The Return of the Bum - Part Deux

So there we were, me and my cousin, she studying for some exam she had to do that morning and me drinking mate. Eventually we were joined by my other cousin, Albert, and the unveiling of the gifts commenced. All was merry. I can’t really remember anything else about that day until the night, when I belive Marina made an excellent dish of potatoes and milk, doesn’t sound great, I know, but it was. Sadly there had been some beer drinking and chips eating so nobody was really all that hungry.

Twas then that me cousin’s best freind Jerry dropped by, and the night started to look rather promising. Mummy was also there (Albert’s girlfreind), but she is extremely shy and quite so she doesn’t feature prominently in this book. Now as the fernet was flowing it was obviously time to unveil the bong. Of course, it was all in its various peices, so poor Jerry didn’t know what I was on about, but he gasped for air when twas all made into one. The merry making had begun. As time went by, we realized we just had to test the bong out. So we all got in Jerry’s car and of we went to Quilmes, to some guy’s house I don’t know. It was quite a grand gathering, u’d think they were all just waiting for me to arrive... We got there, the bong was put together and after a certain impasse.... as it were, one of the pipes were blocked, so I spent a good 20 min searching the house for some garden wire and eventually had to do with a small metal rod I found in the shed, and to everyone’s joy the pipe was up and running. Now the owner of the house had some lemon tasting tabacco to trie it out but it quickly ran out, so the bags of weed were opened and some joe had the excellent idea of filling the bong up with whisky instead of water, Diarmuid, trust me, if u haven’t done that yet, you’re way behind! I don’t know who provided the weed, but there seemed to be a constant flow of it, I myself didn’t take more the 3 or 4 puffs, my cousin did otherwise and he finished all curled up on the garage floor sleeping till we left. As for Jerry, I have no idea, and don’t want to know how much he smoked/drank cos he drove us back, rather well I might add. My first night in Argentina, a wild success, but by no means was I satisfied.

The next day was just as eventfull. I believe it was Sunday. I joined up with another cousin, Eloisa, and her boyfriend and went to Abril, which is a closed community of sorts with very grand houses, all built in this huge farm that was there, which is where Rosalia and her family lives (yet another cousin). I had my first argentine BBQ in 6 months, courtesy of Martin (Rosalia’s husband, though Elo’s boyfriend is also called Martin). We had great fun, ate till it was physically not possible anymore, talked about everything and a bit, and played around with Eli and Manu (their children which are oh so cute, if rather wild) and the dog, which has just way too much energy for its own good. And so the evening went by. We eventually got back to the capital (this place is a good 40 km distant).

And off I went in a rush to meet with Lean, a very good college friend. He was s sleepy from oing god knows what that he actually fell asleep between answering the doorbell (its an apartment) and pressing the buzzer to let me in. Eventually I went up, and it was all hey ho, but we had to go to a birthday party, Ales’ brother’s party (she is also a very good friend), which we used as a very good excuse to meet up and have some free drink and food. Lean’s car had been hijacked by his evil father so we had to take a taxi, the prospect of which I didn’t like one bit, Ales practically lives with the cows, its damned expensive to go out there in a taxi, but it was really late, the subway was closed and I really didn’t feel like getting a bus all the was to Retiro to take a train of a rather shady nature. So of we went to get a cab, but it was harder then I imagined, they refused to take us that far, can you believe it?? The cheek! Something about them turning in in 5 min and not wanting to do a 1 hr 31 min journey. In the end we got there, much to Ales’ delight. We had a grand get together with plenty of beer, fernet, and way too many photos. The last time we had been together was when I left for Pakistan. We stayed the night there, I didn’t really sleep at all, stayed up with Ales’ mum helping to clean up and chatting away, I think I slept about 10 min towards morning when I had a lie down, but the Ales got up and that was that. We hung around the swimming pool most of that day, which was nice and sunny, till about 6 pm (it’s Monday by this stage). Lean had to meet up with some friends of his to finish some work for college (Monday was a holiday by the way), so I did what I do best, tagged along, managed to convince they weren’t getting anywhere (it was a maths problem), bought a couple of beers and that was that, we ended up playing pool nearby. Got back to my cousin’s apartment about 2 am of Tuesday, quite a busy weekend I’d say. That day I got me a new pair of jeans, got the essentials out of my suitcase into a smaller bag and headed of for the farm, which will be part 3 and 3/4. Cheerio