No sooner had the guys got back and I was on the town again! Lou had just had a birthday and a number of other people at work were celebrating their birthdays too, so only fair to paint the town…..so again we hit Yalumba. A champagne fest………….plan was going good until the fact that the heavens opened solidly for two days that week causing major flooding and tail backs from Sharjah that affected just about every major artery in Dubai for just about a week!!!!
I opted for a cab share with a guy that lived in the Marina…he picked me up at the greens and we headed into town…I assumed he knew where we were going….so to make doubly sure I told the cabbie which hotel it was too…….it seemed to take ages and yet again we went a way that I wasn’t sure off….all the roads keep changing so I wasn’t totally surprised…..Now, when we got off Garhoud bridge and the guy I was with said…its ok we can walk from here, the alarm bells should have started ringing! I was wearing impractical shoes for walking!!! But we went for it as we were nearly an hour late due to MEGA traffic….well basically we went to the wrong hotel! It wasn’t til we got to the front door that I noticed this….OOPPPSSIEEE…but the big question was…with grid locked traffic everywhere…how the hell do we get to the right place….luckily just asked the door man and it was across the road….(well that was where he pointed us to go)……eventually we made it (it was not far)……1 hour late we started munching and slurping….had some catching up to do….. It didn’t take long for the bubbles to start to take effect…and as the time ticked on and the guests started to clear, our table started to come alive….. Some tables were cleared and moved out of the way, the music was cranked up and we had a mini dance floor…..GAME ON! ………now this is where it gets a little cloudy…..i didn’t remember the gang making a human pyramid until the photos came around the next week….but I have a lasting memory of the lads and a birthday cake…
It started with Scott dancing around with said cake, it was then passed to Will to balance on his head…..no drama he took it off his head but as he held it, the cake slipped and splatted on the floor…..i nearly wet myself it was so funny…..that provided the prop for the funniest dancing I have ever seen in my life. I think the phrase cake dancing can be coined….someone started sprinting on the slippy mess, I mean REALLY sprinting, flicking cream and chocolate in all directions, then another started a version of breakdancing, followed by numerous guys trying to out do each other….Topped off by Tom who did rolley polleys through it wearing white shirt and light cream trousers….you had to have seen it to appreciate how funny it was……
The inevitable move to the bar area superseded the cake antics….especially when a waiter put pay to the fun by clearing up the cake with his tea towel!!! Spoil sport………but this didn’t stop the fun…..for Scott and Kev decided to start a limbo competition!!!! Not sure where the rope came from but most people had a go…and the difficulty rating for each attempt increased mid limbo….thanks to the two guys dropping the rope a few cm at a time…as the munchies set in (god knows why as I had just consumed all I could eat from the buffet!!) I dared Jim to nick a couple of nice looking cookies from a jar that was obviously for decoration purposes….they were RANK….oh my god….i left my remains in a plant pot before my body rejected it involuntarily! Was funny to see Jims face as he took a bite and reailsed why I didn’t finish it!!!
The crowd then decided to try and go to Chi, but it was getting on and money was running low, so me and the guy I cabbed with left for our places…….
Oh the pain of the champagne brunch….totally self inflicted but I can confirm that for me…the champagne hangover is the most painful of all hangovers.
Basically I got up at 10:30 which I thought was pretty good….went to socialize with J&C and the kids but it was too bright and I was not feeling tops…went back to bed till the afternoon and basically wasted the Friday….
Saturday was my turn to give a helping hand. A friend was moving flat, so I helped with the proceedings…He hired a van to move the big stuff and we shifted it to another mates place while waiting for the next place to be free….we started at around 0900 and didn’t finish until 2230, well…I left then…I think he still had to sort stuff out at the old flat….was hard work but it was such a workout, especially given I had skipped dragon boating.