RatSquirrels and Horse Simulators

Dear O'H dear and Lovely Tea Jenny,

Last night we had The Explorer, Boots, Marsh, Kitty Cat, The Major, The Majorette & Biker Chick over for dinner. These are the friends (and partners) who originally met because we worked together in Bar Java almost 20 years ago. The Major had dug out 19 year old photos of a time that The Explorer and I went to visit him when he lived in Castle Douglas. These photos caused a lot of hilarity. There is a picture of us going to the supermarket the morning after a lock in at the local pub to buy hangover food in our pjs. That was in the good old days before Tesco decided that people should be chucked out for shopping in their pyjamas!

It was one of those really good nights where the overriding memory is laughter. The Major made the mistake of telling us that he has a simulated horse for riding. Eight people fell about laughing and his ‘riding technique’ became a source of much abuse (or banter as I prefer to call it).

The Explorer has just been to New York on holiday. When we were all there a couple of years ago, we saw some very unusual and mangy looking squirrels in a park. We called them ratsquirrels as they looked like rats with squirrels tails. She informed me in earnest that they had seen them again and that they are Canadian Black Squirrels and not actually ratsquirrels. Turns out that she was genuinely convinced that they were the progeny of an illicit liaison between a rat and a squirrel!

She has recently been to a wine tasting event and the ‘expert’ explained that it is the sulphites in wine that causes hangovers and that low sulphite wine is indicated by a green leaf on the bottle. The Explorer then showed her class by saying that she was delighted to be armed with this new information and asked how many bottles she could drink without feeling rough the following day. It’s all about the green leaves apparently. I suspect that the diet of ratsquirrels consists mainly of these leaves!

The evening flew past. It was 3 am before the last person left. It is easy being in the company of people who have known you this long (even if they do tell very embarrassing stories).


C