Nights out.

Oh its a hard,hard life out here......

Just in case anyone thinks I'm having a tough time out here (too hot, not enough money, missing home, no proper cosmetics or chocolate etc etc), I thought I'd fill you in on some of the fun I'm having. As many of you know, I'm not one to say no to a good night out (in fact, I'm unlikely to say no even to a bad one...) Anyway, in the past couple of weeks we've had a few fairly memorable ones
Adama, Jackie and the 'other' Jackie

Birthday Wine Tasting volunteer style...
A friend Justin had a birthday do, 39. (What will he do for his 40th? I hope I get an invite as it might be in Chile!)

He invited about 16 of us over, all instructed to bring a bottle of wine. Him and his girlfriend Louise had made great food and then proceeded to lead us all in a session of blind tasting. It was fairly easy to work out which was the best wine (purchased by someone with a 'real' job and therefore always drinks wine from bottles rather than cartons). Unbelievably the other Jackie, (Lebanese Jackie, Jackie Q or old Jackie ...depending on which nickname you want to give her- there is a a story behind all of them!), tasted 8 wines and matched all 8 perfectly to the descriptions.

All in all a great night despite the fact that Marney and I disgraced ourselves a wee bit by dancing to 80's songs on our own whilst the hostess went to bed (sorry Louise), thank goodness that Marney was there, she was the only person more badly behaved than me!

'Nuns on the Run' ..................Last Saturday Fred, head of Brussels Airlines here, invited Jodie, Marney and I to his 'Pimp your Head' party. We left things to last minute but Jodie managed to get material from the biteko and a local tailor to run up 'habits' for us all for about 50p.
Marney was in charge of directions so we eventually arrived at about 11.30 pm ('It's on the right at the bottom of a sandy road'...if you've been here that's like saying 'it's just past the roundabout in Milton Keynes')

It was a nice and terribly civilised party, (a bit like the ones I used to go to in my real life!) I felt very ashamed of the cheap bottle of wine I took with me and was very happy to sample the Absolute Vodka on offer.

The civilised party ended at a civilised hour. In order to spread the word of god for a little longer, we gatecrashed another do which, inevitably, resulted in us swimming at 2am in habits and underwear (holey rather than holy!)

Karaoke!
It had to happen. Churchills is a typically awful 'Brits Abroad' bar that does Karaoke twice a week, we were always going to succumb to its charms eventually.

In order to describe the singing I'll simply give you an extract on an email from Marney (pictured with me) to a friend back home...

You missed Churchills. I was well good at singing. The room fell into a hushed awe when I sang the Barbara Striesland part of the final verse in "I know him so well." I knew him sooooooo welllll.......

Microphone in hand drops to my side, head bows. Wild applause. Jackie partnered as Elaine Paige (but is no Elaine Paige to be honest, had to carry her on the high notes).

What can I say, Marney is a dreadful person, always telling lies about everything. But when you are away from home you simply have to be friends with whoever is available. I, of course, had to carry her.