Bowling Recap

By popular request, I will give you the long awaited insight into our January holiday party, just too late for Eid-Christma-ka and just too early for Chinese New Year.

I was the shining star, yes I was. I was eloquent, I was funny, I was witty, I was risque, I was pretty. I was all of the above after only a few glasses of sweet sweet wine, which for so long I had taken a leave of absence from. Before that I was also a sucky bowler. I know I have no skill but sometimes I do have luck to hide the lack of skill. This time no luck and no skill coupled with high pity absorption due to crippled status made for a bowling score of 115 for TWO games combined. I hear that's pretty bad even for the elementary pupil (as they say) birthday party standard.

It started with the wife of the non-scary boss drawing up teams. In her husband's favor. I got to be super lucky and ended on on her team. At least the one sporty man in our company didn't show up until dinner so it was truly a battle of the walruses. Triple Christian economist scared me and his calf muscles by sitting on the ground trying to reach for his toes in an attempt to warm up Jane Fonda style. Wasn't it in the early 90s that they realized a stretch must be held and bouncing is bad for you? He must have missed that info while in engineering class back in various elite outback Australian schools and bounced away at his toes. Non-scary boss really got in the swing of things fast with a quaint little gallop leading to a good left-leaning chuck that in all his elegance seemed a bit like a double back flip before diving ass first into the kiddie pool.

Zimbabwe economist's wife, this year in a subdued non-African outfit (she be's ivory in complexion) pulled me aside to inquire about newly acquired husband. Why was he not there. She misses him. Ehm lady I am thinking, the boy is en long route back from tango land to pick up my gadgets from USA where I single handedly hold up the economy. So instead she befriends me and tells me all about her in laws may they rest in peace and the suckyness of trying to get a visa to anywhere if you have a Zimbabwean passport with only 10 blank pages left to last you a lifetime. Apparently due to her ivory whiteness and despite being third generation Zimbabwean the good old Mugabe doesn't seem to be appreciate this whole multi racial citizen idea all too much and isn't so generous with new passports. So she is 10 pages away from being stateless. I like her a lot and I want to go to dinner with her and Zimbabwean economist to hear all about how it was growing up in Africa being African but also, well not being African.

But back to bowling. Zimbabwean economist seems to have the game in his blood. A novice to the sport he beat triple Christian economist and makes up for my losses and despite ancient secretaries tries to get back to her former girlish form, the team of little me, wife of non-scary boss and Zimbabwean economist take the lead and hold on tightly to a well deserved victory.

Then comes dinner and as I already pointed out here I am the shining star. I can't think of anything exactly that I regret saying or doing, so maybe I was entertaining in every one's mind, not just my own. Here triple Christian economist gets the hick ups but you see, he doesn't think anyone else can hear that, so he just keeps talking over them which distracts me and I bob my head every time he hick ups to help him so to speak. Non-bowling economist makes fun of our low bowling scores and as it is good tradition every 10 minutes non-scary boss makes either the boys or the girls move two chairs along the table to 'mix things up'. I however stay seated to see if anyone notices why the game is not working out. Nobody notices and so I stay close to the strategically placed plates of moussaka and lamp skewers and sweet sweet wine and have the economists shuffling around me. Almost royal, certainly regal.

I am then spoon fed baklava for dessert because everyone seems to have heard about my infamous 'sweet tooth' as wife of not yet mentioned economist tells me. They must have some enlightening dinner conversations if that is a topic that has been discussed. I mean thanks, but go easy people, girl's got a buzz to hold.

And then they leave. Punctual to get the last tube. That was that until Monday morning ancient secretary appears crying and moaning about how she is still knackered from Saturday. Maybe I wasn't the only one drinking sweet sweet wine?