The Weekend is Hereby Declared Begun

[RichardCranium]

My account still works then.

I had wondered.

[darmstadt]

Well last night I had my one and only Christmas meal. This is an informal gathering of, mainly, Brits in Darmstadt who have been drinking together for over 30 years, meeting on a Friday (Alf Pruf. knows who I mean.) Each year we have a meal in a local Greek place organised by one of the group but there are some rules. Everyone has to bring a present costing not more than €15 and a bottle of something. Each present gets a number so that you don't get your own one back.

After the meal each person picks a number and gets the relevant present which is opened to 'oohs' and 'aahs' from everyone (who by now are pretty merry.) This year I got a nice china piggy bank which was nice as I collect this company's beer and schnapps glasses.

There is a similar procedure with the bottles but instead of selecting a bottle you can choose to take someone else's but this can only be performed 3 times. This means when a decent bottle turns up, such as Whiskey, then everyone is counting the amount of times it has been 'stolen' and if their turn is next. I ended up with a very nice bottle of red wine which I don't drink so swapped it later for a bottle of Soy Sauce, which I do. Mrs. D. got the best, a bottle of Goldwasser from Danzig. Can be quite good fun.

Then comes charades and remember, this is in a restuarant which has other guests (oh and I provide the crackers so we're all wearing stupid hats) and by now people are quite tiddly and a jolly time was had by all. What is quite interesting is the breakdown of people ranging in ages from 40 to nearly 70 and this year there were 4 Irish, 3 Scottish, 2 Germans, 1 American and 7 English.

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Shortly I shall be going to the Kegelbahn in a cellar where firstly we'll be watching football while drinking and eating quality snacks. This will be followe by a few bowls of the Kegel and then who knows what the rest of the evening holds.

Have a good weekend everyone