erming

Last week could have been one of epic drinking, instead it was just heavy drinking.

On Tuesday I met up with Squirry for a couple of beers in the Crobar. This was good as usual.

On Wednesday Squirry wanted to meet up for more beer, but I declined pointing out I had a company drinks night the next day.

On Thursday the company drinks night got cancelled and my liver rejoiced. As they pointed out we'd been out on the company quite a bit this month.

Friday was a day of rushed drinks. After work I headed to the Boston Arms to see Catfight. I got there and ordered a drink only to find that I was the only punter in there for quite a while. Paul wasn't responding so I thought it was going to be another lonely evening. I was half way through my pint when Paul arrived and said they were in Aces and Eights and to drink up and join them. I rushed the half pint and joined them. At Aces and Eights I found Paul who bought me a drink. I joined Mags and the guitarist from Catfight. We chatted a little with Paul then Samara came over to point out the first band were on. The ladies dashed off to the gig leaving Paul and I to rush our drinks. I can't remember how many bands there were that night as I spent a good chunk of the evening talking to Alan and Paul, but Casino 13 were great and yet again Samara and Monica Squirrel joined them on stage for one number.

Catfight were the headliners and were not bad, though they handled Samara forgetting the lines to their new song quite well. Afterwards Mags apologised for it not being a good gig. I wasn't sure if the others were going on to Big Red or Voodoo but I ran out of time as it was nearly last tube time, so off I dashed home.

Saturday was a day of a silly number of things on. It was Pauline's birthday meal; Jonny's flatwarming; Stella's hag do and a few old friends were going to Vagabonds. I thought if I was up early enough I'd go to Jonny's flatwarming then go to Vagabonds, meeting Kals along the way. The first bit of the plan went askew when I was late out of the bath and mum had gotten ingrediants for a stir fry. This is stuff that tends to go off if left overnight so I thought I'd better stay. I was worried when I saw a few messages from Jonny online and wondered if anyone made it there. Looking at photos I'm not sure he could have fitted anyone else in there.

I got to Vagabonds to find Kals waiting outside chatting to Paul Sticks and co. Eventually there was an announcement they'd gotten the float, at which point I realised I only had £20 on me. They'd closed the nearby cashpoint so it took a while to find a working one. Afterwards went in and chatted to people. Laura, John and Dave arrived and I chatted to them for a while. I was on the vintage ale which although £5.05 a bottle is good value as with it's syrupness and high strength you don't drink many of them. There were quite a few other people I'd not seen in a while. I chatted to James Rattue who asked after mum, and Sophie who was only slightly more talkative than usual. I found one problem of trying to involve her in conversations - she is quietly enough spoken I couldn't make out what she was saying above the background music. Music wise there was some good stuff, though Paul Sticks justifiably asked me where I was for Republic especially as he said he played all my requests (of which I made 6 or so). He didn't seem impressed by me falling asleep, though I guess he should be used to that excuse from Alan by now. I was surprised to see Ade and his missus, so joined them. They had other conversations but mentioned something about Zeitgeist for lunch which sounded good to me.

The end came and I told Sonny that Susan and I would show her where the bus left from. We got there and a bus was soon there and in my slightly sleepy state I found we were soon at Manor House where we got on a busy bus the rest of the way home.

Sunday I was up and bathed and called Squirry who was busy shopping. I called Ade and he said 4:30 at Zeitgeist so I phoned Squirry and tried to tempt her there but she was in the wrong place for getting there easily. Damned, especially as Ade is curious about her. SO off I toddled to Zeitgeist and got to Waterloo and couldn't remember the number of the bus it had been that long since I'd last been there! Eventually I got to Zeitgeist and said hi to Juergen who looked like he was doing the accounts. I got a drink for Ade and I thena little later asked about food. We'd both been tempted by the day's special - pork steak with mushroom sauce and roast potatos, which was a positive bargin at £5. We were also tempted by Goulash soup for starters aswell. Ade kindly got the meal 3 times and wouldn't accept any money for it! Food as usual took a while but we were given an apetiser - a saussage on a cocktail stick each and a shot of curry sauce to drink. Interesting and tasted great. Goulash soup was different than I'm used to but tasted great. The main course was delicious as was all the Weihenstephan dunkel it got washed down with. After a while it was time to go and I spotted a bus coming down the street so I dashed off to hail it for the others.

