mid teen times

OK, so it's Tuesday and I did something last night that wasn't stay home and faff around on the internet or tidy up. Consequently the flat needs some serious work, but I can deal with that another day and Mark did have a go.
Anyway, back to the point. I'm fed up of living life one weekend to the next so I'm grabbing every day and making it worth while or, to quote Mark when he was hungover and going into work on a Saturday "let's go kick today in the balls." So I met Mirry-anda-the-panda last night. We had a nostalgic walk along Whitecross Street having met outside the old Accapella builing (which isn't there anymore) had a look around Waitrose, it sits where Safeways once lived. We remembered Clair or Ferret stealing vodka and all the rest of the 'crusers' knocking around there or Snowy park. It was a nice trip down memory lane. We bought some Gu desserts and a dressed lobster which we took to the pub to eat. I introduced Mirry to Sailor Jerrys rum and we discovered an alcoholic ginger beer, it's not as good as Stones alcoholic ginger beer but I'm not in Kansas any more and the Wizard of Oz is unlikely to get in contact me ever again so the chances of my finding that are slim indeed.

We talked about mutual friends some we're in contact with some we're not. Some aren't even our friends anymore. Her 'new' relationship. It feels like not much has changed since we were 15 and in 'Caddis Flae' oh, except she has a boyfriend now and I'm not recruiting drummers with my feminine charms. We stayed in the pub 'til about 22:30 ish, we'd bought some weed and sat outside (across from the police station!) smoking which meant our conversation tailed off and went off on to tangents so making much less sense but laughing a great deal more. We promised we would meet up much more regularly and I'm pushing her to meet her new beau so I'm hoping that will happen soon.

I got home tired but happy, knowing I can still call a friend and just 'hang out' feeling like a teenager again. I suppose it helps that I was with a friend that I've known since I was a teenager and we were doing the same sort of stuff (substitute the lobster for a bag of chips and the pub for, well, Snowy park or a concealed bench in the Barbican centre) as we were doing back then.

*Also swap the 'music' we made in our band for the music we played on the jukebox

Happy Birthday MpB!

Last weekend was a great one. I don't have time to go into everything in detail but I'll do the itinery and fill in the gaps later.
Friday: Sam Smiths pub with Marks workmates and Dave.
Angel for 'do you remember the first time'-never made it, Steam passage for last orders.
Chip shop Mark has a need for excessive salt.
I fell asleep almost instantly Mark and Dave sat up chatting til dawn.
Saturday: Chelmsford. Pitch and putt with Mark, Dave and Luke then on to Romford dogs. Mark had a £40+ win-lucky sod, well it is his birthday weekend. Home. must. sleep.
Sunday: Dave and Jadey came to London. London museum. Wheterspoons for dinner. Then Two Brewers in Whitecross street. I pointed out where we'll be living on a map in the city-wish we were there already. We walked Dave and Jadey to Liverpool street then walked home.

It doesn't sound like much when it's put like that, but trust me it was well worth it!

My new friend

There were a few mistakes, a few light things to do and a bit of indecision that wasn't all mine for a change.


Phew, what a weekend it was.



Friday I went out with a friend of mine from the pub that I work in, we drunk Ale from Sussex and chatted. It's nice to get to know new people and Jon is one of the people that I'm genuinely interested in, rather than someone that I'm forced into knowing and have to tolerate (certain colleagues, friends of friends or friends of family members). The only real problem here is that the only time I've spent with him has been when I'm serving behind the bar or when we're both on the 'correct' side of the bar and then we get shitfaced. We both seem to enjoy the really strong pale ales so drunkardness sneaks up on us. And Jon does a disappearing act after a left hand milk stout. It's one of the things I like about him as I've been known to just leave once I've had enough-I'm not big on goodbyes when I'm drunk, they usually lead to sloppy kisses and the classic "You know you're my best friend, hic" or " I really love you man!" And it seems that even when I'm beyond remembering my own name I just know that this is not a dignifyed thing to do so I sneak off too. We had another of those nights that ends in me playing pac-man chasing a take away curry around the kitchen floor because Mark's put it on a plate but I'm too drunk to lift my head off of the floor so I push the plate forward with every bite I attempt.



