Fiona and I arrived at 8.00 to find that Hammey and Kay, and James and Susan had just arrived, Robert would be joining us later in the evening. Unfortunately, Kath & Thomas and Ann & Colin couldn't make but it meant there was more room for the rest of us to sit.
James Snelling, our resident home brewer had made a batch of filthy danger juice, however it had been judged to be unsuitable for human consumption and therefore the old favourites of Miller and Warsteiner and Blue Label Smirnoff were the drinks of choice for the evening. I poured Fiona a large vodka, forgetting that it was blue label and she recoiled as she took a sip. She asked me to put more lemonade in it - first time for everything!
The guys who had not seen their house got the obligatory tour, but since I had helped with the flitting and seen it before, I sneaked into the living room and picked the seat that would give me the optimum conversation/snack reaching/close to the kitchen/being able to see the words on the karaoke game, ratio. Of course, Fiona ended up sitting there and I was banished to the floor.We did a bit of catching up and the boys had hushed conversations about the previous weekends events in Estonia.
Robert arrived a little later and we chewed the fat for a while and he had his tour. As the night wore on and the drinks flowed, it was decided that it was time for the games to begin and the DVD of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was brought out and teams were picked. They were; Me, Hammey & Kay in one team, Jim, Wendy & Fiona in another and James, Susan & Robert were team 3.
This game was the replacement for The Weakest Link board game which had almost started boxing matches on previous nights and I was reliably informed that it would never be played again. So, on to Millionaire and Chris Tarrant took control, and I mused that he must have absolutely minted due to the success of the whole Millionaire franchise. However, in the heart of many 30 somethings (myself included) he will be best loved as the host of Tiswas. Anyway, we played a few rounds and our team was royally humped. We seemed to get all the hard questions, but like Chris says "it's only easy if you know the answer".
We took a break for a while and chatted, ate and had a few more drinks. Jim disappeared into the kitchen for a few minutes and returned with a home baked birthday cake covered in icing and topped with a couple of candles. We sang "Happy Birthday" and the birthday duet blew out their candles. After the ceremonial joint cutting of the cake we tucked in to the delicious cake. Well done Jim! I tried not to make eye contact with Fiona who is on the Atkins Diet to lose some weight for Del's wedding, and instead was eating carrot sticks and bits of cheese! She's lost 18 pounds in 4 weeks. Not bad. However, her boobs are shrinking and I am less impressed with that!
Onto the main event of the evening, the PS2 game Singstar in which you have to sing along to the words of a popular song in perfect time and pitch, as the words roll along the screen. Glorified Karaoke, basically. The battle begun, and we took it in turn to crucify some pop classics. There were some, not too bad singers,amongst us however, when it came to my turn, I decided to go for quantity rather than quality, and belted out my song of choice as loud as I could. The people sitting near the speakers swiftly moved further away. Can't say I blame them.
Click here for a video clip of Hammey and I murdering a Tiffany song!
By this time James Snelling, would had been at a Beer Festival during the day was now flagging badly and went for a snooze behind the chair. Sympathetic as always, we continued to belt out tunes in an attempt to disturb his siesta, all to no avail. Robert decided that now would be a good time to leave as we were all fairly well oiled and the decibel level was rising swiftly. Susan and James decided to hitch a ride and we said goodbye and got back to singing.
Usually at this time the party is still in full swing and no-one is going anywhere. Evidence of this can be viewed here with footage from a previous night with what is now infamously known as the "Chairdance"!
Click here for a video clip of the one and only...Chairdance.
The night went on and all of a sudden we realised that it was 4am and perhaps we should all be going home and getting to our beds. I was shocked when Kay said that she was up for work in a few hours. Rather her than me.
The taxi eventually came and the tranquility of Neilston was shattered as we bounced out of Jim and Wendy's house and slipped into the taxi.
Fiona and I were dropped off first and Hammey and Kay went on in to Paisley. Fiona went straight to bed, but I made a cup of coffee and watched the news for a while. I was sensible enough to drink a couple of pints of water before I hit the sack. The early morning pee would be a small price to pay to avoid a hangover the next day. As I lay in bed in bed waiting for sleep to arrive I noticed that my throat was a little sore from all the singing and I mused that perhaps one day, we would all need to grow up and stop acting like teenagers.
But not yet...
The guys enjoy drinks and nibbles.
Wendy and Hammey cut their Birthday cake.
Robert and Susan.
Kay has a wee sing.
Susan, enjoying some "filthy danger juice".
Bob grabs the mike.
The Portrush Pig feels the pace.
