Surviving Cactus
Cactus Kate has been in town for a couple of days, and has been lots of fun catching up.
I first met Cactus over a decade ago after she went on a Centre of Independent Studies course, along with a couple of friends of mine. I expressed surprise that she didn’t actually hook up with anyone on the CIS course, and she stated that it was because everyone at CIS is far too left wing 🙂
Monday Night was meant to be a catch up with Un-PC Lesbian but she pulled a sickie. Cactus and I consoled ourselves with some nice bottles of Moet down at Concrete. We were later joined by Karen Fuchs and eventually Ten after her prick of a boss allowed her to finish work at 10 pm. I have to say that there are few things as good as decent champagne – not the usual crap which passes for it in NZ.
Eventually dinner seemed a good idea but very little open at 11.30 pm on a Monday night. Eventually went to an Indian restaurant on Courtney Place whose name I can’t remember and whose food was pretty umm about forgettable also.
Tuesday was Cactus’s annual date with her secret Business Roundtable lover. I am their official chaperone. We had a stunning lunch at Shed Five – mainly thanks to the new waiter Scott who was just hilarious. After I took a call from someone, Scott confisicated both my phones for the next two hours and told any callers I was lunching with company and not to be disturbed. He arranged a non stop flow of Moet (Cactus lives off it) and mineral water, and kept us highly entertained. He refused to allow secret lover to have coffee until he had finished his dessert, as it will spoil the taste. The highlight was after we have moved onto cocktails and I had a raspberry Manhattan which didn’t quite work for me, so I left it slightly undrunk. Despite me not complaining, Scott insists on tasting it to check if anything was wrong, and it was priceless as his face screwed up and he loudly proclaimed the cocktail as disgusting and undrinkable, and he went off to the bar to point out you put raspberry not cherry into that particular cocktail. Scott was great and made the lunch a great success, on top of the excellent food.
Cactus then put on her union president hat for her Fairfax meeting, and we caught up after that at Monsoon Poon – always a good reliable choice. It was packed full, so we ended up dining up at the bar, which of course suited us fine.
Fortunately for my continued good health, Cactus flies out this evening, but we do have lunch with Parliament’s second most famous blogging MP today, after he wouldn’t miss a few unimportant votes last night to join us.
UPDATE: For the benefits of all the wives and existing mistresses of Business Roundtable members, I will clarify that if Cactus did have a secret BRT lover, I would not be blogging about it here! It is just carrying on a joke I made last February and carried on as to my delight I was asked by journalists last week in Auckland if it was true Cactus was having umm relations with a member of that fine body. Mind you I do hear she is preparing an application as to why she should be hired as their intern 🙂