Saturday we went to Ricmond park-WOW it's even prettier than I remembered, we saw the deer, the first time was from a distance, and we tried to get pictures with our phones and although we could see them quite clearly the camera picked them up as about 3 pixels on a screen of green and blue (The Rigante colours). Still it was a magical sight. We walked on through the park and came to a lake with a bench between it and an overgrown meadow so we sat and had lunch. Saw some beautiful blue mayflies and inspected a really ugly insect that landed on my ruck sack. As we got up to leave we saw the deer again, a lot closer this time and they were coming towards us. Some had anklers and they varied from 1 to 7 pointers, there were colour variations some being quite dark fawn and others quite bright whites. They were all beautiful and the anklers looked like they would feel like velvet to touch. I thought it looked sumptuous, Mark said the feel of velvet makes him itch. I shall put the pictures on here at somepoint when I play with this blog at home. They got closer and closer and I started to get a bit nervous-well they are a bit like small horses and one of them did try to eat me when we were in Wales. So we tried to back off but they kept coming, bloody hell we're beng surrounded by carnivorous deer! It all ended well when I hit one on the head with a digestive. Deer seem to like digestives-who knew?

Fat ladies in floral print make me feel sick and I've seen two of them today.

The most horrific was the one I saw through a pub window, she was about two feet wide with a short garish flower print dress on that had a hole cut out of the back so that everyone could see her pale, clammy, fat, sweaty back. I'm not being cruel, this is what it actually looked like and it made me feel queesy. I think the cruel person here was who ever said to this person "go on, wear it, you look alright." Cruel to her and cruel to the rest of Upper Street. I felt strongly enough about it at the time to point her out to Mark who turned around just in time to see her take a tumble as she crossed the road out side screen on the green. And I feel strongly enough about it now to dedicate a blog entry to it. Not a very good one I admit, but still, this has taken time to write when I could be restlessly tossing and turning and keeping Mark awake.

The other one wasn't nearly as dramatic, but I was pished by the time I saw her and full up on vegetable and goats cheese lasagne. She just made me remember the first one and now it's an image I don't think I'll ever forget!

I hate working Fridays!

Pub work is lame.

That is all.

The most boring night of my life

Was last night at the pub. I was working not drinking and socialising with friends although I've had a few nights that have come close (meeting old friends that you no longer have anything in common with and end up having stifled conversations about public transport or the weather).

But last night was verging on painful. I wasn't with my favourite people, none of the customers were even vaguely interesting and the main manager was supervising. Yes he has some good and un-pc jokes on his phone which he shares with us, but that can only last so long. I happened to know my arch nemisis was drinking around the corner and I hadn't gotten around to phoning the pubs in the local area as part of 'pub watch' ie theif in the area and I walked past the bitch on my way to work, which really pissed me off. I tried not to think about her and suceeded, but the boredom that followed was so intense I almost wish I'd allowed myself to be angry instead. I had half an hour break at about 20:40 and couldn't find anywhere to go so I had a cigerette then loitered around the bar. By 21:15 I was back behind the bar and had reached my capacity for boredom, by 21:40 I was the most bored it is humanly possible to be and there was nearly two hours left of my shift. TWO HOURS!!!!!

Between then and the end, I tried to list in hy head all the nice things Mark has done for me over the last 18 months. I got as far as the apple danish he got me for breakfast a week or so ago but the intrisic and repeating boredom had settled in by then and I got bored with that.
Then I rememberd the episode of the young ones called bored where Vivian puts his foot through the telly which put me in mind of Bottom-I'm currently amking my way through seris 1-3 on DVD so I started humming the men behving badly theme tune, this is some strange link between the two seris' that I have made in my own head, I think it's a prompt as to which comedy seris I should acquire next.

And now I'm at my day job, the system has crashed again and the boredom is edging it's way back. But at least here I can blog and perhaps buy men behaving badly on Amazon!

Monday, Monday

I didn't get to Super Picnic Sunday, it didn't happen.

