Friday night, for M and me, is known as Date Night. At least that’s the name it has in my head, I’m not entirely sure how M labels it. By date I am referring to the word in the sense of “[to] go steady: date regularly; have a steady relationship with”; not Phoenix dactylifera, the fruit. Friday night, Date Night, is a weekly event in our shared calendar – a time we set aside as time to spend together, for each other. I’m not sure how long we’ve had date night, it’s definitely been some years now I think (we’ve been together since 1997).
Our Date Night routine is usually fairly similar: we spend it in the city, browsing our favourite bookshops, having a meal, wandering around, talking. I love Date Night. I wind down from the stresses of the week, relax, enjoy M’s company, indulge in some retail therapy (usually involving books), do some people watching. By the time we get home, a couple of hours later, I’m usually pleasantly tired and almost ready for bed. The perfect way to end my work week. [I just realised I have mentioned Date Night before, in November – interesting to see my slightly different description of it then, and now.]
By definition, Date Night is usually just the two of us, but occasionally we opt to join others in social events of some sort. Last night’s Date Night was quite different from our usual – we spent it at a bowling club! We were invited to a surprise birthday party for a friend of M’s, R. R’s wife, E, planned the whole thing, even to the extent of getting a couple of the club’s members to volunteer to show all of us lawn bowls newbies how to play.
If you’re familiar with lawn bowls at all, you’re probably thinking of it as a game for “oldies”, retirees. I guess this image is due to the fact that as a casual sport, it is most popular amongst some retired folk. Still, stereotypes aside, we were all quite happy to give it a go, although none of us had played it before. This was especially true after having had a few beers and after eating lots of fried chicken, calamari, sausage rolls and hot chips. The people at the club were also very friendly and welcoming.
Lawn bowls is similar to bocce, in that you try to hit a small ball located some distance away from you – Wikipedia (of course) has a good description of the game. After having the rules explained to us and taking lots of practice shots, we had a fun time playing and making rude comments about those on opposing teams whenever they made good shots. It was a good night; we met R’s and E’s parents (whom we’d heard of but not had the pleasure of meeting before now), as well as a few new people.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be a good lawn bowls player, though. It’s a lot more complicated than it looks – the weighted balls have to be aimed in such a way that they roll in at the right point to be close to the little ball – known as a jack to the men, but called a kitty by the women – how quaint!
Picture: M on the green, juggling the jacks/kitties.