April 08 – Bowling Anyone?

Well Ladies, what another fantastic Ladies Day we just had! For all those who were dead or in jail (the only legitimate excuses for not attending – except for Cherie – from what I hear, the after effects of that many vodka cocktails puts you under the "dead" category).

We got the day of to a good start by welcoming our latest member, Crystal – a lovely girl, who politely made sure she lost the bowling competition by getting worse with more practice – 80 points AND the first strike in the warm up game, then adjusting herself to bowl an appropriate 54 in the real one. It's lovely to have someone around who knows how not to get herself bludgeoned with a bowling pin on their first time out.

I do have to say what a fantastic place it is down at A.M.F, Noarlunga. So clean and shiny, everything is in good order and the staff are so nice. We got "shoed up" with many comments on the stylish new range, however I think Cathrine said it best "Not so Humphrey" – very well put. The divided ourselves into 2 teams of 4 and the idea of the trophy going to the "highest score" quickly changed to "anyone who gets a strike", and for a moment at the start "anyone who can knock down ANY pin whilst not causing themselves bodily harm". What a group of uncos! Bowling may sound uncool, but when we started – we made that statement come alive. I realised the only reason to look less mongo is to forget what you look like and just bowl. There is no cute, beautiful and graceful way to bowl. I can sum it up in 3 words – bend and spread. However, once we relaxed into the vibe, all was great.

Who won??!! Drum roll please! The first winner of the Ladies Day legend trophy is Michelle, with a score of 127 and featuring 2 "kisses" from the Holy Bowling God – TENPIN ("kisses" are strikes, but they look like this X, so we jazzed it up a little). I amazing Aimee, bowled the highest score but abdicated – I felt that it was morally correct and I just want to do what's best for Ladies Day as a whole…also, I picked up the trophy and had already had it on my mantel for a week. But that was nothing to do with my decision!

Lunch was wonderful. Anita did a great job, as always, finding the Salty Lime Cafe. But the catch cry of the day was definitely "we're out" – we were over an hour late though they did make it up to us, giving us free stuff, Tracey got totally for free, a nice hair in her foccacia – a good long one too. Other than that a 4km round trek to their "outhouse" toilet and a complete inability for 7 grown women to work out what the bill came to – it was a fabulous spot.

We had some African drumming drifting over from goodness knows where, funky music where we were, the smell of the sea, a view of a haunted house and Anita even got a surprise mussel in her pasta (when you think you’ve finished them all, then…yay!). She almost got another surprise when one of her mussels was closed and she was going to prise it open! She and the others were unaware that if any shell animal doesn't open after cooking, it was dead when it went in the pot and would give you awful food poisoning (is their another kind?), and you must always throw them out. But a crisis was averted and we could sit back and enjoy the warm sunshine that was without a "bite" for the first time in ages. I am upset again though, NO DESSERT! Second month in a row!! Note to all Ladies – BYO chocolate to next lunch!