We got the bus and about 4 mins later were in Vauxhall bus station. We caught the tube back and soon Ade and his missus were getting off the tube. The day got better when I got home as mum had left out half a Tiramisu for me. Brilliant.

Mum does a lot of gardening and when she was under the canopy working at her potting table she couldn't understand why the wren was making such a comotion on the other side of the canopy. Anyway one day she looked up and found the wrens had built a perfectly formed nest almost directly over her head. Whenever she was in the garden there they were complaining but sometimes they hopped in through the gap in the plastic then flew out along the canopy. Mum liked wrens and thinks the way they have their little tail vertical is very sweet.

Anyway in the last few days she saw a little head and sholders peer out of the nest then when it spotted her go in. Mum was getting all clucky at the prospect of baby wrens in the garden.

This morning mum inspected the garden and all was fine. She went out a couple of hours later and the wrens nest was in tatters and the bulk of it on the floor. Mum thinks a cat climbed onto her potting table and got at the nest. She just hopes the babies had flown first. Mum was still a bit upset in the evening.

On Friday after work I headed to koko to see they might be giants. I got there about an hour after doors opened and the place was packed. I was warned by Ashleigh about drinks prices so was relieved to find a can of Bulmers cider was £2.50.

I found a place where I could just about see the stage and people all around seemed to be with people and having people to talk to.

All of a sudden after about 40 mins the lights went down and on came the band. They were great, but it was a bit spoiled by a woman who was about 4 feet away who talked to her boyfriend through nearly everything. I eventually thought all the tall people were in front of me at the gig, I kept hearing this woman's ceaseless wittering so I'd go and find somewhere on the balconies to see the band.

I explored going higher and higher till I found a bar. I went higher still and found while I couldn't see the stage there was a very comfy looking leather sofa with a seat free. My feet were not feeling great so I went for the sofa option. THe gig sounded great and they had the sock puppets on. What surprised me was I now was feeling thirsty so went to the nearby bar that is by the roof terrace. The can of Bulmers cost me £5.40 - ouch. The other thing that surprised me was they played birdhouse in your soul before they went off stage. They played 2 encores and were great.

Afterwards I headed for home thinking I had to be up early the next morning.

This Thursday
8pm
De Hems, Soho.
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/74/745/De_Hems/Soho

Sunday

On Sunday I was up late - bathed and ate then caught up online. I then looked up how far Grenwich was on TFL Journey planner and was dismayed to find over an hour at best. I was tempted to not bother but the clincher was Sue wasn't out the night before where as Kelly had been.

I headed over there and was soon waiting for a train to leave. It was easy to get to the Grenwich Union pub (that I think have been to before). Drinks were good but very pricey - the nice stuff was more than a fiver a pint even for stuff from their own brewery.

Saw the birthday girls (Kelly and Sue) and joined them. More people turned up over the evening and we had a great time. Twas good to see Paul and Neil (Sue's flatmates). At closing time I was the first to leave and headed to the station. First train was in 7 mins time, 2nd in 37 mins time. Good timing and one of the reasons I don't like travelling on commuter railways - miss a train and you can have a lengthy wait.

Still made it home and got a kebab. It was a nice evening but bloody far away from home (which put Ashleigh off going).

On Friday I went to work feeling drunk (quite a few people felt rough). I started sobering up about 11:30 and thought that I'd get a nice Katsu curry for lunch as some slightly spicy slightly salty food was the way to go. I felt a lot better after eating that.

