It was largely open-air (it is Italy) and it extended into the square itself. It was quite American in style - they served chips (well I suppose you'd call them fries) and extra large soft drinks inamongst the standard Italian cocktails and wines. It wasn't the classiest place I'd ever come across, but it was great to sit out and watch the townsfolk Camerino go by and chat with the other people that decided to water at Asterix too.
Gaby had come home, eaten in a hurry and was busy doing her homework so that she could come out to Asterix with us. I was sitting calmly eating a nice spot of pasta and she was ricocheting off the walls like a pinball in a pinball machine, trying to get everything done in time: she was a tornado of tenses, rattling off the imperfect and the future whilst stirring bubbling pots and trying not to burn even more some already-crucified chicken.
I finished, washed my dishes and walked slowly into the bedroom to begin getting ready. I then did what was becoming normal, and shut her open and overflowing drawer, closed the cupboard door so that if I sat on my bed I wouldn't be sitting in a little alcove of solitary confinement, and wandered into the bathroom.
As I sat on the loo I could hear Hurricane Gaby hurtling around and when I emerged, predictably, the overflowing drawer was open and vomiting all over the floor, and my pillow was once again reduced to a darkened corner away from the rest of civilisation. I collected my bag and told her I was leaving. Hurricane Gaby had one final bustle before exiting the flat with me.
On the way to the bar I asked her what the incredible rush was - she didn't need to stay out too late with us; we were just intending to have a few drinks and leave it there.
'No!' she said indignantly, 'I'm not staying at Asterix, I'm meeting some people from my class later.'
Oh.
I confess I didn't really know the people in her class very well. They watered elsewhere in town and were very much a hermetically sealed clique that turned their noses up at some people and looked down their noses at the others. Together with this, Gaby was becoming more and more interested in blokes. After the incident at Babaloo where she had an incident with one of the gentlemen on the course, she'd used that as a springboard to see what the other the gents were like. The sort-of boyfriend she was ready to run away with at the beginning had now vanished into the ether.
So by the time we arrived at Asterix she decided that she didn't want to have a drink with us at all and she busied off to her other friends. I think I was quite relieved by this and I sighed happily before taking my seat at a table with Lynette, Susan and Bree. Brilliant.
We got the drinks in and I caught up with the girls and asked them how their day had been. They'd had fun at the pool, but it hadn't really been worth the money, and it turns out that my relaxing afternoon in voluntary solitary confinement was much the better option.
Still, no hard feelings and it was great to relax in the piazza. Hang on. What are those guys bringing in? Wait, are those speakers? Does that guy have a guitar? Ok so quiet evening turned into live music in the piazza. But then again I love live music so I wasn't too gutted. So how was it?
Let's say it was a trip down memory lane as I hadn't listened to Green Day since high school. That said it was really quite interesting to hear the singer chew up the words so that all he was really doing was making funny noises. That's what happen if you sing in a different language that you can't really speak in the first place.
Don't believe me?
(I apologise for the quality of the video and the Italian man who seemed to know exactly where my camera was pointing through the eyes in the back of his head.)
Anyway that night turned out to be entertaining after all and it was great to sit and watch the world go by, laughing at it as it passed...
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