Chocolate, cows, wine and cards

I left Orange on Friday and spent the evening with Belinda in Sydney. We nattered for a couple of hours and then went out for a boozy girly chatty food-ful night out. Here is a summary of the night's notables:

• The place we went to used to be a strip club. The poles are still intact downstairs.
• One of the hostess people was wearing this dress that I have wanted for ages, but she wore it so badly that it killed my desire (boring for all of you, but exciting for me)
• Alex Dimitriades (you know, the Heartbreak Kid guy) sat at the table next to us with his tall and glamorous girlfriend who looks like a drag queen
• Whoever wrote the cheese menu deserves a Pulitzer. We ate one cheese that was the "Ancestor of Brie" and another one which was apparently super duper special because only one certain breed of French cow is "authorised to produce the milk" for it. I kid you not. See the pics below. Could you pick a cheese made from the milk of an unauthorised, fraudulent cow?
• The chocolate dessert Belinda had was unbelievable - basically a football sized round pocket of puff pastry which, when stabbed, OOZED hot dark chocolate ganache. Seriously, there must have been 400g of chocolate in that thing. See pics.

We had every intention of being in bed by midnight. This did not eventuate. Must remember (for future reference) that 4 hours' sleep is really not enough and makes flying even more blah than usual.


I backed up and had my farewell drinks last night. This morning I felt quite a lot worse for wear. In fact, I think it was the first proper hangover of my adult life. How do people do this every week? I spent the morning longing, longing, longing for death.







On the bright side, I thought the red slapper dress worked quite well in the end.

Also on the bright side, it was a lot of fun. There were party pies and pinot noir (and pinot noir and pinot noir and then sticky...the thought is making me feel ill), card tricks (no sorry - illeewwwwwsions), the three Jesses (is that the correct plural of "Jess"?) were all there, and my and Phil's plans for our palatial Wongbong North abode crystallised a little further. We had a little secluded corner of the Supper Club to ourselves. I hit the wall around 3 and fell asleep in the taxi on the way home. Not bad for an old spinster on 5 hours of sleep!

Now that I've had my farewell drinks, it would be nice to know when I'm actually leaving. That's a HINT, Ernie.

The national schools' debating comp kicked off today. MQ is in the Victorian team - GO M! How can someone who says so little at home have so much to say in public?