Asteroid Gardenia

Tonight is the night, the night of the annual George Sommer Christmas party and I'm scared. The George Sommer Christmas party is a fun filled, wholesome family event that everyone enjoys year in year out.

There's plenty of room as it's in the backyard, out by the pool. There's a jukebox that plays all of the old time hits that they boys sing along to during the day. There's some lovely canapes and hors' dourves, the highlight of which is the cob loaf filled with aspargus dip. There's normally a lovely breeze that blows through keeping things cool. There's a barbecue where everyone's a winner. There's some terrific salads with crisp greens and juicy tomatos. There's a cafe style gas heater in case that breeze keeps things a little too fresh. There's a ping pong table up the back in the shed where the annual tournament is held. There's a nice mix of old and new, young and old and everyone has a chat. There's even a cheerful rottweiler who often wears some tinsel around his collar. There is also 4 very long and very deep eskys filled to the brim with ice cold XXXX. I love it.

This has traditionally been a huge night for the company, a time when the employer can thank his employees and vice versa. It is steeped in tradition, with many of those rituals still being played out today. One that died out with Old George is the raising of the flag. Apparently what used to happen was that on the Friday when the party was, no-one could start drinking until the flag went up, and George wouldn't put it up until everything was in order. Another that has disappeared more recently has been the punch up that was the climax of the evening. Unfortunately old Fat Finger and Beacho just can't duke it out like they used to. Well, I think that they actually could, it's just that they got a bit older and it takes a little bit longer for the swelling to go down these days.

One of the parts of the evening that has been kept up is the aforementioned Ping Pong Tournament. This is always a hotly contested event with the teams sorted out weeks in advance and a lot of training and preparation done on the night (making sure that you're not too drunk by this stage). With Millsie up in Kakadu somewhere the title is wide open for Ian to reclaim it. I wonder if he will be able to do it. Another highlight of the evening is the singing of The Gambler. This is often done fairly late in the evening. Sometimes it is so good that we even sing it twice.

I have my own mythology with this party. The first night found me wandering around a nearby bus depot at 3 in the morning, ringing up and abusing my friends. Another year I was found the next morning on the front lawn of the Sommer's house, apparently I didn't move when Elvis the rottweiler came up to lick me. There was also the year that we managed to leave the premises and head into a pub where we drank all manner of free flaming shots. Mayhem. Last year though I did something that I thought may have discontinued my invitation to the night. It was before the ping pong, but it was getting late. I'm not really too sure what happened, but I ended up falling through the ping pong table and damaging it irreparably. I felt terrible about it.

So what will tonight bring? Good times I'm sure, but hopefully the night won't end in one of those weird and wonderful ways that it has previously. If I steer clear of the half rum half scotch drinks I might be alright. Wish me luck!