Fun with friends

The week before last (sorry, I'll try to get more up to date) closed with two fun events.

The first was the Scooper Bowl. This is a charity event where, for $8 admission, one receives all-you-can-eat ice cream from nine different companies. I went with Matthew, and we enjoyed a variety of flavours. I think I ate a dozen (or just over) scoops: enough to feel full but certainly not sick or uncomfortable! My favourite was lobster tracks: not in fact lobster flavoured, but containing red candy, chocolate and caramel. It is far less interesting than the name would suggest (people do ask whether it is actually lobster flavoured), but I liked the combination of flavours.

I wondered how the companies found it worthwhile to give away their wares: they weren't paid to participate. Matthew pointed out that they were generally supermarket ice cream brands rather than ice cream shops, and that made sense. Presumably the ice cream they were giving away is relatively cheap to make, and the event could easily influence people's ice cream purchases (I occasionally buy ice cream, and I will be looking for Gifford's lobster tracks next time I do). It wouldn't take a particularly high proportion of people to be influenced to give them value for money.

On Saturday evening, I was a guest at my own housewarming party. My housemates have moved in already: a friend of one is staying in my room as he has a summer internship in the area, and I'm staying at Sidney Pacific where my lease runs until August. It was the first time I had seen the house.

I like it very much. Entering through the front door, one reaches an entrance hall, suitable for leaving shoes (it looks like it might be a shoes off household). The kitchen is straight ahead: I think the free area is a similar size to my kitchen at SP but there is more storage space (I do find that at SP limiting: the bottom shelf of my bookshelf is filled with cutlery, pasta, onions, ingredients for muesli...). On the left is the best part of the house: a large living area. At the moment it's separated (by function, not by any physical divide) into a lounge area (two couches plus an armchair) and a dining area. It just seems to encourage friendliness (the opposite of the SP setup). Upstairs are three bedrooms and the bathroom. Patrick took the smallest bedroom (the difference is significant), the payoff being that it has access to our deck. I move in when I come back from Australia: I will send pictures once I'm living there.

We had a potluck dinner (we ended up, by pot luck, with relatively carb-heavy foods but not ridiculously so), then after eating and chatting headed to Christina's ice cream shop. I went for black raspberry, liquorice and ginger. We returned to the house to play some games, which were very fun. I had a great time enjoying myself with like-minded people: the time flew until it was around 3am! Even at that hour, the walk home wasn't too bad. I look forward to moving in in August!