The right and the wrong of it

It's all become a bit confusing in terms of writing this commentary, since I'm stuck in a serious time warp, uploading after the events and trying to decide if I should write in the present tense or in the looking-back way which is more correct. Indeed, as I began this I forgot which day I was supposed to be talking about and was several sentences into a long polemic about the doings of Saturday, rather than the Sunday which it should be. Still, Saturday does in fact come into things, since it was on Saturday night that we were at the 40th-Birthday party. Richard's actual birthday is on the 16th, so everyone had to be there after midnight in order to sing the birthday song in the proper context and so on.

It was a great party. The food, the drink, the company, the atmosphere -- all score 10/10 on the party-throwing scale. As the serious business of scoffing the food kicked in, people spread out into various rooms, and the one where I was had this big blue ball thing prominently in view. There was much discussion as to the correct way to use it, and the sounds of hilarity which some of the efforts brought on were enough to alert the birthday boy, who is also the owner and regular user. He quickly told me that my approach (on the left) was definitely incorrect, and demonstrated the proper procedure for us all (on the right). Memories of what time things broke up are a bit on the vague side, but we suspect there may have been a three in it.

Later on the Sunday, of course, was the first race of the new Grand Prix season. Fortunately, coverage was later than if the race were being broadcast live, so there was time for a bit of a recovery before heading out for more madness. The race itself was okay but not gripping, and we were all a bit too far on the giddy side to do it justice anyway. It was all great fun, though, and we were treated to some lovely grub to go with it. Afterwards it was back to Carl's place and a relaxing visit to Carl's Kino where a double feature was showing: Hairspray (wonderful, and full marks to John Travolta for excellent cross dressing), followed by Little Miss Sunshine.