Pub Lunch and Mace at the Station (Part 3)

Pub Lunch With The Crew

Minutes after Linh came over to my area while I was there alone to lay back in his chair and chat, they came to pick me up and we headed out for lunch. Meeting a couple of people downstairs who included in the group would be Matthias, the Italian guy (I think his name is David), Linh, Thao, Rhett and that Leb guy, we headed to the bar on the corner of our street.

Most people from work usually head there on a Friday after work to get to know each other and just piss up. This scene didn’t interest me that much but as we made our way inside, we cleared a couple of round tables near the pool tables and as some of them started playing, others ordered food. Being dear, a fish burger with a side order of chips would cost me $8 but considering it was the only food they had for lunch, I gathered I would have to pay.

Having a sullen look on my face, I walked into the line, chatting with Rhett as he stood next to me in line and watching Matthias and the Italian guy ordering their meals. Grabbing myself a drink of orange juice which ended up costing me $2, I ordered for three people and stood around looking a touch uncomfortable as I waited for my order. Having no ticket as everyone else received, I headed back to sit down and watch them play snooker as Thao came and had a chat with me.

The both of us ended up heading back to the bar where I collected the three plates of food and sitting ourselves down to eat, our usual group sat in one area as Matthias and the others sat on the opposite side of the pool tables where there was seating. For the most part of our lunch, I could sense the Italian guy staring at me curiously on many occasions.

This being the guy that noticed me in true blood at Chevy’s a couple of weeks ago, I figured he was either looking at me and thinking to himself “He really changes when he goes out” or he tries to figure out what happened to all my charisma upon being at work. Either way, I believe he was sitting there thinking favorable thoughts, much to my obliging presence.

A Chair For The Blonde

Linh took his time heading back up for a meal to which we found out he was downstairs gambling away a small fortune of ten dollars. As we all began to eat, I noticed two girls sit at the table next to us to which Matthias and the rest of them were constantly peeping over. Across the barrier, there was a huge group of people sitting down, mixed but mostly Asian.

Learning some new words, I figured their saying “Chi Chi” as they raised their glasses means “Cheers” in our dialogue. When lunch was finished and they had their complimentary smoke, we jumped up to make our way back to work. Before I left, I thought to return one of the chairs to where the two girls were sitting so I could make some sort of conversation.

Spotting the blonde with the pink top on, I found her to be moderately attractive as I just noted of my giving them back their chair and in that softly spoken attitude, I grouped up and headed out with the rest of them. Having another smoke before we thought to head back to work, we chatted away and then it was time for all of us to head back upstairs. Jumping off at level two they all went one way as I parted upon my own course of direction and that my friends was lunch.

Last Hour Of Work

There are only two more portions of Friday I care to recite and deserve mention. The first is my final hour of work and the conversation I had with Mireille and Delphi. The second is the appraisal that I was pushing for all day, one that deserves a hardy mention in my memoirs and therefore, my reason for saving it to a healthier mind tomorrow after work. However, as I do tend to get to sleep before 11:30 p.m. tonight, I shall detail my last hour of work and thereafter where I headed back home.

With the outgoing mail being completed and running a touch behind time, Delphi came over asking me either for an envelope or if I had seen a file. Starting a small conversation which had me take a break from all the folding of the envelopes, we were also joined by Mireille who was loping around. Loping around. I figure that this would have pissed Najla off because we were pressed for time but trying to be as naïve and laggard as herself, I smugly enjoyed my conversation.

Speaking openly for the next twenty minutes with Delphi and Mireille, we talked upon a unified amount of subjects. After Delphi noted that she would be heading out to a 21st birthday party this weekend and my adding that skirmish was my expectations, we started speaking moreso about general topics of interest. Bringing on the topic of buying houses, I asked the proverbial question “Is it better to live in the City or to live in the country do you think”.

Houses And Childhood Scars

Both of them seemed to agree that a large house and the life I’m living right now is better but although I love my house, I’d also love to live smack-bang in the middle of the City, one of those luxury apartments. Mireille is over 30 years old to which I thought it was a bit odd of her to speak of how it’s best to live at home with mum as there’s always food, especially since she’s married and has kids.

The three of us agreed that living at home was the best medicine to saving money and keeping happy, noting that I had downstairs to myself so I’m relatively commodious. Digressing to childhood memories, I advised them of how I fell off that big water pipe at Tempe when I was young, free-falling a couple of meters and landing a puddle on cement.

I also shared the story of how I got this mark on my forehead, from falling off the stairs at my house in Tempe when I was really young and landing head first into the cement. Speaking about health and the Gym downstairs, I also noted how I bought sushi mostly at work. What triggered this conversation off in the first place was my noting Delphi’s gray nail-polish. Noting that my favored color was light green, we got into a conversation to which this ensued.

Mace On The Platform

Finishing the mail on time and with the end of the workday at hand, I headed out with Najla to the station and made my way up the platform to the last couple of carriages. It was while here that I was surprised to see Mace walking my way. As we recognized each other, he shook my hand and stood next to me as we chatted for the next couple of minutes.

How fate does work as for many years I have not seen his face and suddenly, in the space of a couple of days I’m in his presence twice, the first being when I lost my train ticket in the machines. Catching up on life in general, he told me how he’s still been working at Fairfax for the last five years, being in administration but having moved up. Asking him about his pay, he noted that he’s due for an appraisal soon in regards to his money where he gets 2% on top of what he gets now regardless.

Shedding some knowledge upon his love life, he noted how he had a 28 year old girlfriend at one stage to which he gloated to some extent. Mace also ended up going out with some 18 year old girl who was a waitress at Chili’s to which he ended up chatting to one night. Knowing her through a friend, after she broke up with her suspected man he made the move and they started going out with each other for a while.

Mace told me how he took out a loan for $9,000 to which he bought a motorcycle but shocked me when he casually remarked of his mum winning $100,000 on scratch lotteries a few weeks back. “She’s going to pay off my loan and buy me a car as well since I helped her out with paying off the house” he commented. With these words, I felt like Mace was looking for a was looking for an excuse to be alone on the way home. Noting that he had to meet up with someone, he left on his way and that was the end of our conversation.

Using the old excuse that he had to head off to meet some girl, he conveniently left a couple of minutes before the train arrived. However, as I jumped on, I knew the thought of my holding up conversation for the duration home would be a touch of a hassle. Therefore, his making amends and drifting off in search of a possible ghost was forgivable.

Jett Collects The Microphone

There is not much else to note about my trip back home apart from my getting some sleep and catching my bus back home, I walked through the doors around 7:00 p.m. An hour later Jett came over my house to collect the microphone that he asked for the night before. Bothering not to ask Jett why he wanted to use the microphone and the three way microphone input thing we bought for our rapping days, I just handed it to him and noted that I wouldn’t mind playing the Playstation over the weekend.

That is how Jett ended up bringing me the Playstation on Saturday to which must already be documented. As you would know, Friday was spent relaxing in front of the television and watching the Football game and once finished I headed into a lengthy discussion in these memoirs. Now, with my appraisal only left to speak of for Friday, I will be off for some sleep, gradually coming down from the midnight madness of deprived sleep.