The afternoon passed and Phil + Kelly seemed interested in going to the Medieval late at the British Museum, but then Phil changed his mind as he was too shattered. At 6:10 Ashleigh and I ambled across town to the British Museum (it was nearer than I thought). There we saw them introducing the knights for a tournament. We got bored and went in passing Jen going out. We went to get a drink and looked round to see mum having the same idea heading for the drink stand. Mum hates drinking standing up so the three of us sat down drinking. Mum was talking to Ashleigh quite a bit about Sushi cat and her families Boxer dogs. While sat there the reenactor people passed us going downstairs to a beating drum, so we followed them. We saw a few stands, but there wasn't that much interesting.

We went up to eat medieval food and I wasn't bothered. We joined a few people there and they all chatted to mum as well as us. Jon tried to interest us in his hand made chainmail bracelets. We then all went to hear Canterbury Tales and the room was full. The excerpt we heard was great and theatrical. Afterwards we went to look at medieval hair. Things seemed to be closing so after a toilet break we went outside. They were doing dance demonstrations. We chatted to Darren who was with his missus, then we watched the rest of the dances. They were trying to get everyone to join in, but while they had something like 1-200 women decide to have a go I think all the men chickened out of it. The professionals tried to drag men up but I don't think they had a lot of luck.

We left then and said goodbye to Ashleigh before mum and I headed for home.

At home I had something to eat then got changed, bimbled around a bit then headed to Schattenspiel. I got there about 11:15 and the blokes on the door said are I sure I wanted to go in as it was only open for 10 more mins. I thanked them, chatted about things for a while then headed to Big Red where I had a couple of pints. One of the barmaids called me darling. Spotted Tom's mate Jo but she appeared to be with a bloke so I stayed clear. She said hiya when she was going to the toilet, which was something. It was now 2am so I headed for home.

On Wednesday I had a German lesson

Yes, I am still keeping up the lessons, and soon am going to start doing more outside of the lessons.

This week we did the usual what happened at the weekend so we described Pauline's wedding and we looked at Cecile's pictures of the wedding. Florian reckoned it looked great, particularly the canal boat cruise.

We then translated the intro to Neverworld? by Neil Gaiman. Then that was it.

Monday I walked in to the office to see my friend Ashleigh being shown round with someone else (our new tester). When Ashleigh visited our bit of the office she found that she knew Phil.

The day passed with me solving a few problems and being surprised to find that something I'd worked on but had no ideas about appeared to be working in one area. Got clobbered by our head tester to see if she could get me to fix a load of problems on something I don't know about and have never dealt with, but I'm non the wiser and not getting any help on it as it is.

After work Ashleigh and Phil headed to the crobar by bike and I caught the bus. We got there to find Squirry with a large pile of photos she was trying to divide between elephant (from Copenhagen) and non Elephant photos. We had a couple of beers and during that time we found there was a band in the back room then called it a night.

I didn't go out on Friday night despite temptations as I wanted to make sure my skin looked good for Pauline's wedding.

On Saturday I had a German lesson at noon (which had been postponed from Wed) which was not too bad. I then came home and ate then hopped in the bath. Twas a nice relaxing bath, then got ready. Mum reckoned we needed to allow 1.5 hours to get to the ceremony which I thought was a tad early.

We left and were hungr on route so I bought a giant choccie chip biscuit. We arrived at the place 40 mins early or so and found to our amazement Pauline was already there! She is usually one of the latest people I know! Pauline's mum, her three bridesmaids and a few others were there. We had to keep an eye out for Aran to make sure that he didn't round the corner and see PAuline. The inevitable happened so mum and I chatted to him with some of his friends.

The room was then free so we went up and it was a lovely lilac colour. Almost matched Pauline's dress. We sat down and I chatted to Simon, waved to a few people and then was joined by Susan. Susan said they knew which room she was going to (pauline's friends are quite distinctive).

The wedding started with some either Clannad or Enya then the bridesmaids walked in. I was bemused to note Flumpy was a bridesmaid. Then a while later Pauline came in. SHe looked radiant. The ceremony, like a lot of civil ceremonies, was quite quick and before I knew it Pauline and Aran were walking out. What was interesting was Aran had a best woman. We all chatted in the corridor for quite a while, then we went outside for photos.

