An Aussie tipple

There I was, minding my own business in front of Captain America with a cup of tea, when I heard Vickie coming home from the airport with her friend. John's away on his "business"/ski trip, so she'd promised me a nice evening of female company. I definitely did not know what I was letting myself in for!

Catriona is great and speaks with a mix of Scottish/NZ twang; she and Vickie met in Egypt, where they were both working for an international school. After living in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Auckland in the subsequent years, she's now making the move to Perth and staying here until she finds somewhere more permanent.

We went out onto the balcony and Vickie opened a bottle of red to have with cold cuts, crisps and olives. As Catriona lit up a cigarette, the two of them discussed how difficult it is when you're older to meet the right people to get weed from in Australia. Didn't see that one coming! It should also be noted that John hasn't had a drink since his stag, where he was so ill the day after that they had to cancel the wedding. At first this shocked me (picturing how my Mum would have reacted!), but then I remembered that we were talking about the couple that spent two years sailing 25,000 miles around the world with their kids, so it probably wasn't too big a deal to them. They think it's disgusting that kids have to school on their birthdays!

Over dinner it was so crazy to hear some of the stories they had from their years of travelling. They've seen so much of the world; during their years at sea, they had all kinds of people on board as paying guests that helped out with the sailing, which is how they made their money with no jobs. John married a Dutch couple in a ceremony on their boat using his powers as captain, they've set up a few schools along the way and met loads of interesting people, including this Brazilian guy Carlos who Vickie was telling me about; he ended up staying for free and helping to charm guests on board. She told this outrageous story about a couple who were guests on the boat and, when the husband was asleep, the wife knocked on Carlos' door and they were "bonking up on the deck" with the bloke in bed below! Nuts.

It didn't take long for the wine to go to my head but, despite her jet lag and the alcohol, Catriona was in full flow laughing and catching up with Vickie. Put it this way: It's 10:30 and I just retired to bed, leaving them in the living room dancing around to Ricky Martin.

Oh, and here's the view I had during all that. Goodnight!