Freedom Mento

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

I have been inspiring Ellie to bake. And she has been inspiring me to throw food on the floor. 

This is because I told her how easy it is to make chocolate souffle. 

DO NOT FEAR THE CHOCOLATE SOOFULL, I texted her. 

THE CHOCOLATE SOOFULL WILL FILL YOU WITH CONFIDENCE, I continued. ALSO CHOCOLATE, I added.

I told her that it is an easy recipe that just LOOKS impressive when you are done. And added that the souffles themselves are nearly indestructible. 

"I dropped one in the washing up once," I told her. "And it was still fine. Although I didn't eat it because washing up."

It was this comment that prompted her to tell me that she had once eaten a chicken tender after dropping it in the bath. And that Aubrey was IN the bath at the time and therefore the bath probably had WEEWEEWATER in it. 

"Free yourself!" she exhorted me. "Eat something that you dropped on the floor!"

And, almost as if my subconscious heard her, I dropped a Mento on the floor. And ate it. And did not die. 

I FEEL SO FREE.

After this momentous event, Corrie, Jefe, Losi and I spent the afternoon testing some meeting rooms in which there have been some problems. This made me happy/sad. Happy because we have so much fun together, but sad because this is probably one of the last times we'll all do this. 

However, the timing of this testing was very precisely planned. I'd organised for Jefe to come to the office on a Friday afternoon so that we could continue the fun outside of work by DRINKING. 

Losi and his mates took us up to the 5th floor at 4.30. The 5th floor contains the big kitchen for the office and Losi had located some beer in the fridge which had remained unclaimed since Xmas. 

ORPHAN beer, if you will. So we drank it. 

And then Jefe had organised a trip to "Dirty Little Secret" a bar he likes. Losi and his mates said they were right behind us, so Manda, Mo, Jefe and I went on our own. 

The bar itself was not great. I think Jefe had been there when COVID was more of a fear, so it must have been quieter. When we got there tonight though, it was JUMPING and not so conducive for bollocks-talking.

Still we had to wait for Losi.

And wait. 

And wait.

"He's ditched us," said Manda. "We've been ditched."

I texted him and got back the message, "We wasted."

All the same we did manage to meet up again in another bar. "Father Jack Hackett's" - an Irish bar which kind of sucked. Losi and his mates rocked up, wasted and VERY singy. 

I may not have helped by putting "Sweet Caroline" and "The Pina Colada Song" on my phone. 

Jefe decided at this point to give up on the evening. To be fair, the last train back to Paraparaumu was imminent.

Mo had already left by this time, so Jefe, Manda and I left Losi and his mates at the bar and caught our train. We played movie trivia games all the way to Paremata because we are nerds. 

And then I was on my own, and got back home to Paraparaumu at 11pm. Caro just rolled her eyes at me.

To be honest, I was not feeling so good. I wasn't sure why because it seemed to early too be hungover. 

I'm going to blame that floor-Mento. Bloody Ellie.

S.