My old mate Vassy returned to Sydney six months ago after spending five years living in New York.
His arrival coincided with shite stuff like hotel quarantine and lockdowns, then I caught COVID-19 in Fiji and started working 10 hour days, so we only got around to catching up about two weeks ago.
It wasn’t a very satisfactory meeting because I was strung out with work stress and only had a 45-minute lunch window. I felt like a crap friend after we parted, so I invited him to come to a tequila event last night at a mansion in Rose Bay.
The weather was so wet and wild that I abandoned plans to catch the ferry there and decided to be designated driver again. I picked Vassy up in the city and we arrived at the harbourside mansion in double quick time, presumably because every second person in Australia is isolating because of COVID at the moment.
Pre-pandemic, it would have been one long carpark from the city along William Street and down New South Head Road, but we whizzed there, scored a park almost out the front and swanned into this fabulous piece of real estate to sip Moet Hennessy’s new tequila, Volcán De Mi Tierra.
I loooooove Spanish Mission architecture, it’s my all-time favourite, so it was awesome to get a stickybeak inside the beautiful abode.
I was also thrilled to run into a lovely bloke called Pete there, who I met when he was the tender age of 19 and working in the advertising department of Woman’s Day. He’s now a bigwig at the agency that hosted the function, EVH.
Come to think of it, I first met Vassy when I was the tender age of 19, working as a cadet journalist at the Newcastle Herald. Ah, those were the days, when the craggy old subs still smoked fags at their desks and we got special allowances to work with new fangled contraptions called computers (wow that makes me feel ancient!).
Vassy and I have been mates ever since and I took DD to the Gold Coast five years ago to meet him and celebrate his 50th, which was bulk fun.
I was meant to visit Vassy in New York on my way to the World Skipping Championships in Canada in 2020, but they were screwed over by COVID and I missed my chance.
Anyways, Vassy and I sipped Margaritas, ate delicious Mexican nibbles, watched a Mariachi band perform in luxurious surroundings and talked up a storm as an actual one swirled outside.
It was quite the scene at the fancy mansion, so we got to do some serious people watching too.
As for the reason we were there, Moet Hennessey has launched two expressions of the tequila in Australia – Blanco and Cristalino.
The Cristalino Tequila is so fancy they served it in Champagne glasses. Vassy reckons its the smoothest tequila he’s ever tasted and he’s offered to be my plus one whenever I need him in the future. Good man.
Well, as long as the events don’t go too late … as the oldest people in the room last night, we were stoked to slip off at 7.30pm.
Yawn. Another day begins. But it’s a Friday and I’m counting down the hours to a relatively quiet weekend.
Stay safe and have a good one.
Song of the day: Los Lobos “La Bamba” (one of the songs the mariachi band played)
housegoeshome 
I use to live in Rose Bay and recognise that house – must’ve been fun to have a stickybeak inside 🙂
I felt very glamorous!