And Anna begins to fade away

Something I learnt that night: My martini glass is safe
Something that made me laugh that night: The entire thing, in hindsight

Am refering to Monday night, which just happened to be Gem's 21st birthday.

Went around to her house after work to find she still hadn't made her way back from the restaurant where she'd eaten dinner. So I wait in the car reading an incredibly violent book until her car pulls into the street.

I wander in, give her a present, say hi to her family and join Gem in the kitchen. We begin to peel/slice/dice fruit to serve with the tea/cake etc. The phone rings and Gem answers. "Hi" "What?" "Where?" "What side of the highway?" "Is anyone hurt?" "We're on our way." She hangs up and informs me that there's been a car accident.

After a short argument with her father (her mother was in the bathroom so couldn't contribute) we get in the car. We then change sides because Gem's had a few drinks. I'm not used to driving a) such a big car, b) an automatic, not to mention the fact that I'd forgotten to adjust the rear-vision mirror and Gem's just that much taller than me that I had to jump up to see the reflection of the rear window on the roof, let alone out the window itself.

Needless to say, it was less than a smooth journey.

We drive along until we see Jo's car stopped with the hazards on. We get out and run towards Jo. What we see is Jo bent over, a random woman whose mouth is moving but we can't here the words and something struggling under a blue blanket.

We get a little closer and the woman's singing Buddhist mantras.

Under the blanket, a possum.

Right.

So we take the poor little possum with a nasty head injury down to the Highett emergency vet centre and rush in to show our cargo to the nurse. She takes one look under the blanket and tells us our new little friend isn't going to make it.

Not that she's a vet. Or a vet nurse. She's a work experience student.

She then grabs a syringe and fills it with enough Phenolbarbituate to kill a horse which she proceeds to inject IP. Intra-possum apparently.

Then we went back to Gem's and ate cake.