Friday was fun, drinks with colleagues then to the Gladstone to see Tom Rodwell again, he never disappoints and this was no different. I stayed in the pub until the bitter end and had a little chat with Tom, he even gave me some careers advice! I wasn't drunk at all, which is surprising because I'd had wine at work then leffe in the pub and either of those on their own usually floors me. I think it might have been the slight intimidation I felt from all the directors that were there, it wouldn't be a good idea to get drunk and start shrieking.

Saturday was shit.
I was left in the cold.
I didn't get the shopping I wanted for Super Picnic Sunday.
The garage next door have a sound system that shakes the foundations of the flat.
I had to go to work.
I was working with my least favourite people.
I was foolish and gave my number to a guy that wants to take me out.
although he left shortly afterwards I know he'll come back, he's asked after me when I've not been working and now I've...

...oh, shit.

I shall send a message declining, I don't know exactly what I'll say, I'll make something up. Don't give me a reason to go, just don't I'll finish us. I know I will.

Sunday was better, I nearly told Mark what's bugging me. But I couldn't formulate the words. However I imagined myself saying it seemed to send the wrong message. I don't want him to hate me but I know from experience that it won't be my defences he jumps to. I'm not the one who started this, and I can see the sneakyness that he can't, the sideways looks checking if I'm around, the guilt that shows a hug means more than it should. It's not for me to point it out again, I'll be left with and "I told you so" and a broken heart. We went over to Mark's brothers for dinner Kelly had made home made quiche and some lovely potatoe salad. We watched too much telly and Justin and I had a sly smoke and because it was both of us Mark didn't judge me as much as he would have at home.

It was a long journey back, quite a long walk to the station at that end (and we got slightly lost which meant my idea that we should aim for the second from last train was a worthy one) then a long walk from London Bridge to home. We didn't want to go straight to sleep and so watched a bit more Red Dwarf-the later series, not my favourites. I fell asleep during the second episode and Mark woke me to ask me if I was asleep.

A weekend where I want to be

All of my favourite things and a few surprises! Friday, working late, BUT it was fun. I spent the last 40 minutes or so getting ready to go out with Rhiannon-doing the girly chat thing about make up and dresses, I wouldn't usually admit to liking that sort of thing but no-one reads this so I can on here! That and I haven't done it for such a long time. So I'm made up, smell nice and have a new dress on when Mark comes to pick me up. We have an itinary and the first stop is a restaurant that we used to live near, an old favourite you might say. Baby aubergines all round. Yummy.

We feel full and sleepy, but there's no time for that, we're going to the Gladstone to see Tom Rodwell he's a musician that does blues/gospel/slave songs with a funky twist. The bar was heaving, so we got drinks and fought our way through to a corner at the back where we had a bit of room to dance although I didn't quite have enough room to get into it, being laden with winter coats and bags I knocked someones pint all over someone else, oopsie. They were very nice about it, but I felt terrible and bought another drink for the person who'd lost theirs but could only apologise to the person that was now wearing the original pint.

Dancing, chatting and laughter followed and we left there with big happy grins and not enough alcohol in our systems to slow us down the next day, I've got a surprise to go to!

OK so it may not be the most romantic idea for Valentines day but it suited me just fine. I was surprised with two tickets to go and see a division two team play. Leyton Orient vs Crewe Alexandria. Well, what a match!

I love watching anything live, be it music, sport, plays, ANYTHING. The atmosphere is wonderful and the excitement is contagious, especially when you see a lower division side, the supporters are there through geuine love of the game and their team not glory hunters that follow the big clubs. Plus we couldn't afford to go and see any of the big clubs on a regular basis-there may be a hint of bitterness there, but not alot!

We got there, surprisingly it really did only take the 20 or so minutes the TfL website said it would, consequently we had time to cue up twice before the game, once for the tickets we originally bought and once to change them around for the home supporters area-there was a health and safety issue with that part of the stands. Anyway we got it just as the whistle blew. The North and South stands were singing the football chants and after a while we had picked up the words and were singing too. The O's scored 12 minutes in and I got carried away with it all and jumped up whooping and cheering-ohh, the joy! Crewe scored shortly afterwards and I actually felt a pang of disappointment as the ball hit the net, then jubilation as the whistle went a second time to signal it was disallowed for being offside.

