I headed another. Discovering that there was no other way to go, we headed back up to the track and walked our way back to the bridge which marked the very beginning of the walk. As the track was only big enough to walk single file, we amused ourselves by singing "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho it's off to work we go!" with Tess infront, myself in the middle and Nick behind me. Today was the day for random conversation, as Nick told the story of a friend who had eaten "Bush Oysters" completely unaware that they are in fact Sheeps testicles. OH man, I thought it was awesome, Tess was dry-heaving in front of me as I admitted that I'm actually interested in trying some of those things, just to see what they taste like, and to actually have a valid opinion.

We made it back to the Bridge, with no sign of the other team [HA HA, WE WON!]
I was straight in the water, attempting to skim rocks. Nick had me convinced he was impressed with my lousy 2 skims, however eventually stood, and skimmed his 4 times... :P

Eventually the other team rocked up, and pretty quick I had convinced Laura to take her shoes off and get in the water with me. This was quickly followed by throwing rocks at Dave, designed to land just in front and splash up all over him. It continued back and forth for a couple of minutes, before a full- on water fight errupted, with everyone splashing with a complete abandonment of co-ordination. The 3 of us walked away drenched to the bone. What a great day.

The boys decided that us girls should lead the way home, which we did, even forcing the boys to slow down as we passed the free-running cattle, inches from the road, in order to 'moo' loudly at them. The boys were hesitant to begin with, but got into it within a short time. some of the cows even came right up to the window, which had the boys yelling "Okay lets go, I think these sheila's are finding us a little too attractive, who knows what we're saying to them right now!!"

So we made it back to church, hung around, had a few drinks, before we headed off again.
I dropped Laura home - vowing to see her in an hour for dinner at the "Mung Hing" for her birthday. On my way I decided to pop in and see Wae Jae. Nick had asked me earlier in the day whether I knew if anything was up with Waje because he seemed upset about something.

He was.
I won't go into it now, but I could relate in a way, we chatted for a while, before I managed to convince him to come out for Laura's tonight, as sitting around in his room moping would only make him feel worse. He resisted untill I left to get ready. However upon my return to see if he was coming, he was completely dressed and ready to go.

Lauras was great. Met 5 of her other friends, who were a hoot to get along with. After about an hour and a half, we decided to continue the celebrations over at the Newie. However I grabbed Wae Jae and Laura and we shot across to Wright Village first. I promised Pete I would make an appearance at his bash at his flat. It was 9pm by the time we rocked up and there was absolutely no sign of anyone at Petes, checked with Scotty [different one from Gara Gorge - this was Scotty my RL and buddy from across the hall] he didn't go, so he had no idea. decided to shaft the party and head out instead. Laura and I had been into the wine, so Scotty offered his services as chauffer - what a leader huh!

Waje headed home, while Laura and I headed to the Newie. No sign of Tim, KC or Kim, so we headed down to the Kilda, then across to Tatts, over to the Wicklo, past Fusion, untill finally heading back to the Newie in a final attempt to find them. Just as we walked in the door, we stepped right into the three of them. finally!

KC and Kim headed off pretty quickly, while Tim stayed around with Laura and I. We managed to find ourselves a nice possy before things started getting really busy. We set each other the challenge for the night. Who could make the most people stop and join our little gathering around the table, the big challenge was we had to entertain them enough that they would remain for the rest of the evening. By the end of the night we had about15 people around our humble table. Clare, Alison and Bree were my main chat buddies for the evening. Never met them before, but enjoyed their company thoroughly. At one point there were no seats anywhere, which left Tim being a gentlman of sorts and offering his lap. Undeterred by the fact that should I sit on him, he would die. I did sit, and suprisingly, he didn't die :P
Scored myself a free drink at the bar form another girl, all for giving her boyfriend a hug. Feel the luuuurve.
At about 3 we headed back to Lauras place, we crashed in her room, her having a futon proved incredibly handy.
Woke up at around 11am and stumbled out into the kitchen to find Tim busy cooking Bacon and Eggs, Laura and I made a scene of shock with the female population that this obvious snag was single. Had a shower, then Laura lent me a change of clothes, which included her Drummond and Smith College Polo. We spent the rest of the day watching MASH - what a great show!!
Before I headed back, copped it big time from everyone in my flat, ragging me for wearing a college shirt in Wrights Village :P twas funny!

Headed along to night service at Church. Left Cafe` at around 10pm, Drove the girls home - recieved an invitation from Chavon for cocktails at her place next friday. As I'm headed back with Waje he decides he doesn't want to head home, so we drive all over Armi chatting about everything. Eventually we get onto the subject of what he's struggling with currently. I park outside his place and we talked and talked untill 1am. It was good to be able to chat together as we did when he was in the flat last year. It was nice to know that the level of transparancy is still very much there.

I arrived back at the flat, sorted my laundry and managed to roll into bed at 2:30am.
What a fantasitc weekend it has been. I'm blessed, incredibly blessed.