Please sir, I want some more

It's been a bit of an issue with me lately, that whenever C and I go out for lunch/dinner, usually for someone's birthday, I find myself becoming incredibly bored. Same people, same drinking, ordering, eating, drinking, fighting over the bill, drinking, going home tired and $100 poorer. And for what? It strikes me, when the main course is delivered and I look around at everyone wearing their same 'going to a restaurant' uniform, talking the same bullshit about work, how good or otherwise the wine is, and generally reverting to characatures of themselves, that this bon vivant lifestyle we kid ourselves we're living on these occasions, is really pretty bland, totally structured and rather mundane. The whole idea of sitting down for dinner is so arbitrary. I take my first bite of atlantic salmon/scotch fillet beef/risotto, look around and think 'Is this all there is?' I have decided to do something about it. I will not have a dinner or a party for my birthday early next year. I will invite people to share an experience, be active and maybe even learn something. It will be one of the following ideas:

• Book some tennis courts for an afternoon. Eat scones & jam
• Orgainise a tour guide to take the group through the museum, or latest exhibish at the art gallery
• Go bushwalking (Waterfall gully to Mt Lofty. Oranges & sandwiches at the top)
• Bowling and beers (an old favorite)
• Lockup in an amusement arcade (one for the boys)
• A trip to the zoo
• A walking tour of one of the more historic parts of the city (North Adelaide?)

I floated the idea to C yesterday and she quickly adopted it as her own (I always know it's a good suggestion when she wants to take credit for it). She's thinking of organising a day's sailing for her birthday next year. Any other suggestions?