the big (well, kind of middle-sized) farewell dinner

Phi finally moved his stuff today and then came back for dinner. He actually brought his new flatmate along, which was a tad cheeky I thought, even if he did ask first. I had to laugh though - when I teasingly told the guy that he'd stolen my flatmate, he said that he hadn't asked, but that Phi had commented on how much money he could save there. Apparently some old lady owns the place and they pay $50 rent a week, which for Canberra is ludicrously cheap. The reason it made me laugh, though, is because when he said he was leaving I got some kind of bullshit spiel about him looking after himself more and being more independent, wah wah wah. Of course it all comes down to money in the end. Whatever.

Oh by the way...mystery solved. He needed a place to store his enormous spare car bumpers - hence the sudden return to chatty, helpful, non-moody Phi. Okay maybe that's not really the reason, but the difference in him has been pretty profound. Again, whatever. It was nice to have the old Phi back for a month, no matter what prompted it. I'll remember him more fondly now and hopefully that last month also reminded him of better times.

I made a totally yummy lasagne and an okay Devil's Food Cake. I thought long and hard about some silly thing to give him to remember me by. I wanted something that represented last year when we joked around a lot and made good memories. In the end I gave him his very own Magic 8-ball. The one I found when we went garage saling has been a running joke ever since I got it. It's also been astoundingly accurate in the answers it's given. Let's hope his new one will serve him so well. He seemed to like it a lot.