The O's won, 1:0 and the Crewe fans went away without a smile as it probably wasn't a pleasent journey from where ever Crewe is and they just saw their team lose and have a goal disallowed. Gutted.

Well, you may think that this is enough excitement and activity for one weekend, but we're still going! It's on to the Mucky pup to meet Raven and play pool and get Native American spiritual names, I'm Princess Red Sky-I think the 'Princess' part is a little pretencious, but I didn't pick it and Red Sky on it's own souns like the begining of a proverb. Marks is Shining Rain, his mum reminds him later that they used to live in a house called rain sparkle?-I'll have to check that. This bit gets a little blurry because, in keeping with the theme of the weekend, I found my absolute favourite spirit of all time-I really cannot emphasise this enough-Frangelico. Ahhh, that hazel nutty goodness with a kick of fresh lime, it makes me drool! Raven says to me, quite out of the blue "he really loves you, you should keep him, he's got a good aura" I smile and say that I think I might just keep him because I love him hopelessly too.

I am not getting soppy here, besides I'm nearly finished this epic blog post. End of the evening comes and we say our goodbyes, take a weird route home-up to Angel then back on ourselves to Old St get some hot food and wait in a Pret-a-mange doorway to eat it and wait for the bus, an hour later still no bus so we walk. I was looking forward to chatting and listening to music in the kitchen when we got back but we gave up waiting for the bus and walked so we fell into bed and slept through till the afternoon.

Epic weekend, epic blog post, epic treat for me to live up to. Bugger, now what do I follow that lot with?

Brightonomicon

This weekend was a fun one, a night and two days away by the seaside!
We got the train early on Saturday to get to Brighton for midday, watching out the window on the way for evidence that the snow is getting thicker, but it wasn't. To the B&B to wait for the room, not for too long but when you have to use the loo, 10 minutes hoovering the room seems excessive. We're not even up the stairs when Jadey hears us and calls down, we didn't hear her. Unabashed the phone then rings, it's Dave, Mark is on the toilet so I answer. "weheardyoucomeinbutyoudidn'tansweruscallareyoureadydoyouwanttogoout?" "Well, give us a few minutes to get ready and let Mark get off the toilet" "OKwe'reonthetopfloor,room6whichoneareyouinwe'llcomedownin10minutes" Oh joy. "Room 3, see you in a minute."

And we did, off to wander around the sea front, and played minigolf because it is the law that you have to play minigolf when ever you go to the seaside. From winners to losers Dave, Mark, Me, Jadey. There were a few good shots and for the first two holes I looked to be the favourite but then my luck ran out.
The it was on to shopping and Brighton is a cool place to wander around, it reminds me of Camden before it turned into TCR end of Oxford St with repetitions of the same shop with the same face serving you and buying the same over-priced eccentricities that scream "I'm an individual" like the other 4000 in this box. So good record shops, nice second hand privately owned cubby holes and a big indoor market comprising of something for everyone which is snoopers paradise. This place is wik'd! you could find an outfit, and music to listen to while you're getting into it, glasses to drink from, and redecorate your kithcen and buy a hat stand from the hallway. Wonderful, wonderful! I very nearly purchased a navy blue ski suit, but settled on a beautifully cut, hand made black dress with white dots and pink poodles on it.
Phew. No time to catch your breath, we have to get on to the pub! It was a hobgoblin pub, I love them. We walked in to "Janes Addiction-Caught Stealing" which was an excellent start and it just got better and better. We were joined by some Irish loyalist fella called Ross who directed the conversation to his taste. I had to ask him to stop talking about bombs, hunger strikes and the British Army because it's Saturday night and it was getting a bit heavy, he didn't seem to mind but he didn't change the subject for very long either. So Dave and I went out for cigerettes and met another resident loon out there that had a major problem with police and joke telling-he started with the punchline.

