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Single Mum of teenage chef, affectionately known as The Brat. Have started a new life at the tender age of 44, embarking on a relationship with my childhood sweetheart... I know cliche central, but so far it works for us! New job, new friends, new challenges. Life's GOOD!

Monday, May 17, 2010

The Havock Fiasco Weekend

It pretty much started with the tweets announcing the revered God's arrival, followed by some frantic searching for same and Jugger author John Birmingham, on behalf of Monster Yuppy who would like to join them for lunch. Epic FAIL as both gents had turned their phones off... clever boys!

Arrived at Claret House around 6:30 or so to find most attendees assembled and well away. We were awaiting the arrival only of the Boss and the magic Bedes. I think Beeso, Abe and SpyNat were intent on sampling every beer on the menu. At some point in the evening I handed my camera to SpyNat, who played with it for a while and then handed it on to Havock, and made myself scarce. If you've seen my one and only vaguely recognisable photo from the Tassie Babes post, you know why I did that, though in my defense Havock did take some that were similarly apalling on Friday night.

Beeso and Monster Yuppy
I have met both of these gents before, but it was good to catch up with them and this time I actually managed to have a conversation with the Monster.


JB and Abe Frellman
The first time I have had the pleasure of meeting "The Sausage King from Queanbeyan" and appropriately The Boss ordered a sausage salad which went down very well! (Okay it was Chorizo salad and it was very nice). This photo should also allay the fears of non-attendees that we Brisbane Burgers have turned into a bunch of wussses who have forsaken alcomohol! Abe it was a pleasure! I will echo other commentators who are very impressed with JB's svelte suave look.

The lovely SpyNat, with Bedes and The Boss.
(Sorry Bedes, Havock seems to have saved all the front on shots of you for his phone)
Nat it was a pleasure, if you're ever at a loose end around lunch time, pop in to the office and we'll have lunch.

And of course the ratbag who needs no introduction....
The God himself...
HAVOCK
Now I met Havock briefly in Melbourne in March, and he seemed a nice guy! He is!

So Saturday night was fun, good conversation and food, and plenty of booze, except for me, I was driving. At the end of the night I bravely offered to drop Havock and Abe at their respective lodgings, and SpyNat home. I say bravely, because I have absolutely no illusions about my sense of direction. Frankly, it SUX. Still, I lined up the lovely Nat to navigate, and our little expedition set off (after a quick tidy up of the car - sorry about that folks). And an expedition it certainly was. All went swimmingly to the point where we dropped Abe in Roma Street. And that's when we came unstuck. Disregard anything you may read elsewhere, we did NOT circle the CBD eight times, it was four at the most. And with each circuit it was funnier, and we got sillier. We ended up dropping the great one on a corner, with SpyNat yelling at him out the window "That's Wickham Terrace, I'm sure it is", and then "Look, there's a street sign, I told you it was Wickham Terrace" Luckily, that particular corner was in fact close to Hav's accoms, and he made it home safe and sound. As did Nat and I, eventually! We cooked up a story that the whole situation was deliberate, we just couldn't bear to let Havock go, we couldn't get enough of his scintillating company.. yada yada.
I don't think he bought it.

I think I redeemed myself on Saturday though. Having finished my errands earlier than expected, I phoned Havock and arranged to collect him from the city for our lunch at Fiasco Steakhouse. Didn't get lost even once, and the ONLY reason we ended up doing yet ANOTHER blocky, was because there was no way to enter the restaurant carpark from the direction in which we were travelling. We were joined in due course by Quokka and her Bloke, then Bedes. Don't know about the others, but I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken. Bedes, I meant to ask you how your steak was? I assume it was okay, because it was well and truly gone. I think Havock learned a valuable lesson during that little gathering. Do NOT let Simon Bedak play with you smart phone EVER. Havsy's probably still trying to work out who all these vaguely suss new Twitter mates are! Another enjoyable couple of hours, after which I headed home, having woken up with a nasty headache, and being seriously not in the mood to stay out all afternoon before fronting up to Tassie Babes.

A couple of hours sleep, headache minimised, and off to Tassie Babes. I arrived quite early, as The Brat dropped me in then headed back to watch the football with his Nanna. I had a quick look at twitter, and discovered that a bunch of Burgers was having dinner right next door to the BAT. (Is bunch the correct collective noun for the Burgers? It seems a bit tame somehow.. any suggestions gratefully received). So I gatecrashed their dinner for a little while, before heading back to the play.

Tassie Babes, again what can I say? An absolute riot, had a ball once again. All involved are to be congratulated. GirlClumsy, love your work. Your cast, your crew, and of course the Author and Playwright! And Saturday night was chance to catch up with NBob, GirlClumsy, Medway and Albion Love Den. Also met Albion's lovely wife Satomi, Ysambart, Mick H, JanetELeach and assorted others. God I hope I haven't missed anyone! The one sour note was learning that Moko and his wife had run into major traffic problems on their way in, and weren't going to make it. You were missed mate! The Urinal presentation was another burst of hilarity, then chatting and catching up for a little while longer. After the show The Brat showed up to convey me homeward, and I let him know that we would be taking a couple of passengers, The Brat was cool with that, with one proviso. Nat was NOT allowed to navigate! I assured him that Nat had arranged other transportation, and we had Abe and Havock reasonably close to their respective quarters in short order.

