Happy Australia Day!

I had a terrible case of insomnia last night, where after lying in bed for 2 hours and accomplishing nothing more than staring at the ceiling, I decided to just give up and break out my laptop. So imagine my delight to find that on Australia Day, I found myself talking to real Australians in real time! My former flatmate, Amy, had written me an e-mail telling me about the Australia Day BBQ she was about to go to, and made me incredibly jealous at the thought of sunshine, grilling, and beer, while I was shivering in London. Sounded marvellous...

Also, an old friend from the hash, C Dogg, caught me on GChat, and we had a good time catching up a bit, and he actually asked me for some help with some work stuff he was doing. Even more incredibly, I was actually able to help, and so we used our work accounts to write back-and-forth a bit and catch up. Everyone down there seems psyched for me to come visit, so I am getting even more eager to go. Plus, C Dogg was always one of those rare pleasures in life, a guy much like Matt whose eyes always seemed to light up when he saw me, eager to slow his pace to run with me or come talk to me after our runs. I've missed him tons, and can hardly wait to see him again.

Finally I went to sleep, in hopes of being alert for my own Australia Day celebrations! They came in the evening with our weekly run, where there was an Australia Day theme. I tried to put together something vaguely yellow and green (like the Wallaby colours), but I'm not really sure it worked...

When I arrived, I set about the usual task of trying to collect money from everyone. Now that I don't have to worry about Cute Non-Drinking Guy showing up and this task taking me away from my opportunities to talk to him, I have to admit I rather enjoy it, as it gives me an excuse to talk to everyone. Which is how I ended up talking to the new guy, Pete, who was here at his first run. Seemed like a nice enough guy, and kind of cute too. So you can imagine my mortification when after the run I got him talking a bit (he seemed quite awkward about socialising, so I was trying to draw him out) and he mentioned that he was taking some time off after HIGH SCHOOL before starting at Harvard!! The kid was 18!! Yikes, no wonder he looked so adorable, yet was so socially awkward! And he must have thought I was old enough to be his mother!!

Still, at least I like to think that I did a good job of introducing him around and making sure he had people to talk to. One thing about having this job of running around getting money from everybody means that I'm learning to be a better social hostess. Although it's great when you've got a piece of paper where you can write everybody's name down on it...

The run itself was actually really good, with lots of loops and turns that enabled me to keep up with the group. We ended up having a re-group outside of the Australian Embassy, where we all sang the Australian national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair". They even passed out little pieces of paper with the lyrics and everything, except that nobody aside from the Australians knew the tune!

Although that does bring up the question, "How good are you at singing the National Anthems of other countries?" I can do "God Save the Queen", but at this point I'm not sure that can properly be considered a foreign national anthem (and I subconsciously still always want to sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" every time I sing it). I could probably start into "O Canada" and just try to wing it after the first line, although I know after having attempted the South African national anthem, that there's no way anybody can do that. It's in five languages, one of them being Xhosa (that African language with all of the clicks!)

In the end, I think they should have had us sing "Waltzing Matilda", because I think there would have at least been a chance of us knowing the tune to that one!

We finally ended up back at the pub, where do to my efficient crowd circulation earlier, I was finally able to enjoy myself and have a drink. Although admittedly after that run, I really only wanted water, but a pint of Fosters really seemed like the proper way to mark the day...

So then I found myself trapped in a conversation with Blunder for a bit (Blunder's a nice enough chap, but too much the old boy rugby player who doesn't know when to stop rambling or drinking), and caught the eye of ToyBoy, a newer hasher who I had spoken to earlier. Gave him a smile and a wink to both indicate I'd caught him looking at me and to indicate I was slightly bored with the conversation I was in, that I'd much prefer to be talking to him. He smiled and blushed, and I must say he has such a nice smile...

Upon spotting this, Blunder just laughed and said to me, "Okay, you can go now and go talk to the cute boy." I guess Blunder could see where my interests were! I just had to giggle and say, "Thank you, Blunder!"

Indeed, I did spend quite a bit of time talking to ToyBoy, (he found me rather quickly after I escaped Blunder), although since he'd brought a friend with him, I couldn't monopolize his conversation, plus there were other people I needed to talk to there as well. I had a good time talking to Nat and her boyfriend Kenny, who although he isn't the most naturally social of creatures, I'll give him a great deal of credit for always making an effort with his girlfriend's friends. Basically, he'd do anything for her, which includes making polite conversation with me!

Also was surprised when Princess specifically came to talk to me, for while we are friends and see each other often, he almost never does that, making a special effort to talk to me. I kind of wonder if it's because he's not drinking these days (training for the marathon), and hence enjoys my more interesting and sober conversation? As it was, we ended up talking tons about yoga. Go figure.

Finally it was time for everyone to go home. ToyBoy left, giving me a kiss and flashing me that lovely smile. You know when the word to describe a boy is quite simply "sweet"? Yeah, I felt like I'd already had dessert talking to him...

Headed home, walking under the shadow of the giant Monument to the Great Fire (called, with typical British creativity, "The Monument"), shivering in the dark cold, but still feeling a bit of Australia Day sunshine inside.