When we left there (myself begrudgingly) the boys went to a pub near the B&B and the girllies went back to get changed and make pretty-oh and drink the vodka we had bought to make our night out a little cheaper than it may have been. After a pub or two we went on to an indie club which was really good. We danced right through till about 4am there were only a few mishaps and the only one I was directly involved in was being shoved about by the bouncers because as they stormed through our group I thought they were throwing Mark out so I asked what he'd done only to have Jabba the hut scream in my face "Don't get involved, just don't get involved" then I saw it wasn't mark and tried to apoogise that I had been mistaken and got the same thing again, I figured he was on a loop so I didn't bother trying to say anything else, just got on with dancing.

Chips on the way home from a stall on the front, a group of guys that I was (apparently) rude to but I don't remember what I said. One of them waved his arms around whilst repeating what I'd said and Mark asked him if he was a mirage! I don't remember much after that, but we got back safely and I'm assured I had the best sex of my life when we got there.
Sunday was a disapointing. We were all dragged around the shops for what seemed like days but was only a few hours, I cheered mmyself up by spending far too much money on a few things that could only be justifyed by myself to myself. Then we played pool in some dive of an arcade after about half a game we were joined by four shrieking ladies one of which had a birthday cake hat on her head and another that had huge boobs but was otherwise very plain. We had three games, I can't remember exactly but I think Mark and I lost overall.
Curry and back to their room to eat it. We won't have time to do anything else because our train is leaving soon. I spotted something on the side by the bed that, if it means what I think it means, will change the dynamic of this friendship circle and I know we'll end up stuck with the dippy end of the stick.
Train home was uneventful,it was dark so there was nothing to see out of the window and we were both surviving on only a few hours sleep, so dreaming of our own lovely soft bed, perhaps a few pages of our books and sleep at last. But when we finally arrived home the electricity had run out andthe fridge had defrosted, it took us a while to work out how to put the emergency on by which time books were out of the question, having got the lights to work we turned them all off and fell into an instant sleep that comes from utter exhaustion.

Christmas without you

So much has changed in 2008.
I've moved twice, got a (sort of) secure job and started to plan for the future-the real future not just "I want to go on holiday this year, wonder where I should go". It's all a bit scary even for me.
Well enough of non-specific hopes and dreams, how about I tell you about Christmas and new years eve?

Christmas started for me on the 24th because I spent the evening with my brother and I don't get to spend enough time with him. We went to his girlfriends house and had dinner there, nothing too special just chatting playing catch up and getting on nicely and later on watching rubbish telly and dozing on the sofa. I haven't seen him look so happy in years. I think that was the best present I could have got this or any other year. I stayed over at his flat to wake up there on Christmas day and did the visiting everyone within a five mile radius that we are related to wishing them all a merry Christmas and swapping cards and gifts. Then we seperated, he went to Nanny's for dinner and I went to my Mums where I spent the next day and a half on the sofa eating chocolate, fudge and expensive cheese with biscuits.
We started worrying aout bedsores and so decided that shopping would be the cure we needed on Saturday. We found a few shops that weren't crazy with Christmas sales shoppers trying to kill each other over a 75% discount on a sandwich toaster and I bought all the socks that I hadn't got for presents at Christmas as I had expected. Then my favourite purchase-new boots. I have to admit that I have a thing for shoes and boots. Mark says I have spent a horrific amout of money on them this year, but I think I've been quite good. They are soft leather and sooo comfy that I'm sure I'll wear them loads and so well worth the £95 price tag. Mum liked them so much she got herself a pair too-slightly different, higher heel, a bit more dressy. Then back to Mums to make sense of all the treasures we had found.
Call from Raven, "come out for drinks" "can't have too much to do" "just a quick one, I'm on your road now" "ok, meet you in half hour". Rolled home 6 hours or so later singing silly songs. Having spent the evening running for buses, playing pool, befriending small dogs and dancing with Will in an unknown pub/bar. I still don't know how we found Raven again but I was glad he was there to put me on the bus home!
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
But it did mean that I didn't set an alarm therefor didn't get up on time to go and do the second family thing in Chelmsford. Bugger, no-one seemed to mind, but I've done that twice now so I'll watch myself in the future. I'm tired of typing now so I'm going to pick up on this another time and get onto the few days between and then the fantastic New Years Eve. Again, it wasn't anything too special or loutish, but I was with some friends that I really care for and don't see enough of and so was really special for me.