"I hope you don't mind that I put down in words / How wonderful life is now you're in the world."

[raven]

or, the resident lunatic Christmas party 2004 2005 yesterday.

The Elton John version of Your Song, despite being the original, is not, in my humble opinion, the best one. For unashamed romantic melodrama and soaring violins, nothing beats the Ewan McGregor Moulin Rouge version. It seems the residents are on a musical kick at the moment - I clambered into Ron at Conway Park with the others to be met by a rousing chorus of "The Phantom of the Opera is here!" I haven't seen the film yet, but I've seen the stage show and can just about remember the catchier numbers, so for half an hour there were dimly yellow-lit motorways, manic driving and accompanying angels of music. In a manner of speaking.

We were having dinner last night to celebrate four things - Hannah's birthday, Clare's birthday, Christmas and New Year - which are respectively November 16th, November 23rd, December 25th and January 1st. Celebrating them all yesterday made a whole lot of sense. The meal was fun, although there were Mundanes around - heh - one of whom gave Clare a shotglass fridge (long story), but the food was good. I am more in the mood for dialogue than prose, so, while we were still at the restaurant:

Me: (re: strawberry schnapps) Can I have it?
Clare: No! Mine!

Emily: Chicken!

Colleen: Tara and Doyle, warped and twisted. Well done.
Me: Thank you! Do people slash Wesley and Angel?
Colleen: Ohmygodyes.
Me: Yay. Slashy.
Someone normal (I honestly forget who): Slashy?
Me&Colleen: ....

Emily: Smoky bacon crisps! Chicken!

Enid: Ever kissed someone in a vestry?
Me: No...
Enid: Ever had sex on the altar?
Colleen: (in unison) Sacrilege!
Me: (in unison) Cool!

Clare: Raspberry sundae! I've been looking forward to this all week!

Emily: Yay, chicken!

Afterwards, we paid, worked out the service charge with a great deal of difficulty,and wandered back to Ron to get out Emily's presents. Having only arrived that afternoon, she wasn't feeling up to the night's party, and she lingered in the cold while presents were bestowed upon her.

There was more Phantom of the Opera on the way to Clare's (she'd forgotten something, I don't know what) and then onto Liscard. We set up carefully, with fairy lights, presents all over the floor, bedding draped around and about, and drinks safely out of the way. There was vodka and Malibu for the usual suspects, Smirnoff Ice for Enid, and Bailey's and peach Archers for me. Before anyone says anything, I said I wouldn't drink anything, and they went and bought two bottles to guilt me into drinking some of it (it worked). I say "they", but Clare had to buy it all with her Christmas bonus pretending that it wasn't all for her. Hannah brought down the CD player and put the Moulin Rouge OST on. Like I said, soundtrack thing.

Yay for the Resident Christmas. It's tradition now, as I don't have any other Christmas, and apparently family Christmases aren't all they're cracked up to be (I wouldn't know) and it's so much fun. Emily wasn't there, and Enid hadn't brought hers, but there were still plenty in the middle of the circle. The first gift was for me, from Clare. It was enormous. Once I'd pulled off the wrapping, it turned out to be a giant Eeyore cushion. It's gorgeous.

I got everyone else stuff from India - bags from Janpath for Colleen and Enid (that they have declared to be Teh Sex, so yay), evil papier-mache cats and earrings for Emily and Clare, and for Hannah, because it seemed a good idea at the time, an enormous white and purple lampshade. She insisted on putting it on her head, until I complained she looked like a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Colleen gave me fairy lights (which I have left in Ron! eek), squee for the wishlist meme, and pretty silver hoops (wishlist meme again!), and Hannah gave me the Watcher's Guide, volume one. I am very much of the squee, and quoted from the latter for most of the night. Other stand-out gifts include those magnetic letters you stick on the fridge (from Hannah to Enid), a gingerbread house with reusable chimneys (ditto), fluffy dice (from Colleen to Clare) and a purple magic eight ball (Colleen to Hannah). The magic eight ball said "chances are good" when asked "Will the resident lunatics win the next X-Factor?"

Um.

