oh the smell of gunpowder

DONGDONGDONGCHIANG!!!!!!!

My head is still reeling from the smell of gunpowder permeating Chinatown from the firecrackers being set off (or perhaps it's the sound of the firecrackers and the lion dancers). Whatever it is, my head now hurts.

the party last night was fun as, or at least I thought it was...and as Gerri says, we think it's a success because people were actually mingling. Yay!

Apparently people mistook my "no black" policy to mean absolutely no black. They forget that Chinese have all these side clauses:

• Black is negated by a combination of a good proportion of red.
• Black as detailing on clothes is absolutely fiiiiine

Anyway, Gerri spent 3 hours preparing the yu sang despite my help - grating is a bitch when all you have is a tiny grater.

I guess the one thing everyone had in common was (as a certain Hooligan pointed out) extreme intelligence.

"Gerri doesn't make friends with dumb people." Kus and I roll our eyes.

Hooligan pipes up "But I can so understand that. You need to be able to communicate on the same wavelength"

I acknowledge the fact, but also acknowledge the fact that everyone there is a freak of nature.

• 3 kids who skipped 2 grades in school (freaks!)
• 2 PhD students who skipped the whole Masters kafuffle (and they're under 25)
• 5 Masters students, 2 postgrad dips, one law student, one melb uni mediacomm dean's list student, one pre-vet.
• 1 Singapore Gifted Education Programme student
• 2 Architects, 1 Doc, 2 chartered accountants
• 5 Mensans (!!!!!!!)

Anomalie should have been there. There'd have been 2 GEP students.

Also amusing was the disproportionate amount of (aforementioned) gay men....who were all sizing Butterball and StoryGuy up.

"Are they straight? Are they single?"

the questions were asked right in their presence, IN MANDARIN.

They soon divided into 2 camps. The camp who thought Butterball was cuter, and the camp who thought StoryGuy was cuter. Philosophical discussions soon ensued. VERY AMUSING.

And with that much brainpower going around, the conversation was fun as! Finance, China's policies, The Asian economy, Japanese porn (which led to a side discussion of liberal colleges, whether Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propoganda can really be called a legitimate subject and whether Melbourne University can be considered liberal in the Thomas Jefferson sense), Orientalism, Australian politics, philosophy...it was facinating as and I realise I really need to learn more about finance and China's policies. (non-textbook-wise) and I also need to re-read Edward Said.

Badly.

BRAIN! I NEED MORE BRAINS!!!!!!

maybe I should seriously consider going dark haired again.

But I look crap! *vain*