Failure to win, or Happy Birthday Mark!
Creature
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Last night, a bunch of us from the office showed up to mcote's birthday party. His surprise birthday party.
messiahd had planned it, and we were to show up while they were out on the town. The skillful deception on her part meant that Mark walked into his flat at around 22:00, saw a huge group of people having a party, and was definitely surprised. We took our turns wishing him a happy birthday, and then chatted amongst ourselves while he walked around with a big grin on his face.
Amongst the more expensive presents (read alcohol), there were also some dollar store toys that had managed to show up: some Play-Doh, a deck of cards, pop guns, streamers and balloons. We had managed to get most of the balloons inflated, but since they were dollar-store-quality, they would spontaneously explode throughout the night. Damian, drawing back on his busker past, made little balloon animals that people really liked.
As the night went on, I saw some people from Mark's circle that I had met once or twice before. And met some of Melissa's real-life friends for the first time. Amongst these people, Izzy and Amber went and created a colony of Play-Doh creatures that they left about the place. Apparently, it is a game to find the four of them, from the photographs that I took.
People started filtering about at around midnight, so it was around then that I was able to start conversing with people. Darin hung out with Mark and I as the last of the revellers. I managed to teach Mark, Jacob, and wlach (I think), the game of Mao. Waterloo variant, of course. I think Will was a little too tired to put it together properly, but then he eventually figured it out. Since the people I know keep on playing unofficial Cambridge standard five-card Mao, it will be interesting to see what happens when the two groups clash.