Tuesday.... got an arrangement to play squash at 1830 so drive into the edge of town with the girlfriend and we hit the ball around for an hour taking it in turns with a couple of friends. Afterwards get a quick beer in the club (it's very posh - one of my friends identified the Portuguese tennis number one as we walked to the squash courts last time - but squash is very cheap so it works for me).
After that we have been invited for dinner.... our friend's granny has just died and so she (the friend) is living in this enormous flat for a week or two while the rest of the family decides what to do with it, at the moment her parents can't go there for more than a few minutes without crying cos it feels haunted - or just utterly associated with the mother who I think lived there for ninety years or so. It's a huge place with an amazing balcony looking over this gorgeous garden, jacarandas lighting it up in pink. The house itself has two kitchens, several bathrooms (one for servants) and enormous rooms filled with bric-a-brac - a huge nativity scene in a glass case, swords on the walls, grandad's collection of model ships etc Think Ines is kinda sad rattling around the place on her own apart from her ancient dog which pads loudly around the place farting - she'll be glad to get back to her own small flat when she can.
Massive dinner for eight or nine people (cold salmon soup, prize winning snails*, mussels, prawns, sea bass, sweet potato salad, panacotta with strawberries), wine and beer flows, then someone puts in a call and everyone starts getting fucked up. Ines finds this box of weird, in fact totally grotesque, masks from the 40s or 50s and everyone starts wearing them and posing for some truly terrifying pictures. A couple of people get dressed up in old clothes, it's all a bit odd.
Everyone is still going strong at 2pm when I decide to lie down for a bit, I'm supposed to meet some others for squash at 8pm so I can't carry on. I try and sleep for a bit in Ines bed and the dog keeps me company on the floor releasing some truly revolting farts every now and again to remind me she's still there. I arise at 1830 and find the remnants of the party snorting mdma and playing Pictionary... I drive to squash, meet some friends and hit the ball around for an hour. Quick beer afterwards and then I drive back to the flat giving Jenny a lift home on the way, pausing only to buy some cigarettes.
At the flat girlfriend is ready to leave - it's about 10pm - so I pick her up and drive home. Make us a steak sandwich and drink a few beers and she falls asleep watching the excellent detective show Rosemary and Thyme. I read a few pages of The Dream of Scipio but don't want to disturb her so I turn in too.
*Prize winning needs a justification. Our friend Augustus works in a bar/restaurant here and he was talking to the owner about the best place to buy snails and she expressed disbelief that he would cook snails - he replied "yeah I do, and better than the ones we serve here!" The owner was annoyed by this and set up a competition in the bar wherein four people - her, Augustus, the chef and the sous-chef - all cooked their own snail recipe and all four were served to customers to vote on blind. To everyone's annoyance and disbelief Augustus came out on top, and so he is roped into making the starter tonight