.... random rants and rambles. no agenda. yet.

Went to G and T's (ha! G&T!) BBQ yesterday, because it was a Bank Holiday and that's what you have to do on Bank Holidays; watch men cook meat outside, for no better reason than It Is A Bank Holiday And That's What You're Meant To Do.

Anyway. I was very impressed to see how G and T followed The BBQ Rules very closely indeed. T, being the Girl, made sure everyone had drinks and smiled and was nice to people, while G, the Man, tried to light the BBQ.

(Actually, I should say the BBQs, because G and T were very cool and vegetarian and vegan friendly, and provided not one but two BBQs, so our Emergency Disposable BBQ stayed safely in the car boot, as there was no BBQ Emergency to require it.)

I say G tried to light the BBQs because that's what he did. He tried. But it wouldn't work, much to G's annoyance. After using almost a whole box of firelighters and many, many matches, T walked round to the Spar (because she was the Girl, and G was the Man, so he was far too busy) to see if she could find some of that fluid that makes flames go big. She couldn't.

"Why don't you use that old door that's in your alleyway?" I suggested to G. "There's a door in my alleyway?!" he said, completely unaware of that fact. (Why I always seem to find things in people's gardens that they don't know are there, I'll never know - last week it was a bike and a toilet...!) So we dragged the old door out and made it into a kind of wind-shielding fence, but that didn't work, so I dragged it back into the alley again.

All this time, G was getting more and more annoyed with his BBQs for not lighting - one would light, but the other one wouldn't, and then it would but the other one wouldn't - kind of taking turns to be as annoying as possible. Then, G had an idea... we should all gather round and make a human wall, so the BBQs would be shielded from the wind... yep, that one worked, and the BBQs were soon smoking away happily!

And which one do you think burned the best? The veggie one, of course! Ha.

Through all of that palaver, I realised that I have never seen a woman cook a BBQ when men have been around, except for C when we had a BBQ in our garden last year (and she had to fend off the men who wanted to cook, believe me, even though it was in our garden!). Very strange indeed.

I told this to T, who wondered why... we discussed, and then decided its because BBQs are so dangerous and hot and things might explode so men have to do it and be the Man to protect us girls and all that macho crap that they really truly believe, and we women just let them cos it's easier that way, and it keeps them quiet anyway. An interesting social fact - in 2006, men still feel they have to protect women. And we women still let them think we need it! Hm.

Anything for a quiet life ;o)

Anyway, it was a fab night and we all enjoyed ourselves, so many thanks to G&T, especially to G for his bravery in cooking chicken skewers that almost exploded and killed us all. Hooray!