Hop 2 It
Sunday, 15 January, 2006
Yesterday, after doing a little grocery shopping, trying to get some editing done for H/E (and only managing to do one article) and getting distracted by an interesting bit of boondoggle engineering, we got out the picnic stuff, hopped in the car, picked up Liwen and headed over to Sydney Olympic Park for Movies in the Overflow. We got there at about 6 pm when there was plenty of free 2 hr parking spaces. Melinda met us and we found a nice spot on the edge of one of the pathways. It was still quite sunny and, as usual, I had forgotten to bring my hat (though I had smothered myself in sunscreen and Aeroguard). Ynping and Andrew were running half an hour late so we played Emperor Scum, teaching the rules as we went. I don't think I've played Emperor Scum in three years; it used to be a real favourite amongst my circle of friends at Uni. And, in the three or four round we played, I always came out Emperor and Melinda always came out Scum.
The bill for that evening was Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and the area was filling up pretty quickly with families and groups of friends. The officials in the Overflow were enforcing the rule that high chairs (meaning people who had brought proper chairs) had to be up the back, leaving everyone else a pretty good view of the screen. We spotted Ynping and Andrew on the edge of the crowd but, despite jumping up and down and waving our arms around, they didn't spot us for several minutes.
I had delegated everyone to bring certain things for dinner so Melinda had tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and ham for sandwiches; Ynping and Andrew had brought a BBQ chicken all cut up (as well as Ynping's famous spinach and cream cheese dip plus crackers); Ben and I had brought drinks, bread and Changi's noodle salad; and Liwen provided the chocolate, popcorn and, for some reason, peppermint candy canes. So we had a lovely little feast in the middle of the throng and got thoroughly stuffed. And then Ben and Mel went off to move their cars into paid parking zones so they wouldn't get booked.
Finally, after much yapping by Richard Moorcock on screen, a preview of 2006 for Channel 9 (which, I have to say, did not look that interesting), advertising for Sydney Olympic Park (Movies in the Overflow and Music by Moonlight), and trailers for the other films that will be on this week, the movie got started. And then it began to sprinkle.
Between the six of us we had three umbrellas and we apportioned them out and braved the rain. It never got really heavy and we were able to just weather things through and enjoy the movie. And enjoy it we did! (Apart from the idiot who had the laser pointer and had no scruples about using it. A student did that once at Unimovies when I was a student at the University of Wollongong. Since Unimovies was run by the Unimovies club, the members didn't think twice about shutting off the projector and declaring to everyone in the audience that the person who had the laser pointer had better stop, otherwise the film would not come back on for anyone. That person then discretely refrained).
Interesting trivia about the film from IMDB:
Even before the release of the film, the only producer of Stinking Bishop cheese in the world had their orders increase over 500%. The producer only makes 22 tons of the cheese annually and has no intention to grow in size.
Afterwards, I suggested coming back to our place for mahjong. Mel had to bail but the others were keen so we drove off to Stanmore. This was the first time that any of my friends from school had come over and we made honey and banana milkshakes in the kitchen before settling down to some serious mahjong.
A couple of years ago I had asked my dad for a set and he had brought one back from Hong Kong. He was going through Australian customs and immigration with nothing to declare and one of the officials said to him, “Sir, there's food in your bag.” “No there isn't,” he said. But the scanners had picked up something so they opened up his bag and there was the mahjong set, looking for all the world like Vietnamese sweet jellies.
Ynping was the one who first taught me how to play mahjong. I think the dealing process alone is fascinating because of its complexity: you mix up all the tiles and then each of the four players builds their wall—18 across, 2 high (or 17 across, 2 high if you're playing without flowers). You roll the dice and count anti-clockwise from the dealer. Whoever it lands on has to count the number on the dice from the right along his/her wall, make a break and then, dealing from the left side of the break, deals 3 x 4 tiles to everyone, starting from the roller, and then do the funny jump thing to give 2 more to the roller and 1 more to everyone else. And that's just to deal!
It had been 2 years since most of us had played. I think it had been just 1 year for me because I had taken my set to National Training Event and taught some of the students how to play. We were all a bit rusty on the rules, particularly Andrew. Ynping went through them all and said, “When you've only got to get one tile to win, you say, ‘Sic jaw’ and then, when you win, you say, ‘Sic [I've forgotten the word]’.”
“And when it's time for dinner, you say, ‘Sic fan’?” said Andrew.
Ynping shot him a dirty look.
“I've been waiting two years to tell that joke!” he said.
Re-beginner's luck must have been with Andrew and Liwen because, between the two of them, they won just about every game. Ynping and I continued to get useless hands dealt to us.
When we finally finished up, it was 2 in the morning. I told everyone to leave the tiles out because I was going to wash the table scum off them. Then we said farewell and goodnight and I dropped Liwen home.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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Hey Karen. Do you think you’d be interested in seeing SpongeBob Square Pants this Sat night at Homebush? Let me know if you are….(email please