Go Bananas: Getting by with a little help from my friends :-)

Had a very stressful week at work, was actually considering going into anti-social mode and declaring 2 days of hermiting. Thank God for friends who talked me out of my shell and made me realised how ridiculous I was being. Only one way to forget about work blues, and that is to surround yourself with people you love. Lots of them.

You would've thought that as an events planner, getting a big group of friends together is second nature to me. On the contrary, it is exac

tly because the nature of my work requires me to be so anally retentive 5 days a week that when it comes to my private life I usually opt to go into free fall or at least let someone else come up with a venue, work out the logistics of getting there and calculate the success rate of bringing different groups of friends to the same table (Thanks, Dionne! Just one of the many reasons why we love you!)

Saturday night was a risky experiment in fusing my diverse social circle at a single gathering. I was rather overwhelmed that my invitation returned 21 acceptances, especially as I had sent it by SMS on a whim while enjoying an afternoon gelato at Gustamente with my mature (i.e. grown up and rational, not in the sense of aged cheddar cheese) and sensible girlfriends Di, Anoushka and Eryn. They came along to my little shindig, as did the guys from my gym, Matt Squared and Max, Ross & Co. and also a few new friends to the Golden Circle.

Veteran Beijing residents Anoushka and Dionne share survival tips with newbie Pauline

I never thought I'd see Frank and John out of their sweats. Er... sitting next to another American called Frank.

Matt D looking slightly miffed at Matt K's monopoly on my attention. And the camera's.

It was only 11pm when we finished our very excellent dinner at Banana Leaf so we decided to head down to Beer Mania, one of Beijing's newest purveyors of fine Belgian beer. And as we all know, when the drinking starts that's when good behaviour ends...

Beware the Devil for He is a master shapeshifter who can take on many forms, including seemingly nice American boys andsweet Flemish nectar.

FRANKenstein -vs- Lucifer

Matt D finally cracks the mystery of those burnt out footprints, goats' heads and sacrificial virgins in his apartment.

A couple of rounds buying Belgian beers and overpriced Cosmopolitans left us all skint. We went over to Nanjie and that's when the night really began to unravel. And to think it all started off so well...