Last Hare and the On On – Friday 13 April 2007

Today was my last Hare for the Cairo Hash. Of course as usual the weather was shocking – I haven’t had good Hare weather yet!

Darren and Kim set the run at about 730am. Wesley and I went out about 1pm and laid the walk trail. The weather was fine when we all set out for the Hash, but as we went along it got worse and worse. It got really cold and then it started to rain. Not heavy rain, but cold rain blowing in from the side. My trousers were soaked all on the left hand side and it was so cold. When we started out one guy and his son (his son has down syndrome) were trailing a long way behind so we had to wait for ages at the first check. Wesley explained a shortcut to him so they could get back faster. By the time the rest of us were rounding the second check it was getting bitterly cold so Wesley kinda created our own shortcut and we led everyone back a bit faster. I don’t think anyone was too disappointed to be heading back earlier.

A few weeks ago Wesley got some Cairo Hash beach towels made and he had about 5 with him today. They are 100Le each and he sold them all in about 10 minutes. Emily and Carol bought one as soon as we got back and had them wrapped around their shoulders like blankets. It was actually a really good sales mechanism :)

We were having the on-on at our place tonight and our plan had been to race straight home and make sure everything was ready. But one thing after another meant we were in the last group to leave and we were following Toby and he made a wrong turn so it took us ages to get out to the road. The only saving grace was that Val’s car got a flat tyre and so nearly everyone stopped as they went through to make sure everything was ok. By the time we got there it was practically done so we just kept on going and got home ahead of most people.

Wesley had got Suhear (the maid) to come by and make sure the place was tidy and set up for the party so we only had to get home, shower ourselves and Bogey and we were sorted. We brought Toby home with us coz h lives too far away to go home to clean up. People started arriving about 10 minutes are we were ready so that timed nicely.

It was an awesome on-on if I do say so myself. We were hosting it so we were a bit nervous that either no one would show or that people would be board. I kept assuring Wesley that it’d be fine, people would stand around, chat and drink the beer keg dry.

There were about 50 people there and I think the last ones left about 1am. I’d put all Wesley’s music on his laptop and he’s connected it to speaker so we had a jukebox. Unfortunately I hadn’t had time to transfer my music onto his machine so he didn’t have too many party songs to choose from. To start with it didn’t matter coz it was just on softly in the background, but after a while people wanted to dance and turned up the music so I was trying to put on music we could dance too. After an hour of people asking for songs that weren’t on his machine but were on mine upstairs I decided to run upstairs and fill my flash drive with more music. I did this about 3 times and got a couple 80s albums and The Beatles, Queen etc and put them on and people were going off their heads! Dancing, singing all over the lounge room. It was so much fun.

Poor Bogey was exhausted. She’d laid the trail with us, then done the hash and all she wanted to do was go to bed but with all the people there she couldn’t. We’d shut our bedroom door so she couldn’t even go get into her bed to escape the people. Plus every time she laid down someone would pat her. She followed me upstairs every time I went to get more music and stood there looking at our bedroom door as if saying ‘Aren’t we going to bed yet!’

It was an awesome night, some people got quite drunk but for the most part people were just having some fun. One crazy girl spent the whole night sitting on the couch not talking to anyone. She’s like it all the time. She comes to hash and doesn’t talk to people. I can’t decide if she’s shy, snobby or just not sure how to act amongst all these westerners. After a bit of coxing Tom got her up to dance and she seemed to enjoy herself much more then.

We’re arranged for food to be catered and a keg of beer from a place called Max’s that we go for dinner on Thursday nights. It cost 2000le and included food for 40 people and 40lts of Heineken beer in a keg (plus a man to pour the beer). We charged people 30le each, the hash kicks in 300le for people having the on-on at their house and Darren was kind enough to get 500le from his work so we almost broke even. Some people brought wine too and some brought their own beers. Plus they were drinking some of the spirits in our liquor cabinet and we used an extra case of Saqqara. Still it didn’t cost us too much for such a huge party.

House on-ons are lots of fun coz people stay longer and mingle more, but they can be a lot of friggin around. The 30le door charge is a bugger because you actually have to ask everyone for the money. That’s why at the Christmas one I was ‘door bitch’ so Mary Fran wouldn’t have to be. Cathy offered to do it for me tonight but by then I’d done half the people and I decided it was probably easier to just finish it off myself.

Nearly everyone was dancing at some point. Even Wesley danced and he hates to dance – I was dancing with Carol and Jim and he came up behind me and spun me round – it was great fun. I couldn’t believe how people went off when I put the Beatles on. I guess most people there were 35 to 40 plus a few 40+ so they were all loving the 80s music but then everyone knew the words to the Beatles songs.

All in all a great night. I think everyone enjoyed themselves – they seemed to with all the drinking, dancing and laughing!