The rest of the night was spent drinking:

Me: *drinks Archers from bottle, chokes* Clare! This isn't Archers Aqua!
Clare: It says it is on the bottle!
Me: This is forty-six percent proof!
Clare: ...oops?

Hannah: You know, Ripper dropped out of Oxford.
Me: I know, yeah.
Hannah: I still think you should go.

Colleen: Hannah, you're drunk.
Hannah: Maybe a leetle.

Colleen: Actually, actually...
Me: You said 'actually' with no C. 'Atually...'
Colleen: Actually, I'm not all that...
Me: And "all" with no Ls!
Colleen: ...drunk!

We fell asleep about two-ish, after playing a few million rounds of I Never Did until it started getting kinky, and slept through random outbursts of music until ten thirty in the morning, when they gave me coffee. There was roadtrippage. It was fun.

Today, I have been to the library, got books, dropped in on Tony and bugged him, and come home to discover a massive huge massive huge wad of sheets I have to do before Thursday. Blaargh.

Comments

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

"I Never Did" -- is this the game where one person says something vaguely risqué or adventurous that he/she has never done, and then all the others have to indicate whether they've done it or not? If so, I am, for some reason, highly amused. Here, we call it "Never Have I Ever." We complicate things unnecessarily on this side of the pond.

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

I played "Never Have I Ever" with some rather conservative friends of mine, one weekend at St. Andrew's by the Sea, and I don't think they ever looked at me the same since. I also got in loads of trouble with them for an answer that I came up with in "Would You Rather." Do you guys play that game? Where two outrageous or not so outrageous things are named and you have to decide which you would rather do? I got in trouble for saying that I would rather kill two babies than an entire species of animals.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

My siblings and I have done that sort of thing, but never in organized form with a title or anything. I didn't know it was an actual game.

(For the record, though, I'd go with your answer. Heh.)

It's a very sorry spectacle when I play "Never Have I Ever."

"Um... never have I ever been on a public bus."
"What, you mean done it on a public bus?"
"Uh, no, that's not a euphemism. I've never been on one."
"Leigh...."

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hee! *giggling* You've never been on a public bus?

I've never done it on a public bus, myself, but you win hands down there. Surely it means that if you were playing the drinking version, you'd drink the least?

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Well, I finally managed it this past year, but before that, no, I hadn't. I don't get out much!

I assume so. I've never played the drinking version, but if I ever do, I'm sure I'll be the last one standing. Thankfully. I wouldn't want to know myself drunk; it would be a very disturbing sight. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I managed it last night without getting drunk. Being designated sober person is incredibly fun; you get to remember all the silly things people have said and put them in LJ! :)

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

I love this. I do.
*Would* you ride on a public bus? I have friends around here who never have and who are afraid of it or who see it as low class. That's the part that confuses me. I kind of enjoy riding the bus, but around here you really need to know the schedules or else it's quicker to walk. Some places, it just doesn't make *sense* to ride the bus.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

I have since then. I'm not particularly fond of it, so I probably wouldn't choose to again unless I had to. You could say it scares me, yeah. The one and only time I rode, I had some... issues. *grins* I was convinced that I'd miss my stop, so I pulled the rope thing very early. Nothing happened. So I pulled it again. And a few more times.

Well, no one told me that I wasn't supposed to hear the sound it was making. The bus driver sure wasn't pleased, though.

(For a second I thought you were asking if I would do it on a public bus. First I have to get on one.)

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

Oh! I'm super-paranoid about that, too! Especially since not all the stops are posted around here. I check my map a thousand times per trip. But it's still okay.

On the other hand, I used to be *terrified* of riding the school bus. I had pneumonia when I was ten, and when I went back to school, I worried constantly that I had left the house too late and missed it. As for getting off, that's another story entirely. Sitting on the edge of my seat, just waiting to stand up and bellow when the time comes to get off... In retrospect, I don't really understand why.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I like that game. Never really played it with the residents, though. I'm not sure about the question - it might depend on what the species actually was.

