Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2023 15:53:43 +0200 From: Charley Reed Subject: Reed 'em and Weep - 25 June 2008 Wednesday 25 June 2008 Things I like: doing well at varsity. So yeah... the marks are up. Clearly the teaching staff wants us to get out of their hair and go on leave and they got everything done super-quick. Got the call last night from Kim and went through this morning for a look. They will eventually get them online, but that's only the week after next and ain't nobody still in town gonna wait that long when they're printed out and pinned up to various departmental noticeboards. Maths was surprisingly ok, and I'm glad to have got it out of the way. A higher mark would have been nice, of course, but a solid pass is fine and I can focus on Stats for this coming semester. An upper second for biology, and a pair of firsts for Chem and, amazingly, Physics, which I am particularly surprised and extremely chuffed with. It was a good and relaxing start to varsity vac this weekend. Spent Friday night at Al's with the boys, the first time I've seen him since The Incident with the Dick Pic, but I couldn't get him aside to chat properly. I also don't know how much digging I could do without him wondering why I was asking and then realising I did get that pic, which would just make things awkward. Anyway, he had us and some of his varsity mates around for what hopefully will become a fairly regular poker night. I know the rules of poker, but I've only really played the draw kind and not the stud kind which is much more popular these days. But Gareth and Ben were also there, and two other guys from his class called Neels and Rudi who I hadn't met before but have heard him speak of, and who seem like nice-enough guys. It was a good night, even though I didn't win. These other guys apparently play quite often and know some strategy, we were still kinda getting the hang of it, but yeah, why not? We ordered pizza from Gareth's work (yay staff discount), and ate other crap, and drank only a little too much, and it was just really clean and wholesome fun, the sort that guys our age just don't do often enough and instead always opt to go out far afield and get completely hammered and throw up everywhere. Perhaps I`m just not in touch with my own generation, but the whole constant boozing to oblivion and beyond thing is not something I really, you know, get. Interesting that the Stellies crowd brought brandy and coke with them while we have usually stuck to beer and (in my case) alcopops. Brandy and coke is the national dish of the Northern Suburbs, and is very Afrikaans indeed. That said, when anyone gives me shit about my fun mixed-six of beer, cider and a couple of fizzy vodka/rum-infused fruity drinks -- and they always do, every time we go out I get some comments -- I point out brandy and coke is the original alcopop and let them wrap their heads around it. I like the Smirnoff Spins and the Bacardi Breezers, so sue me, I don't care. I'm getting OTT here, but it's also good to see that Al and Ben are making other friends out there. I worried a little that I was losing touch with them by choosing to spend time with my own new varsity mates, but it's good that they're also meeting new people and getting new perspectives. The key is to keep our old friendship intact, and I think we've been mates for so long and have gone through so much that we will be mates forever. At least, I hope so. But an event like this suggests that we can easily-enough pick up after a break with hardly any awkwardness, and that is a massive relief for me. I don't know why I worried, actually. And it means I don't have to feel bad about having Other Friends! I was hoping one of these other guys might have some dirt on what is happening with Al, but it was not to be. Either that, or he had a strict gag order in place. Any even slight fishing from either Gareth or I as to whether Ben or Al had their eyes on any women out in Matieland was met with outright deflection or swift rebuttal, so either they're having as little luck as I am -- likely; I know these guys -- or these others have been sworn to secrecy. One of them, Neels, might have dropped a hint by twice-mentioning someone called Elisna, which the other guys seemed to know something of, but I can't be sure. Still, some post-game discussion with Gareth indicated he's thinking along the same lines as I am. And as much as I'm curious to have the info for my own sake, it would be awesome if Al was making inroads on a relationship. I'll admit I'm jealous if he's scoring, though... My folks are going to be pretty happy with my marks. I'll quite happily point out that I'm typing this while grinning like an idiot. I think I will be having an extra margarita or two at Trevor's Mexifest birthday bash on Friday to celebrate, that is assuming I survive my next two shifts back in the waitering trenches this week... I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed not having to deal with diners since starting at the university, so it was a bit of a rude awakening of late being back in there on Saturday morning. It's only like day 3 of school holidays and already the parents all look tired, and harassed, trying to have some downtime by bringing their kids to a busy mall for breakfast and lunch and getting annoyed that everyone else has had the same idea and the place is chaos! Next shifts are tonight and tomorrow night; Thursday is traditionally a dead zone in restaurants because everyone is saving their money for the weekend, so let's hope it's quiet but still profitable. There has been a lot of turnover since I was there over December and the start of this year; I only recognise about a third of the names on the shift roster, is how many new guys there are presently. Ah well, good to meet some new people! At least the manager Allison has stayed on, she's great fun to work under and we always got on really well, so all smiles from me on that score. -C P.S. Readers, Nifty needs your donations to provide these wonderful stories, so if you're enjoying what you find here please consider giving them a couple of dollars (using link https://donate.nifty.org/).