Australians all let us rejoice

Australia
Originally uploaded by offstage4.

It's hard to believe that one year has passed since Caro and me hit the Cubby Bear by Wrigley Field to celebrate Australia Day. And yet last night I found myself back there, sans Caro this time, and I think the footy club managed to squeeze double the number of party-goers into the place.

For those of you interested in such matters, I did not kiss anyone last night. You can stop reading now if you like.

But if you're still reading, I need to let you know that I had a wonderful time at the party. I caught up with Pete for a few minutes, and then he was off to another event, so for the most part I was there by myself. I hung out with Tongue Ring Dave, who was getting married in Australia over Christmas and we actually flew home to Adelaide together, so it was great to see him. And of course I hit the dancefloor with quite a number of Aussie expats I've met over the time I've lived here.

There is something magical about hearing the opening bars of Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" and seeing what that does to a bunch of drunken Aussies. The dancefloor seems to exert an invisible pull and next thing you know, you're moshing with your new best friends. It's wonderful.

And then Lisa won the two return tickets to Australia with QANTAS (first prize in the raffle) and we did the typically girly 'squealing and jumping around in a circle hugging each other' thing for about 5 minutes, and then she went outside to call everyone she's ever met. Even though I was the person that pressured her into coming to the party in the first place, rumour has it that she's taking her sister to Australia - cow. But okay I can be the bigger person here. I really am happy for her, honest.

And even though The Kissing Bandit didn't make an appearance last night, I did give my business card out to two people. One guy is the new Midwestern rep for Jacob's Creek wines and he wants me to taste-test the product line and show him the City cause he only moved here in November. Easy. And the other guy is a friend of Tongue Ring Dave, who just wanted to know where my Office was. So I showed him my card and he asked whether the number on it was my cell. I replied in the negative. "So, I'm probably gonna have to work a bit harder for your cell number, right?". And I replied in the positive. To the best of my knowledge, he still doesn't have it.