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

They didn't specify. My thinking on it, however, is that it doesn't do for us to disrupt the balance of life. Even with all our science, we can never be sure of the consequences. Admittedly, we already do disrupt it a lot, but to deliberately exterminate an entire species seems a bit extreme to me. Which isn't to say I'm comfortable with killing babies. But I guess that's the point of the game - to make you squirm.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I thought the game was. You say something you've never done, and then everyone who has done it has to drink. But Clare got Enid The Big Book of Party Games for Christmas, and that said you had to say something you had done (while still prefixing it with "I never did") and everyone who had also done it had to drink. We played the latter version before getting into a knot over the grammar.

And yes, it began innocent and got kinkier as we went along. :)

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. When we used to play it, it never really went anywhere, because we couldn't drink. I think the way we played was you'd put up five fingers at the beginning, and then each time someone mentioned something you'd done, you put one finger down. (Or maybe this was a separate game; I don't recall.) The last person with any fingers up won.

...I usually won.

I figure the grammar on it is acceptable, since it's just rearranging the syntax of "I have never, ever...." Of course, usually we played it very, very late at night when everyone was full of sugar, so no one else seemed to care whether it made sense or not. I can't imagine why. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

The only other version I'd ever heard of was with chips; you have to put a chip into the centre when you've done something and the last person to lost them all wins. I guess that's just a variant on the fingers version.

The grammar knot we got into went something as follows:

"Um, I never did... kiss Colleen."
"Well, of course you bloody didn't, you are Colleen!"
"No, I never did never kiss Colleen. Iona, drink!"
"What? I've never kissed Colleen!"
"Yeah, you never never kissed Colleen, so you have to drink."
"What? I never did!"
"Drink!"
"I didn't!"
"Drink!"
I drank. It seemed the easiest thing to do.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

Hee! I see. We never had such elaborate arguments that I can remember, luckily for us.

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

Enid: Ever kissed someone in a vestry?
Me: No...
Enid: Ever had sex on the altar?
Colleen: (in unison) Sacrilege!
Me: (in unison) Cool!

I love this. This was the thing at my school: the ultimate, kinky, daring thing. I'm not sure how many actually did it but (if memory serves me correctly) I was on the list that did.

I know. Gross. ;)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I thought it was cool. I can't help it. And you've actually done it, and all I can think is "whoo, cool."

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

You are one of my favourite perverts.

I also used to hide erotica in my hymnal for particularly dull chapel services. Hehe.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Squee! I would rather be one of your favourite perverts than a lot of other things.

And, hee. Wish I'd thought of that.

[language-idling.livejournal.com]

Hehehe... Oh yes.

If I'd known about fanfiction back then, it probably would have been pages of slash, resized to be very small, and folded to fit just so.

[me-and.livejournal.com]

I suspect I could have guessed who was asking those questions without the names…

[biascut.livejournal.com]

I've not had sex on an altar, but I have had sex in a cathedral vestry (separate building from the cathedral itself) and kissed someone in an organ loft. During the service.

*shame*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I've said it so many times, but that's cool.

Hmm. Maybe I have some sort of religious kink I didn't know about before.

[manynames.livejournal.com]

Damned LJ ate my comment. Have you ever heard the Keane version of Your Song? It's live and really pretty.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ohmygod. There's a Keane version? Where do I get it from? *bounces up and down*

[manynames.livejournal.com]

Here :D (http://s8.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=03NO8KFND8ZRZ2ZE9WQB80VUBW)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*loves you*
*runs off to listen*
*loves you more*

[manynames.livejournal.com]

I am always happy to spread the Keane love!

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

My mum received a purple magic 8 ball for christmas :D We had fun with that.

Of course, I don't think she'll be getting it back again... it seems to have vanished into the ether of our bedroom!
xx

[eternalwings.livejournal.com]

Of course, I don't think she'll be getting it back again... it seems to have vanished into the ether of our bedroom!
That sounds like my bedroom hee hee.
Cant wait to see you on Thursday- the miniscooby gang is back again! Hee hee
And Ive been reading Anne Rice- why did no-one tell me bout the slashiness in these books.
Grr.......
And yay for "your song" I've loved that song ever since moulin rouge- my fave song with the best soundtrack EVER, Oh and have you heard bout this brokenback mountain? We have to see it! No-one will keep me from Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger kissing! *fights cinema staff*

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

We try and keep mine tidy... but those damned naughty rebeccas keep messing it up again!
xx