06:34pm, Wednesday 30 Jul 2003
Song of the Day: Coldplay - God put a smile upon your face
(Love this song.. the guitar riff gets me)
London is miserable at the moment - yesterday is rained and I must have been the only happy person here.
The weather is actually really good, low 20s which means I can wear my turtle neck jumpers and assorted heavy clothing, whilst my workmates are still trying to get away with summerwear.. bliss :)
Last weekend was completely manic. I went to the Walkabout in Shepherd's Bush (apparently the worst of all of them!) with Liz to watch the Australia vs NZ rugby match. Got there at midday, too late for the match (boo hoo), but still plenty of time to be drinking. The Walkabout is a chain of antipodean pubs, housing mostly drunk Aussies, Kiwis and Saffas (South Africans) which is where its disgraceful reputation comes from. Being a match between Australia and NZ (and the traditional competition between them) it was a bit mad. Guys were running around in bare chests and painted faces, much alcohol was being consumed, and the entire place turned into a sweaty, heaving mass of pure unadulturated sin. It was excellent :)
I spent several hours on the dance floor with Liz after drinking copious amounts of alcohol and by about 5pm I was ready to go home and pass out. Its very weird to be dancing as early as 5pm.. it feels wrong somehow.
Anyway, Liz was all for kicking on and mentioned that she had been invited to a pub crawl in Southend (about an hour from London). By this stage our group had grown a bit and everyone was looking to go, so I dropped the comfort zone and went bugger it, I'll go too.
The train ride sobered us all which was just plain wrong. Southend is probably a lovely place (I only saw it under darkness, and the next day during the hungover train ride back) but that night all we cared about was drinking more. The good thing about Southend is that its miles from London - literally and figuratively. People are nice there.. they smile. The pubs are filled with authentic English people, old guys with thick coke bottle glasses, and a guy known only as Sleeping Andy whose claim to fame was that after a few pints early in the night, he'd lie down on the couch nearest the pool table and pass out. We were there at 11pm, and there he was - sound asleep in the middle of a noisy pub.
We kicked on all over the place, by midnight I was absolutely exhausted. I had been drinking pretty solidly for about 12 hours, my calves ached from dancing and I just wanted to go home. Home that night was this B&B down the road, and could have doubled for the set of Fawlty Towers. A good nights sleep however.. but the next day.. urgh. Oh the hangover!
Still, you gotta do something a bit wild every now and then.. right?
Coming back on the train was the worst - it was so bright and sun-shiney on Sunday that I wanted to throw up from it all. I didn't have sunglasses, and was still wearing my smokey, horrible clothes from the night before. Everyone had a good time and I suspect that this won't be the first time we end up doing something mad like that. Naturally, it absolutely killed my wallet..but bugger it, thats what its there for right?
I went out to dinner last night in Mayfair and sitting at the next table was this bunch of really really drunk barristers (guys) and their office manager (a girl).
It was a Lebanese restaurant so I stuck to the things I knew (kibbeh's and dolmades.. my first in months! yay!) however always up for trying something new I was offered a piece of lamb that the next table ordered. I ate it, it was kind of ok then they told me what it was.. lambs testicles. I kid you not. It was on the menu, fair and square. God!
They started up a conversation with us and they asked me what I do blah blah blah. I told them what I tell everyone - I'm an IT person currently stuck in a PA role. So she offers me a job to come work with them as they're looking for a PA. *groan* Why does this not happen with IT-related jobs?! I could get a permanent job here with no problems whatsoever, if I wanted to be a secretary my whole life. So depressing. Drank lots of wine and ended up in a bar called O'Neil's which is Irish (duh) and one of the coolest bars I've been to in London.
I guess you could say my sobriety (or lack thereof) is a worry, but otherwise, things are looking up here. Today I actually feel happy. Thats good enough for now.
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