Fri 24th – The Stoop Goes Global…!

(Photos - Kev & myself in a far to zoomed in Self Portrait but I think it's a great shot, Azis, myself & Azim, Me & Jess and a photo of Jules that she claims is "the cutest one I've ever seen of myself!")

Forget the past Stoop stories – tonight, the Stoop was taken to the next level. How or why we’re not quite sure (most of us blame the vodka – read on) but it was the biggest night out yet. Rehearsals was rehearsals, went smooth and then we all came home. Most people were pretty fragile from the previous night – I was up for a few but not many and it was actually pretty quiet. Then some of the Field Of Play people arrived home, then Floor LX, then others – that’s our problem I think, our Stoop is at the start of the street and pretty much everyone has to walk past us once off the bus!

Soon enough the idea of a quite one seemed to have been lost! People wondered down from up the street and pretty soon we had 30+ people – our biggest gathering yet! Well, we all blame Sarah & Kev – she brought out vodka and he Jack Daniels and we all proceeded to nip at both of them straight! It was one of THOSE nights! Everyone seemed to hit that level of just needing a night to stop & relax. It was great and we had other mini Stoops happening all up & down the street.

We were all very silly – the Cowboys are a raucous influence. They’re always demanding Kev break out the guitar and Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” has become the anthem of the Stoop. Unfortunately Kev doesn’t know any Kenny Rodgers or we’d have “The Gambler” in the mix as well! Tonight, the Cowboys announced “Kev On Tour” and proceeded to sit Kev up on a chair, in the back of their ute, tailgate down, all of us piled in the back and then did a few slow laps of the compound! Very entertaining. They’re having a ball and love the fact that they can come home and sit and have a few quiet ones with ‘a bunch of top blokes’. Wayne’s invited us all up to Tamworth over the Aus Day weekend for the Country Music Fest..! Bruce, Al & Ian (the other cowboys) are making the trip and a few of us are considering making the journey. It’d be great to keep in contact with them & Tamworth would be a great reverse of the current situation – us in their environment.

Al’s my favourite cowboy and tonight he burped quite loudly and, in my best deep, guttural cowboy voice, went “Christ” – Al lost it and then for the rest of the night he kept coming up going “Go on, give us another.” Everytime he wet himself laughing and then dragged me around like a new toy and showed me off to his friends!

The walls that had contained our Stoop were well & truly broken down! There were serious discussions, piggy back races, people let their barriers down, there was some soul searching & a lot of laughs. At some point I ended up on the Frenchies Stoop, pretty sure it was after Adam had dragged me to another Stoop that he had found further down the block! Very bad basic French from my end and small bits of English from them but we had a fine old chat. Went and hung out with Dom & Kirene for awhile, sat on Shanes kitchen floor and had beer with him, sipped on Tequila with Simone, was given a concoction of something at Dean & Mark’s – “You’ll like it” was all I was told! Apparently I was absent form my own Stoop for nigh on 3hrs! All in all it was another fine night out in Doha. Or as Kev says, “I’m getting paid to drink & laugh with my mates!”