What a great day! Movie night with the Casino - just like a school excursion only better because as well as the movie, including a bus ride to and from the cinema, you get to have a choc-top ice cream, a drink and popcorn. Thanks M for getting the extra ticket so all three of us could go.
I managed to score an early mark from work so I was able to beat the peak hour traffic and have time for a leisurely coffee and a rest before we joined the line for the ticket, the line to get on the bus,the line to collect the movie refreshments ... and it's good because there was such a feeling of excitement in the line that it wasn't really like lining up at all - not like when you're waiting in a queue in the bank or the motor registry department and it takes forever. Here you know that when the line starts moving, it's going to keep moving - such was the high degree of organization involved.
The movie was "Due Date" starring Robert Downey Jr and while I'm still trying to understand why some scenes were included I managed to get a couple of good laughs out of this rotricomdra (I just made that up and it's short for "road trip comedy drama"). I scored it at 7 which may seem generous but I was just incredibly pleased that they didn't include more boy-body "humour".
After the movie, we lined up to get back on the ... last bus back to the Casino (okay, okay, I dragged my feet on the way across the parking lot from the cinema - and insisted on a pit stop on the way). We considered walking - as we had to wait for the bus along with the other stragglers - because the next item on the agenda was celebrating Mouse's 85th birthday with the others at the Food Fantasy restaurant at the Casino.
They had been there since early and were all finished their main courses by the time we arrived and they were able to confirm the fare was up to its usual high standard. The prawns came highly recommended and Cousin M even offered to peel/clean mine for me. Double yum.
S had had a good day even before I met up with her this afternoon. It's bingo day and she had won the first jackpot game and three other rounds after that - even though some (rude, rude, rude) people behind her had suggested that she was a slow player. It would be different if it was based on speed but this bingo is based on getting all the numbers first and even if someone else has called bingo, here, house or whatever terminology they choose, if that last number also gives you all the numbers for that game, you can still claim part of the prize as long as they haven't finished paying out. Of course, it means the prize is then split, and that could have been their concern, but they seem to have forgotten that it's meant to be a friendly game.
Her luck continued after she and the others had lunch at the Casino when she won a Mini Jackpot - I'm not sure which machine it was on but I know she has of late been playing the machine that reminds her of Beazley.
Again thanks to M's generosity, we were able to stay overnight at the Casino while she went back to Latimers and did animal duties. I hope they behaved themselves for her because it would have been terrible if she'd had to be out there chasing Tink or any of the others all night!
