Well my birthday has been and gone, although I have still to catch up on sleep. On Wednesday night we stayed up late chatting and fiddling with my computer, and I didn't notice that in fact everybody was there except for Caroline, and Christoph who isn't part of the group as such. But although they had been plotting something - taking their cigarettes further away from the house than normal, and non-smokers hanging around there too - I was surprised when at five past midnight Sophie came down the stairs with a cake with twenty-five burning candles, and Claudia handed me a card and Freddy a bottle of Scotch whiskey (nicht schlecht - fur Schottland, I admitted). Actually come to think of it Kathleen produced a second cake which must be still in the fridge, better do something about that. And so we stayed up and drank and chatted and it was fun, and I think it was myself and Freddy and maybe Ben who were the die-hards, although I'm damned if I can remember what we were talking about. The bottle of whiskey did a few rounds and we all had cake and it was fun.
Chris had already said that because he's now working half-days during the week because he has to work the weekends to cover for Big Les being in jail he'd be driving into Griffith on Wednesday or Thursday and I was welcome to come along if I liked, so I'd arranged to accompany him on Thursday. I didn't manage to get up on Thursday morning, eventually awakening unalarmed at about eleven. Myself and Freddy, who had also foregone the morning's work, got a fire going and wood prepared for the future and generally pottered about until the others got back for lunch. Actually I can't remember the reason, I don't think it was raining and maybe it was just because everybody was tired, but they didn't go back to work after lunch, and eventually I got stuff I wanted burned onto a CD and myself, Chris and Mattze took off in Tony's ute (Real Aussies Drive Utes, it says on a sticker on it, which reminds me that the German slang for somebody from the east of Germany is Ossy or similar, which with a German accent is pronounced the same, leading to a small amount of confusion since most of them can claim to be Ossies). So off we went to the twice-as-big-as-Leeton town of Griffith, 42 kilometres away. First Chris was supposed to hand in or exchange or get sharpened a vine-cutting blade from the tractor, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or what shop he was supposed to do it in, so we unsuccessfully tried a couple of shops in the vague area he figured he was supposed to be in and then gave up and went into a computer shop and Net cafe that was coincidentally exactly across the road from where we'd parked. At long, long last. Although I barely scratched the surface of what I've got to do on the Net (I've got at least four mailing lists quietly accumulating unread mails in the background that I didn't touch) I did read and reply to the main stuff and get my diary entries up, to the frustration of Chris and Mattze who had significantly less to get up to in cyberspace. After that we went shopping, where I failed to find a bottle of nice vodka and accidentally purchased a slab of Cascade Light, mistaking it for Carlton which is really nice, and blinded by the fact that Cascade is the name of a beer in the Heavy Gear RPG. Still, on the way to another shop where Christoph wanted to buy an alarm clock and a hat and such, we passed a drive-through bottle shop, and although we didn't drive through and instead parked and walked in, I did find the vodka I wanted. It was dark by the time we set off back for home.
When we got back, Tony and Sue and Ross and Nick were together with the rest of our crowd in the, uh, kitchen-dining-living-room that we use, with some big honkin' sausages on the barbecue thingie and plenty more meat on the way. And of course some free wine (to quote Christoph, "Tony, he always say, more wine, you want more wine, do you want some more wine, okay I have some wine, and he take some more wine, he always drinking, he love the wine"). So we all stuffed ourselves silly on sausages and lamb chops and burgers, and then came two cakes with a candle in each, and we ate them and then all the food was out of the way so we could get down to drinking. I think it was Christoph who pointed out that I should be drinking a martini, so myself and Ben found an empty coffee jar and broke out the vodka and my hip flask of Vermouth, and a jar of olives, and made them for whoever wanted them. And so this evening also went by in a fit of staying up late and drinking, and today it was myself, Mattze and Sophie who were up til half five. Approximately one in three marriages in Germany end in divorce (and in plenty of other places too, including Australia I think) and Matt and Ben are our statistical adherants. Ben's parents split when he was fourteen and at that age you're allowed choose who you live with (he chose his father) and Mattze's parents are only now splitting up. We chatted about that sort of thing for a while, and I learned the real reason Sophie's in Australia, which she'd danced around answering previously. She's been going out with a guy for three years, but is now wondering if it's fizzled, and just wanted to get far away to sort her head out. I don't know much about it all of course, but from my knowledge of human nature I'd say it's doomed, because she's going to be almost a completely different person when she gets back. Well it explains her constant aura of mild sadness anyway.
