(Day 37) The Box of Tricks

Saturday 7^th April (Day 37)

The problem with writing about this night is I don’t remember entirely what happened.  Luckily I had my camera with me and from the photos I have managed to piece together the events of this night, though some of the details are fuzzy.  Enjoy!

“Punch is the term for a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice... Punch is typically served at parties in large, wide bowls, known as punch bowls.  Due to its sweetness, the drinker may not taste the alcohol and become intoxicated more quickly than anticipated. This drink is popular on college campuses as an inexpensive means of becoming intoxicated” Wikipedia

I can’t remember exactly why we are having a punch night tonight.  Monta, Mick, Lisa, Amy and JC are away this weekend in a rented car driving up along the coast so this means there will be less of us to share out the punch; and this is just a recipe for disaster.  We are not sensible and I know we are going to drink all of the punch.  We are not going to turn around half way through the night and say “If think that’s enough punch for me tonight lads”.  I can see ourselves drinking ourselves to oblivion or until the punch is all gone, whichever comes last.

We had all given Troy and Ryan $20 to go out and get the stuff for the punch.  They returned that evening from work with a large plastic box and several bags full of bottles.

After empting all the various bottles of intoxicating substances into the plastic box we started drinking straight away.  The punch was very nice; the blend of spirits, fruit juices and cheap wine worked well to make a concoction that was sweet and fruity to taste but made you feel silly very quickly.  We dubbed the punch “The Box of Tricks”.

Everything you need to get absolutely hammered

And so it begins...

After a few rounds of punch I suggested a game of Ring of Fire and I managed to borrow some cards off Anna (Polish housemate from next door).  She said I could keep the cards; I guess after seeing the state of us I didn’t think she really wanted to touch those cards again.

For clarity we established the rules of Ring of Fire early on and wrote them on a piece of paper for everyone to see.

You can tell our level of drunkenness in each photo by
looking at the level of punch left in the box

The first round of Ring of Fire went down well and everyone was having a merry time.  However the next two rounds didn’t go as smoothly as the alcohol was taking effect. 

Ring of Fire becomes a surprisingly complicated game when you are drunk and by the 3^rd round it was becoming hard to follow the rules we had established at the start.  Everyone was just drinking regardless of what card was being drawn and we could never remember who’s turn it was.  It was still good fun though.

A by-product of our drunkenness

The final push to finishing off the box of tricks

A decided to try and write my initials on a wall using ketchup

After the 3^rd round of Ring of Fire we made a final push to finish off the box of tricks and we staggered off the town.  We initially lost 2 people as they decided they were too drunk for town. 

The first place we headed to was Star Bar; the bar that I have been refused enter to before for being too drunk.  Well tonight, we all got in!  I have no idea how we managed that.  The bouncer even stopped me in the queue to ask me how much I had to drink that night, it is very rare to be stopped in the queue and to be asked this question and still manage to get in.  I told him I only had 2 ciders in my most sober voice and he believed me.  I was absolutely hammered but maybe all the sugar in the fruit juices in the punch were allowing me to think quickly when I needed to pull myself together.

I was really surprised by Star Bar.  I thought it would just be a small reasonably stylish bar but it turned out to be a very large night club.  It looked so small from the front of the building; where were they hiding all of this club?

I quickly got talking to some girls on the dance floor.  Usually I find it hard to talk to members of the opposite sex in nightclubs but I had no issues tonight.  I was actually talking to them because I decided it was my mission that night to get one of our friends with a girl that night.  I was being his wingman and as a wingman it is always easier to make the first move.  It is just easier to talk to a girl on someone else’s behalf rather than approaching a girl on your own behalf.  That is the beauty of the wingman.

Some of us and a random girl

What was I saying to this random girl?!

Star Bar is pretty big inside

After spending some time in Star Bar we headed off to Scruffy’s which was another place we miraculously got into, but to be honest I didn’t stay in Scruffy’s very long.  I felt like I was just too drunk to have a good time.  Having a small amount of alcohol and being happy tipsy is good but I passed that point a long time ago, probably in the first round of Ring of Fire.  I was just carrying too much alcohol to relax and have a good time.

I decided to leave earlier than everyone else and I headed off toward home and of course I ended up getting lost.  I haven’t been lost in a while; do you remember when I used to get lost pretty much every day?  Tonight I was doing drunken unplanned exploration.

I ended up in some town that looked like a typcial Chinese town.  All the architecture was in a Chinese theme with archways, dragons and embroidery.  I didn’t know Sydney had a China Town, either that or I was far more lost than I thought.  After staggering around some deserted streets I finally ended up on a road that I knew and arrived back to the house.

Stumbling upon this weird pavement thing
was when I realised I was lost

I must have looked an absolute sight.  Trying to put the keys in my door when I was this drunk was like trying to thread a needle.  After lying down on my bed it didn’t take me long to fall asleep, or pass out I’m not sure which one.  Tonight was pretty good overall.  Although I think if there were more people to share the punch out the night would have been better.  But what can I say?  It is nice once in a while to just go out and get absolutely hammer, just once in a while!  I won’t be drinking this much for a long time though.