always good for a giggle

What a silly, giggling afternoon we had yesterday.  Kathy, Dalene and I headed off to see Hope Springs.  "Let's meet at 4.30, it may be difficult to get in", was my suggestion.   Well, I thought the movie would be at 5 but it was at 6, which gave us some time to spare once we had our tickets.  I had the wine, cups and ice blocks in my bag ready for the movie but now, with time on our hands, we headed off to JB Rivers for a drink.  They were getting ready to close but said we could have drinks.  Kathy and I decided on the Porcupine Ridge white blend.  Dalene had been to a street party in her road and had already had a gin and tonic in the sun, so she was not in the mood for wine.  Kathy and I gave each other a look and thought that a whole bottle of wine in 40 minutes would be a bit much (even for us), so we went along with Dalene and her wish for a cocktail.  A Strawberry Daiquiri for her and Frozen Margaritas for Kathy and I.

Well Dalene's was bright red and ultra sweet while Kathy and I nearly choked on what tasted like neat tequila with a heap of frosted ice that looked like it had been scraped off the walls of the freezer and lots of salt around the rim.  Hectically sour.  I opted to put some sugar into mine, while Kathy and Dalene started making eyes at the waitress to complain. This caused me to drink faster and even to mix some of Dalene's ultra sweet daiquiri onto the scraped ice on my Margarita.  My drink turned into a pretty palatable and slightly pink slush puppy.  I am not fussy and have been known to enjoy retsina in Greece when nobody else could swallow the stuff.  You have to show commitment, you know.  The other two were not giving up.  They started waving at the manager, who was engrossed in the Everton / Liverpool match, and called him over to complain.  Kathy wanted to know what tequila had been used and the manager went off to find out from the barman and to discuss with him exactly how he had made it.  He came back defending the barman and telling Kathy that it definitely was not "unleaded diesel" (which she accused him of using) but Omega Gold.  Before he could leave the table (poor guy was starting to stutter and spit) the waitress appeared with a glass of lime mixture for us to add to the drink.  Obviously the missing ingredient.  It all ended well but I was forbidden by my two fiery eyed companions to give any extra for a tip.  They were taking bets on the fact that we would get the drinks on the house.  Better luck next time girls.

So up the escalator to the movies we went, me with my bag of now slightly melting ice blocks (they were in a small WP Blood Transfusion blood cooler but that seemed to be leaking right through my handbag).  We were there early to book and had chosen our seats cleverly this time.  E row against the wall - we did not want anybody making us stand up to get past and risk spilling our drinks and knocking over our bottle.  First mistake - our JB Rivers cocktail had made us a tad late and E row was full except for our 3 seats against the wall.  I was a bit worried about the iced water, which was now dripping at a rapid pace through my bag, pouring onto the row of ladies laps (or feet) who we would have had to make stand up to get to our seats.  I led the way 2 rows further down, against the wall.  By this stage Dalene (who does not like to sit in "other people's seats") was getting nervous and twitchy and I had to push her into her (not really "her") seat and quickly pour her a drink.  The theatre filled up quite quickly but no one came to claim our seats.  If they had, they would have had Kathy to contend with.  

Chilled wine, with melting ice, in white polystyrene cups is quite hard to beat.  Add to that a wonderfully entertaining and funny movie. It is a great movie, made on a low budget with 3 main characters, who were wonderful.  Meryl Streep is her usual brilliant self (who all menopausal woman can relate to) and Tommy Lee Jones is a tonic (an ugly, wrinkly tonic).  Steve Carell holds it all together with his straight faced questioning and advice.  I won't say much but we were in hysterics.

I think it was probably the frozen Margarita which got me going but I was sure that I could hear a man's laugh at the back, who I knew.  He had this deep, giggling belly laugh that set me off every time.  There were not that many men in the movie but certain things sure tickled him and added to our enjoyment of the movie.  After the movie I had to find out where the laugh was coming from but could not see Gavin (a couple of sms's later and I discovered that he was still on a holiday safari in Zimbabwe).

It was the perfect end to a lovely weekend.