What's it all about, Alfie?
September 24 
Tonight I nurse a bad headache.
It is self inflicted of course.
There are any number of reasons I can suggest for having it.
There is the 40km I have hiked this weekend, the too little water I consumed during the experience, the too many glasses of wine taken as therapy and the fitful sleep I had last night.
But I will probably just blame it on my brother. And the two pints of beer at lunch today.
One loses track of things around Adrian.
He bends the space/time continuum to his will.
He freewheels, he lingers, indulges and lounges.
His immersion in the good life is deeply hedonistic and deliciously selfish.
He could be Alfie.
While most men his age are inevitably tending to the needs of home and hearth, this confirmed bachelor remains blissfully single, his indulgent lifestyle spent flying jets, entertaining a parade of air hostesses and finding ever more interesting ways to spend his money.
I'm his sister. I like to help him.
So, despite an already pounding head this morning, I forced myself to abandon the simple pleasures of housework and a subsequent disappearance into the wormhole that is my novel writing, to assist little brother in his purposeful yet ponderous injection of funds into the economy.
How easily one succumbs to Adrian's demands!
His enduring popularity among peers, friends and a swag of ex girlfriends are testament to his comfortable charm, his honest, incisive wit and a humour of Pythonesque proportions. After years of riding shotgun, I still find myself making excuses for him, smirking at his wandering eye and unyeilding appreciation of the female form; unruffled by today's slow and almost painful deliberation over shirts in Pierucci, an hour long discussion of all that is Apple in David Jones and thirty minutes spent cruising car magazines in the Pitstop. Relentless testing of aftershaves in Myer is simply cream on the cake.
"I want it all," his lifestyle cries, "And I want it smothered in chocolate and whipped cream."
Don't we all...
And Adrian, lathered in delicious excess, epitomises this bon vivant.
It tends to make others envious.
"Don't you think you're being selfish?" queried one of his female friends, "Not getting married?"
"Quite the opposite!" laughed my brother, "I'm being most unselfish!"
Indeed. Adrian likes to share himself around.
Although dedicatedly self indulgent, he has dropped all to race to the side of a friend in need, honoured a promise to the bitter end and often puts his hand in his pocket deeply and selflessly, displaying a generosity of spirit that acts as glue in all his relationships.
Yes, there is a warm and wonderful man beneath the surface of this deliciously immature little boy.
It is why he is not only my brother but my very dear friend.
So when he suggested we stop for a Leffe Blonde at the Belgian Beer Cafe I had no intention of passing up the opportunity for some fun and games.
For there is nothing we both like more than a little curveball, a splash of spontaneity and a break in the space/time continuum.
I watch his sly flirtation with the barmaid, the friendly chat with the huge Maori bloke dressed as a woman and the way he has charmingly turned one golden blonde into another, and I am infinitely grateful for my little brother.
We laugh ourselves senseless as he cranks up some cheesy 80's tunes in the car, bending the space/time continuum and several traffic codes as we hurtle back to his apartment in a Mini Cooper with wings.
A family friend once remarked, "Adrian will never find himself a girl, because she'll never measure up to his sister."
And while I blush, disputing the implications of that, I sense a little of it is true.
Our friendship is deep and eternal and my little brother is spoiled, for he enjoys the particular license we afford our younger siblings that we can ill afford others.
Delicious time-wasting for one.
The mother of all headaches?
Well, I guess that's another...
That's what it's all about, isn't it?
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Reader Comments (28)
I need a playmate like you minx. I think you're what its all about.
your brother sounds very, very cool... not much of a suprise there given the degree of relation. too bad about the headache, but leffe is definitely worth it, especially with great company. maybe one day you can make a post sharing adrian's suave, sleek incantations to the female sex so we can learn a thing or too from the he-minx (if there is such a thing)
Thank you Eddie.
I believe I am a perfect playmate. I have been Adrian's loyal companion his entire life, obviously.
I've honed my skills and learned such things as patience. It is it's own reward, apart from Leffe Blonde, of course..
xox
Indeed Raffi, Adrian is very, very cool.
He makes it his business to be, in fact, which of course he can afford to do, given his lifestyle...
We enjoy being a part of each other's lives.
There is much giving and sharing.
