Fright Night

On Saturday I wanted to go out to the markets for a chance meeting with that girl I met from A's wedding, and also to see Rod, but it was raining and I figured I wouldn't have much luck even if the markets were put out.

I stayed at home and finished the work on the transcripts! Glad that was done. Around lunchtime I went out to get half a chicken, brought it back home to eat with bread and watched The Butterfly Effect 2. The chicken wasn't the type I wanted, but I didn't feel like going to the supermarket to get the type I wanted, and the movie kinda sucked. I couldn't really pin point it, but it just wasn't as good as the first. I think I spent more time trying to decide whether Erica Durance was hot or not.

I had a bit of a lie down and then got ready for the dinner with library guy and co. Some fucker parked on the street blocking my drive way, and I saw the Chinese people next door returning home so I asked if they knew who owned the car, and they said no. So I thought it might be a guest of one of my neighbours so I went and knocked on Chris' door, and he said he saw someone Asian parking there but didn't think they'd leave it like that.

Aha! So it WAS the fucking embassy next door!

I thanked him and proceeded to go back downstairs. As I walked back to my car I saw them getting into their car and moving it out of the way. Fucking idiots. I got into my car and drove off, and I was so mad at first. I mean, who the fuck is selfish enough to block someone else's drive way?? It was probably that same fucking car as last time which made me scratch my car. I really wanted to have a go at them.

But as I drove on, I started feeling a bit better. I really enjoy driving and listening to Relapse.

I got to the restaurant half an hour late, which would've only been 15 minutes really had they not fucking blocked my drive way. I called library guy and he came downstairs to meet me, and then took me upstairs to the restaurant.

It really wasn't something I was looking forward to, because you know, Yoj was annoying and all that. I first saw V there when I approached the table, and said hi to him, but library guy had the seat next to him, and there was only one seat left for me, which was up at the front and next to an old lady. Found out (even though I would've figured it out eventually because they look so much alike) that she was Yoj's mother.

The guy sitting opposite me was an Indian with a medium accent, who worked for the official boss, so you kinda felt the separation there. Fam was the boss by money, and then there was a boss on the papers.

The night was a LOT more enjoyable than I had expected. It was like a comedy dinner thing, where about six comedians dressed up as ghostly characters and sang and performed skits. It was very interactive as they kept walking around our tables, and pulling people out from the crowd and getting people to sing.

There was a really, really cute girl at our table. When I intially sat down, I saw her looking at me and I got a little interested until I figured out she was Fam's girlfriend. But wow, she was really cute. Pity that he goes out to brothels, but I suppose when you're born with a silver spoon you can do whatever you like and the girl will still stay with you. I knew I had no hope and so gave up any thoughts.

Yoj didn't annoy me that much because her mother was sitting in between us and so she couldn't talk to me much. She told me about how one of the guys I met last time who was also at the dinner had to put a client in the witness box. It sounded so good and impressive, until you realise they were just doing the old dodgy thing of sending students to do a lawyer's work.

I spoke to the Indian guy across from me for a bit, and I couldn't help but feel somewhat superior. I presumed he was a nobody in crim law, and here I was thinking so highly of myself because I was involved in this big case. I know, it's arrogance.

Because I sat at the front of the table, which was right in the middle of the stage, I got a lot of attention from the performers, which was sometimes unwanted because it was embarassing. Like one guy kept coming up to me and putting the microphone in my face inviting me to sing. But sometimes it was good, cause the hot girl came up to me a couple of times and started singing in front of me, and I felt a bit like I was at a strip club. I wondered what she looked like without all that powder, make up and fake hair.

There was another girl who I thought wasn't that hot, but at the end of the show she was wearing a very revealing dress and had a 'normal' wig on, and she was HOT! Far out, unbelievable.

At one stage everyone stood up to follow the performer's dance moves, and as I was doing it I felt my sides cramp up. Great, this is what I've been reduced to.