Sunday, I had hoped to round off the weekend with a trip up to Redcliffe to meet Big Bad Al. Sadly the headache which had lurked all Saturday, returned with a vengeance. Decided to stay home and sleep it off. I will tell you all now though, if I can go out, have one glass of wine and end up with a monster hangover, from here on in I'm going to make sure I bloody well deserve it!

All in all a fabulous weekend. Great company, great food, and lots and lots of laughs. I doesn't get better than that!

Now, just because I can, and to counter that revolting photo Havock has of me on his blog, I'm going to post a couple more photos of past meetings with other burgers . Now I'm definitely not the most inspiring photography subject, but I think these ones are a LITTLE bit better!




With Medway and the Fabulous Girl Clumsy. This is an older one, but both were present Saturday night, and I didn't manage to get pics of them there.
With Havock and Bangar in Melbourne


With Catty in Melbourne on her birthday

16 comments:

  1. A wonderful write up Mayhem.

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  2. Nat looks like she has just seen a naked Adonis walk in.

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  3. Quite the get-together, and a good write-up on it. Thanks, Mayhem.

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  4. IT was not to play..jesus..you pair managed to LOOOSE A FKN GOD in BRISSY LAND..UN FKn HEARD OF!..lol

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  5. You can't be that bad at navigating, Mayhem. If you hadn't rescued me, I'd probably still be wandering up and down Little Collins. Or St Kilda beach.

    I had so desperately wanted to be there in Brisbane with everyone. Coming here and finding your fab writeup, complete with pictures of Melbourne get-togethers, I kinda feel like I was there.

    Thanks, Mayhem.

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  6. Love your work Mayhem!

    Thanks again for the lifts. Note everyone that they got themselves lost AFTER I was out of the car and thus no longer able to offer navigation suggestions.

    Cheers

    Abe

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  7. Thanks guys. I hope I did it justice. It was awesome to meet new Burgers, and to catch up with those met previously.

    Al, your comment on twitter is probably closer to the mark, if there was a naked Adonis I certainly missed him *sigh* story of my life...

    Havs, why won't you believe us when we tell you we just couldn't bear to part with you? The whole "LOST" thing was entirely a sham. Psstt Nat, get in here and back me up FFS.

    Catty, I'm sure if I hadn't rescued you, Bangar or Havock would have. If not, it was only a matter of time before the teen and the kidlets got hungry, or the boss got frustrated. Someone would have found you I'm sure.

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  8. I only ended up trying about three different beers mate...come on! Ended up favouring that Lemon Myrtle gear. Good shit.

    Oh and as already mentioned over at his place, the whole 'getting lost' thing was completely orchestrated to see how well Harry could handle being at my mercy. Turns out he is quite equipped to be my subordinate.

    I enjoyed your writing. Well done.

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  9. Nicely done - enjoyed the read - shame you didn't drop H off out @ Ipswich!

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  10. Nat, I believe you, even if Havock doesn't.

    Lerm ROFL! Can you imagine Havock storming Ipswich? Though at least he might have managed to catch up with Moko.

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  11. Havock would be at home among the Ferals of Ipswich.

    In no time at all we would hear "Cap the FKN MUPPETS" being muttered by all of Ipswich.

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  12. I'm always surprised to see photos of Havock... In my mind he's built like a brick outbuilding and always has a grenade pin clenched between his teeth.

    Mayhem, it's a murder of crows and a parliment of owls... how about a bang of burgers?

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  13. Given the general enthusiasm for drinkies, MM, I would dare to challenge you with the term 'Bucket of Burgers.'

    Mayhem, God bless you for not putting a photo of me up. I hope I warned you that doing so would attract a rash of cyberviruses and Space Trolls that would make Lobes look like a choir boy.

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  14. Woohoo! Now I have a face for Mayhem! And we had dinner together :)

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  15. Morgana, I quite like "bang" of burgers, though Quokka's "bucket" appeals too.

    Quokka, if I'd had one it would have been there. But I also knew that Havs had done the honours at his place.

    Ladies I still have the burger brekky photos though...

    Bart, yes it was nice to meet you, albiet briefly. Next time we might actually get to chat. And strictly speaking we didn't have dinner together, I gatecrashed your party for a little while.

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  16. A tad late to this post but finally remmebered the write up would be here. So nice to see what people look like! Frellman, Hvsy, Catty (from earlier post) etc etc... It is warmer when you see peeps.
    Sounds such fun and never mind mayhem, I would be the lostest person had I needed to do the driving--sense of direction is negative 20. Abi

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Faff is acceptable.