New Year

I went to Andre and Cheryl's place for New Year's Eve. Cheryl's daughter Wyan and her boyfriend Adrian were there too.
When I arrived, only Andre was there, the others were on a booze and munchies mission. We went out to the backyard. It's not really a backyard, because there is no grass - it's all concrete, so really I should say it's a courtyard. There was a blue tarpaulin set up overhead, supported in the middle by a big umbrella with the ends tied to the fence with white string.
Andre and I drank some glasses of water with icecubes. It was really hot. Andre rang up Cheryl to say where the hell are you, we're drinking water here. It was NYE and we were drinking water. But they got there pretty soon, and we went out to the car and helped bring in the booty: three cartons of beer, three bottles of vodka and bags of chips and dips, cabanossi, chipolatas, olives, all kinds of stuff. Then Wyan started blowing up some balloons and passing them to Adrian to tie to the edge of the blue tarpaulin. The second one exploded and we all jumped. The balloons were only small ones and she had blown too much air into it. Our nerves were on edge for a while, but that was the only one to pop.

We were all sitting around having a fun time, talking and laughing and listening to Van Halen. But then the mood was made heavy when I jokingly brought up the cRaZy rumour that I had had an affair with Cheryl's transvestite/transsexual(?) friend Rusty. I had only met Rusty a couple of times, but one of those times we were sitting around and I happened to do my Sean Connery voice, and Rusty really liked it. Because I found it amusing, I kept doing it, and Rusty was going, "Oh! Oh!" in some kind of ecstasy. That's the only reason I can figure that a rumour started, and Rusty probably started it when she was drunk and fantasising about the guy who could talk like Sean Connery. Anyway, the whole thing blew up and caused a lot of trouble before I even knew about it, because Andre was defending me about it, and disgusted that they seemed to be adding fuel to the rumour. So I had only made a joke saying I wish Rusty and Dave (Rusty's gay friend who also gleefully spread the rumour) were here so I could face my accusers. But then Andre took off with it and everything went down quite a bit - Wyan and Adrian looking at the ground feeling uncomfortable, Andre and Cheryl shouting, and me wishing I hadn't said anything in the first place. But still I wish I'd had a chance to confront my accusers!
We had quite a few beers, then the vodka was produced. Vodka mixed with some kind of lemon fizzy drink, which was rather fine. Andre and I took turns going into the house to play the drums. He had recently bought some brushes, like the jazz guys use, so that was a lot of fun, using them instead of the regular drumsticks.
Later some R'n'B music was put on the stereo. That stuff usually drives me bananas but this one was Return of the Mack by Mark Morrison which I quite like and think is funny.
At midnight we heard the firecrackers but couldn't see them.
It didn't seem to be much later when I leaned back in my chair and looked up into the sky. It was much lighter, and in fact it was 5:30. I wanted to get home before sunrise, and Wyan and Adrian had already disappeared somewhere, so I said goodbye to Andre and Cheryl and somehow made my way home on my bicycle without any mishap.
New Year's day was the hottest on record. It was 44C (111F). Even though I was only lying down reading all day, I didn't stop sweating for a minute. At last I became so hungry that something had to be done. There was nothing here - the cupboard was bare, as it were. I prepared myself to take a trip up the street for a kebab, or a Hungry Jack, or anything, but sticking my head out the door again the heat seemed to roar at me like a lion, and I gave up the idea of going anywhere. Not very optimistically, I rang my favourite home delivered pizza joint Old Castile and to my great surprise and joy the phone was answered.
Maybe it will be a Happy New Year after all!