David's Birthday

The Tall South African called me in the afternoon, as I had originally been supposed to go to a party at Lotte's and see him for the first time in ages.  However, due to a family emergency, Lotte cancelled the party, so now I suppose I would be going a bit longer without seeing the Tall South African...


At around 5:30, my phone rang, and it was David, a guy I know through the Young Dutchman.  His birthday was today (thank goodness I'd remembered seeing this on Facebook and was able to greet him with a "Happy Birthday!" when he called).  He then asked, "So what are you up to tonight?"  His girlfriend was out of town and he was all on his own, so why not go out with me?  


He suggested we hit up the HAC Open Evening that nearly our entire social crowd had been invited to, so we agreed to meet out at the Honourable Artillery Company at 6:30 PM.  I dashed through the shower (why do I never learn to shower earlier in the day?) and made my way out there.


We had a good time looking at guns, watching explosions, and admiring a parachute squad that dropped down in on the crowds.  David himself is particularly into guns (he often goes out to his father's farm to go shooting at the weekends), and so was quite in heaven at this event, particularly when I kept taking my turn at buying rounds and pints of Guinness.  


Once the parachute people had dropped in and the the sky was growing dark at 8:30, I suggested we walk to where my running club was meeting, as they were going to be at a pub that I really like.  We got there, got drinks, and sat in the side room away from where the runners were, but got plenty of attention as people kept coming by to say hello.  We mostly just focused on each other however, having one of those long, rambling conversations about life, our childhoods, and everything else, and those slightly salacious topics like whether all women in relationships eventually stop being into sex.  I like to imagine I'd never be like that, but I have to admit there is a disturbing trend out there among my female friends in relationships, and the implication was that his long-term girlfriend is no different.  

We then remembered an evening last year where we'd gone for dinner at 3 AM, and finding ourselves hungry (and with the pub no longer serving food), we decided to jump in a cab and head to that same restaurant where we'd feasted on excellent burgers in the middle of the night.  

Once there, we got some fabulous cocktails with a champagne chaser (perfect for the birthday boy), along with some divine calamari with garlic mayo, as well as some insanely delicious burgers.  But mostly we continued our rambling conversation about everything from our childhoods to our hopes for the future.  Just one of those epic nights where you have so much fun, because you're with the best company.  

We finally caught a cab home at 2 AM (I got the better deal, where he paid for dinner and I covered the cab), and he kept exclaiming about what a randomly good birthday it had turned out to be.  A great night for me too, making me think I might have a future career as a last-minute birthday planner....