2004-02-29 - 7:12 p.m.

I figured I'd better write today since this day only comes but once every four years. Apparently things that don't usually happen (eg women proposing to men) happen today, so maybe me actually writing in here is quite appropriate. Meh, any reason is a good one these days.

Today is the last day of summer. Of course next month I'm going to Florida and the Bahamas and I'll probably do more summer-ish things in a week than I have in 3 months, but I'm always one for getting reflective when things end or change. On Friday night Jane and I had a cocktail party to see the summer out. I like having a reputation for throwing a good party, and I guess it particularly howed that I could come up with the goods on Friday night since I did most of it myself- Jane and her ex-flatmate already had a well maintained reputation for throwing great parties. It's not hard really- not everybody is so keen to be the ethereal host, it has its stressful side, but people appreciate the effort and the payout is worth it (but is the cleaning up??)

It was a small affair, but it still moved quickly from organised cocktails to an entertaning shambles very quickly. There was Jane and I; my friend/ ex-flatmate Steve; Jane's Uni friends Gab and Hop; my Uni friends Birch, Cristan and Meaghan; Craig, Yvonne and Carita from work and Mark and his girl turned up later. I made those cool Vietnamese rice paper rolls among other things and was very impressed with the end result.

Cocktail-wise we started out with the infamous Long Island Iced Tea- it took two shakers worth of spirits and that was before we added the token amount of coke. Actually tasted very good as far as Long Islands go, must have been the perfect amount of lemon juice and sugar and possibly the use of Gold Tequila that gave it a unique taste compared to the ones I've had in the past (then again, usually it's about the 5th drink and the one that tips you over and you're in no position to judge.

I've become hooked on Bank Hotel caprioscas- which combine vodka, lime and usually fresh fruit and the appropriate liquer (eg strawberries and strawberry liquer for strawberry caprioscas, kiwifruit and kiwi liquer etc)- Yvonne found me some lychee liquer so I attempted a lychee version- which tasted great but didn't quite have the right consistency.

It was after the scond drink that the cocktail party kind of just became your typical party- people breaking off into sub-groups, drunken piano recitals, the balcony brigade, leg shaving in the bathroom...

Okay that last one was a bit strange.

So I'm shaving my head (and I have a *lot* of hair) for the "World's Greatest Shave For a Cure"- most of you know that, and at work last week somebody joked that I should get my legs waxed and they'd give me more money. Now I'm not the world's most masculine man ("Lola"- the Kinks), and I have no qualms over my sexuality (as I said on the night in question, Jane I'm sure was very appreciative of me affirming to all and sundry that I could be effeminite and not be considered gay because I'm getting regular sex), and to be honest it was something I was going try one day anyway (probably in winter when I didn't get strange looks), so after numerous cocktails and shots I set a price for them to shave my legs and they quickly got me down to $10. I'm cheap and easy. Craig did one leg to the knee and Yvonne did the other and I was loving the attention, and of course the next day when I saw how silly it looked I had to finish the job.

Hey, I've got great legs, I might just make a habit of it.

So our fourth party in as many months was a roaring success. With a few hair raising moments along the way.

Incidentally, I fly out in just over 16 days.

Not that i'm counting :)

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