Saturday - 28.06.14 in Your Face

I went out for dinner with friends last night and got drunk. It was great. We had a delicious meal at a Vietnamese restaurant, where I drank a bottle of champagne to myself. Then we wandered over to another place for dessert and I had a couple of whiskey sours there. It was just a really fun night. We're all eagerly looking forward to the next night out together.

Woke up okay this morning, just thirsty and feeling grimy. Took me a while to get myself out of bed and presentable, and I popped next door to my neighbour's house for a cup of tea in the sun.

I walked down to the shops and had a Coke at the pub. I put my Keno on, won $7 off my $5 bet. High roller!

Went in to the supermarket and picked a few things up, most of it was crap for my brother, who continues to be completely self-absorbed and greedy. I understand that he's extremely frustrated while he recovers from shoulder surgery, but he is being a complete and utter heap of shit about it. Just demanding and demanding, hasn't said thank you yet for everything we've done for him, and continues to just want to get his own way about every last thing, while giving nothing in return. Example: he took Mum's car this afternoon so he could go and see our other brother. Mum said sure, you can take my car all afternoon and burn through my tank of petrol, but could you bring in my jacket from the car before you go? I need to wear it out later. He throws a shit fit over that, because he doesn't want to walk to the car (which is right outside the house) and then have to bring her jacket back in for her, even though she's doing HIM the favour. This is just one example ...

Anyway.

My neighbour picked me up from the supermarket, because it had started to rain. We spent the afternoon sitting in his garage, where he has a wood burning stove, and we hung around there talking crap. I came back home around 3pm and did my washing, hung it up in my room, as usual. I hang my stuff on coat hangers, which I hook over the curtain rod, then I have a small clothes horse for my pants, and one of those round plastic things with pegs hanging off it for my undies and socks. I'm sure most people would be horrified at my methods, but to be honest, I've been doing this for nearly three years now. When M and I were in our apartment, there were no clothes lines, so we had a line going from the closet to the curtain rod above the bed and we hung our clothes there to dry. Otherwise, they were on coat hangers off the shower rail. It sure makes my room smell nice, because it's that nice washing powder smell, but it does make me feel closed in. I miss the days in the US where my undies and socks and jeans could be dried in the drier. I don't know anyone with a drier here, it's a major luxury item that costs a bomb to run.

So why don't I just use the clothesline here? Well, my mother and brother, aside from leaving their wet clothes in the washing machine for days on end before hanging them out, will leave their clothes on the clothesline for a minimum of 6 days (yes, I have kept track because I have NO life), during which time it will probably rain at least once, and the clothes just stay out there until needed. So there's never room for my stuff, or there might be room for half of my stuff, and I don't see the point in that case, so I just hang it inside every time.

Tonight is our brother's birthday dinner, so we're going over there and getting take away. It should be alright. It's actually my husband's birthday today, or technically tomorrow, as he's 14 hours behind us. He doesn't do anything for his birthday and doesn't like people to know when it is, but I'll just send him a happy birthday via email. There is a gift I wouldn't mind getting him, but I don't really want to get it for his birthday.