There was a bit where they started pulling people from the crowd to get up on stage to dance, and I was so scared they'd pick me, but luckily they only seemed to pick the 'big' people from each table, and so since they knew Fam was the boss, they took him. He was quite a whacky and playful guy, and like I've said before, I didn't really know him well in uni, so I'm still learning things about him. All I know and don't like about him is how he tends to take short cuts. He's a business person, not a lawyer.

I did end up getting pulled onto the stage in the second half of the night, but luckily it was just for a game. Library guy got pulled up as well, but he was on the other team. So there were two teams of four, and the first game we played was like a relay where we had to pass a carrot from one person to the other and back as fast as we could. The challenge? We had to do it without using our hands. So we put the carrot in between our legs and passed it along like that.

The blonde girl was first and she passed it to me and I passed it to a very tall girl and she passed it to another guy.

The next game was the same, although we also had to pass a small orange at the same time starting from the opposite end. So we passed the orange by squeezing it between our chin and chest while on the other end the carrot was being passed between the legs. I had to cheat a bit because it was so hard, so I had my hand ready to catch the orange if it fell. Because the other girl was so tall, when I tried to pass her the orange it fell, and I caught it and tried to put it in between her chin and chest and accidentally touched her chest.

Yikes!

The other thing I realised on stage was that you really couldn't see the crowd clearly. Because there was so much lighting focused on the stage, everything outside of the stage was just darkness. So when I sat there at my table feeling so vulnerable because I was right in front of them, they actually couldn't see me very clearly.

We had a couple of group photos with the cast, one normal one and one where we're all throwing our arms up in the air, and I ended up buying the smaller version of them, while Fam bought a big one for the office and I encouraged him to get one they took of him and his girlfriend.

At the end I danced a bit when everyone else got up, and I decided to leave after the cast retired backstage, even though everyone else continued dancing. It was an enjoyable night, even though the food was shit house and I had to fork out $50 (which was pretty worth it given that they entertained us for about four hours).

Again, I really enjoyed the drive back listening to my music. I don't really know what it is about driving that makes it enjoyable, but I find that it allows me to think.

Today I was woken up by my mobile phone ringing, and it was GS. He asked if I could see him at his office, and I said yes and got ready without eating breakfast. When I got there he just asked me a few questions, obviously still bothered by this ethical issue.

Even though we were really early, we drove out to the jails and had lunch at the shopping centre nearby. On the drive there he asked me about my knee and I told him what the diagnosis had been, and he told me about how his wife had torn both her ACLs and managed to recover without surgery. He seemed to caution me against surgery, saying it was a big decision, and I wondered if he was right, seeing that his wife recovered from it. I had always thought that it'd be a minor and straight forward type of thing.

While we were just sitting around, he admitted to me that this had been really bothering him to the extent of affecting his memory. I wonder if it's him, or if objectively it really is that serious.

DC arrived later and then Michael D arrived as well. We headed off to the jails and the client was pretty angry. I think he didn't like the fact that we were all there when he was just expecting DC and me. And he really only sees Michael D when things are serious. After we talked about the important things, GS and Michael D left, and I could see DC relate to the client more as a friend than as a client.

The client said he didn't like Michael D anymore, and although I wasn't all that surprised, I was surprised at how he couldn't understand it. Obviously if Michael D had stayed in it and never hired me then he wouldn't be saying that, but can't he see that Michael D is just too busy and that I'm just hired to do his case?

We got kicked out at 3pm, we forgot that it closed early on the weekends. DC gave me a lift home, and he suggested that one way to help GS would be for GS to spread the workload more. I knew this was a way for him to try and get more court action, and probably just because of that, I found myself being adverse to his suggestion. Should GS spread the workload more? Maybe. But GS is senior enough to know what he is doing.

I still see DC as kinda junior, so I tend to accept the advice, knowledge, experience and wisdom of GS over DC.