Two out of three ain't bad

It was easy enough to catch up with my mates GH and AP as they live only a few blocks apart in the CBD and are always looking for stuff to do.

On Wednesday, after seeing "Eragon", the three of us visited another old friend, AG, his partner A. and baby girl B. (and menagerie of dogs, rabbits and fish) at their new house in Merewether. Readers who know AG may not know he's on the verge of entering the police force.

Yesterday, GH, AP and I took a trip to that most relaxing of places, the farmhouse of PG and DG, to talk fanboy stuff, eat and play games. There was no time for any multiplayer Xboxing as our HeroClix battle royale was still going when it was time to skedaddle for the bus. I was declared the probable winner, thanks to the ranged-combat expertise of Klaw, the perfect rooftop sniper :-)

Today, the untouchable trio was supposed to trek out to Charlestown to see JH and his partner S. Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for him, J. has scored a week's fill-in work with a government department that he'd like to be employed by on a permanent basis. A big, black boot in the door?

Instead, I stayed home and caught up on some reading. I've devoured everything Jay McInerney has written (even his wine guide "Bacchus & Me") and "The Good Life" reminded me why. It's a complex portrait of two New York marriages altered and reconsidered in the aftermath of 9/11. There's more to it than that, though. The characters have rich backgrounds and McInerney slips in much trivia relating to the clean-up effort that I hadn't heard before.

I'm now sailing into Tim Powers' historical fantasy "On Stranger Tides" (pirates! voodoo! puppetry!). Also hope to break the paperback of the new Le Carre ("The Mission Song") before this holiday ends.