So that was my birthday. Mattze and Sophie didn't get up the next morning, but I did, and pruned vines as normal, although maybe a bit slower and crankier. After work I got a couple of hours of kip, as being Friday which is the big night out in Leeton, we'd decided to hit the pubs and see what it's all about. It took plenty of time to get everything organised to get into town, but at long last we (youthful and energetic Ben, big-laid-back-dog-esque in personality although not so much in stature Mattze, perpetually-photographing top dog Freddy, tall and melancholic Sophie, quiet and apparently pretty dumb Kathleen, gangly and scruffy comedian Chris, climate-defying shirt clad Bond fanatic Shane and cheerful local Nick who's Tony's son - not joining us were thus-far-constantly-ill Caroline, friendly and considerate Claudia or work-hard-play-hard Michael) got to the Top Hydro, a small quiet pub by local standards. Small it certainly is, but it had a big television showing some rugby game of the flavour that Nick and Ross play, and annoying loud piped music and some noisy Australians. There wasn't much doing there, so after one drink we moved locations to the Wade, where we'd been the previous Saturday. It was louder and a bit busier but still not much going on, and after a drink there we went to the Bottom Hydro (same building, different pub) which is where you don't really want to go, I gather. But the place was hopping, and there was a really good live band (Australians like live bands in their pubs) and ugly people dancing, and other backpackers (including a German chick that Ben had met previously who spoke to me in German before she realised I'm not German, making her the first stranger I've spoken German to since I became vaguely proficient) and the atmosphere was good, and although I don't usually like pubs that aren't quiet, I had fun there (similar story for Sophie) and I wouldn't mind at all if we were to return next week. I noticed that Christoph, who he says cuts his hair to blade one and then lets it grow until he cuts it again, is currently sporting hair not unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger's in The Terminator, and I know I sure can't tell the difference between an Austrian and a Swiss accent when speaking English, so I started exhorting him to speak the following line, although I'd have to repeat them a few times before he got them right (his "I vont yaw cloze, yaw boots and yaw motocycle" was right on the money, but he kept stumbling on "Vaddzamadda Dillon, C.I.A. got you pooshing too maany pehn-sills?" - he also does a good "Come vid me if you vant to live"). Some drunk dancing lady told him he needs to shave, and he replied "You too!"
Christoph reckons Australians are a pretty fat bunch, and he blames it on eating large evening meals and then going to bed instead of working it all off in some fashion, and from last night I can see what he's talking about alright. The average Leetonite is pretty freakin' fat and ugly, regardless of age or gender. In fact you could pick out who was a backpacker in the Bottom Hydro by which groups were the best-looking. Mattze reckons Germany has an unusually high proportion of hot chicks, and I haven't seen anything to put this theory to flight alright.
Today I got up for work again, although it really took some effort of will to make my body go, but at about a quarter past ten while I was having one of the conversations with Christoph which happen every so often out in the fields it started to rain a little, so we gathered up all the bundles of vine cuttings I'd made in the past few days, threw them onto the ute and the rain started getting a bit worse, so we gathered the others and came home. I went horizontal for a while shortly afterwards and the rain had stopped when I awakened, so after some lunch some of us headed out again despite the look of the day. As I was leaving Freddy was wrapping himself up in his duvet and telling me to mark his words, we'd be back in a half-hour, and he was right. The rain started off pretty heavily and pretty suddenly, and I was within dashing distance of a shed (the Germans are working in the same field as me now, but further away) so didn't get too wet, and after Christoph had hauled everybody over on the back of the ute we hung around in a bigger shed until Tony and Ross turned up with cars to whisk us back home, and it's still raining now so it's a definite afternoon off.
I've been speaking mostly German now, and it's improved to the point where it's often easier for me to say stuff in German than to try to explain it in English - and also it's a good opportunity so I try not to waste it by being lazy. Christoph has spoken of some kind of open invitation to his house in Switzerland for some kind of reunion or just a holiday or something, and I'd definitely like to take him up on that, because it's easy to get to, I like Zurich and would love to see more of the country, and because now I'd really like to use my German some more. The idea of going to Germany for a while has risen in preference.