Although I doubt he shares my headache - still throbbing...
:(
xox
I will ply the He Minx for his secrets and publish them, shall I?
beer is lunch. yummy.
Liquid lunches are always the most luscious, aren't they Whit!!
Cheers, darling!
xox
He sounds a bit of a wag your brother. Funnily enough and by a very strange twist of fate, I watched the remake of Alfie last night. That would seem to anchor your posts on Absinthe, Adrian and Alfie rather nicely.
My mate Billy in France swears by lucozade, Dioralite, and nurofen for the headache and motilium for the nausea.
Oh, he is a wag indeed Norman!
Quite the wit!
Wonderfully funny!
It's a laugh a minute, really!
Unlike the headache...
I still have it. 3 days now..
I'm getting cranky.
There is no laughing..
Lucozade, Dioralite, nurofen and motilium in hefty supply, and quickly,
please!!!
xox
It runs in the family I see - what's a male minx called?
It is most certainly in the blood, Thinista!
I'm not sure what to call a male minx, but perhaps if a minx is a "coquette", then would not a "coq" be the correct term?
Hmmm, I dare say it's appropriate in one way or another...!!
Hee!
xox
He sounds exactly like the sort of man I dated in my wayward youth. Utterly charming and thoroughly impossible. One simply can not be mad at a man so bold, so brilliant and so ballsy.
I'm sure the two of you are a deliciously dangerous combination!
This headache of which you speak has been vexing me sorely too! How can this be? A headache of international implications!
It must be stopped, immediatement!
I have declared it thusly so.
xoxo
Mistress M
He sounds like my best friend who is incorrigible and I can never get mad at him instead I'm an aider and abettor in his not-so-innocent pursuits. I think it's because if I were a guy I'd be just like that!
Sounds like a delightful chap.
In Earnest, more than Alphie, he reminds me of Algernon, always off to help mysterious Bunbury.
If he is Algy reenvisioned, his heart will remain unattached until his darling Cecily is found.
SA
One-o-Minxyness :: Yoo and yer bro have a most wonderful relationship....which i know is far beyond grand...and me thinks my 2, Zak
nMeg, will be quite the same... and so sweet of the domestix minx to jot about her brother with such admiration and love and mutually know, he is, i do believe holding out for someone that could hold-up to you... delightful. Yoo rawwwwk mzMinx! & tell yer Bro, i'm ready to take flight, tag-along & voyage on any one of his jet-setting crews (i'll take his leave-behind femmes).... ha haaaa ~julianAh, so that's where the term 'Old coq' comes from
Oh, the perfect pair! Marvellous.
No wonder you feel so earth-bound at the moment though. If my little brother was flying off all over the place I'd be positively flapping my arms as well.
My children have an uncle who has more than a touch of the naughty. I imagine when they grow older it will all seem exotic, and perhaps something to aspire to. It terrifies me..... I'll be asking for advice I'm sure.
Darling Mistress M,
I can well imagine a little minx like you charming a wag like my brother!!
He would adore you!
It is no surprise that my brother is most easily swept away by that which is most temptingly out of reach...
Ah, impossible indeed!
This headache too!
I am still vexed by it this morning, a good 72 hours after it emerged to cause me pain!
It is a horror of international proportions, it seems.
I do hope you find some relief soon!!!
xox
Magus darling,
One cannot be mad at Adrian for too long!
I can count my disputes with him on one hand, although one was rather elongated...
He is impossible - and lovable.
And he's my little bro, after all.
Alas, we understand each other too well!
There has been much aiding and abetting in our naughty alliance.
xox
Oh he is Alfie and Algy in one delicious and diabolical combination, SA.
Although my A runs from committment, his Bunburying made convenient by those "flights", there beats within him the heart of a true romantic!!
Ahh, we await the intervention of Cecily...
xox
Attention ladies and gentlemen. The flight is now boarding for a first class adventure with Captain Courageous.
It is rather fun being FO!
Encountering a parade of lovely femmes seems par for the course in such an industry, Julian!
Although sitting in his slipstream might reveal some delightful detritus, I am pleased to note that Adrian never leaves anyone behind.
He is everyone's friend and I admire him for that.
I am sure your darling little girl and boy will enjoy such a friendship! I do hope so!!
xox