The goth crowd then walked from the registry office to Regent's canal, where a boat was waiting for us. This was a lovely boat complete with tiny bar and open sided smoking area at the front. It had a white ribon toed around the front like on bridal cars. Eventually we were all on then we had the safety briefing and set off. The route was Paddington -> Kensal green -> Camden -> Paddington. This was going to take several hours, and the buffet appeared from the kitchen in stages. The bar was tiny but well thought out and luckily quite well stocked. Mum and I sat next to Kathy and Karl for quite a bit of the time chatting away. Mum chatted to loads of people and seemed to be getting along quite well with Pauline's mum. Whenver we passed a pub or another boat there was a lot of waving going on.

There were the speeches by Aran's best woman and Pauline's sister. There was some dancing and good conversation though the music was a little quiet for dancing. Spent a long time chatting to Danny about music and parents etc. Dean commented on me being single as bringing my mum as my +1, but I didn't have a +1 and mum scored the invite in her own right (I know she visited PAuline quite often when she had her hip ops).

Mum hopped off the boat at Camden as it was very late for her and there were still a lot of people on the boat for the trip to Camden. I saw a Heron which looked a little scruffy, then all too soon we were at Paddington. Someone already married made a mad dive for the bouquet and caught it then after a telling off the bouquet was rethrown and Georgie caught it.

We walked to the station afterwards, and some people went to Invocation but I went home. It had been a phenomenal day.

On Saturday I was just about to eat dinner when Squirry called wondering if I fancied a beer. The trouble was in an hours time I wanted to be at the gig so I declined.

I got to Angel station and bumped into a few people I knew. I waited for Scott then headed to the Lexington. Grabbed a drink (ouch at the prices) then it was time to go upstairs. Upstairs had good aircon, but it was set on full blast. I grabbed a seat at the back and had to sit on my hands to stop them from freezing.

A while later The Ghost of Lemora came on. They were a band that in the past I thought pleasant enough but not good enough to bother getting cds by. It has also beena few years since I last saw them, and what can I say they were pretty damned good - they seem to have an energy and vibrancy about them that was previously lacking.

In the break got chatting to Psyche before going down the front for Simon Henkler. This turned out to be just Simon with a guitar. His songs were good and obviously as a founding Mission guitarist his guitar playing was good. Twas also interesting to see he played the entire gig on an acoustic guitar. It was good though towards the end 3 members of Dawn Razor who were 15 feet away were drowning out Simon by their chatting. Had a quick word and they were quieter. Simon was a bit silly for going on a 3 day tour without any merchandise, but in manor and accent reminded me of Squirry's mate Michael.

There was then a break then on came the Eden House. They also seem to have evolved and the songs have gotten more powerful in their live performances. The new songs were as good as the old ones, but as with a lot of eden house gigs it came very close to be being ruined by pyramid formers. This time I didn't keep getting shoved by them, but one of them fell narrowly missing my head when he did so. Somedays I think some bystander is going to get badly injured by their actions at gigs. I was somewhat bemused that he hit his head on the stage and got carted out unconscious.

During the gap between main set and encore I dashed to the toilets only to be joined seconds later by the drummer of the band who discovered it isn't the best of venues to wear socks to the toilet. Due to the violinist later deciding he needed to go the encore was only one song.

Afterwards we headed to Vagabonds by bus (I prefer to go by tube as I know where I am then), but the journey passed well till the bus went on diversion. Despite being late enough to the club it was borderline worth going it was a good night. Got a signed copy of Natasha's book on goth, had only 2 beers (ok they were the vintage ale) and did a lot of talking to people. Later on I went downstairs and found that there were few people but I had to dance to Swamp thing (despite having a beer and a carrier bag on me).

At the end I walked to the bus stop with Susan and spent the bus journey chatting to her on the way home.