Friday, February 28, 2003

Tired and a bit bleary eyed. Probably a belated hangover from last night. Beers with Jason turned into further beers with Allan and John; and then Pete; and then pizza; and then the Oxford; and then the Barracks with lots of people. Home around 1am so not too bad. Have been wishing the day away today. Not the best thing really but it's almost hometime and therefore almost coffee with Adrian time. Pete and Tony have kept me going through the day with email missives - most everyone else I know and email regularly is on holiday today. Andy Palmer's birthday bash tonight. And then we'll see what else the evening brings...

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Thursday afternoon. 3 posts in 4 days. Surely some mistake? Soon they may even have quirky links back in them. One step at a time. Actually I went back and was reading my blog from 2 years ago - I missed Minkered's 2nd birthday whilst in a heap somewhere in Blighty: it used to be so much more fun! I'll see what I can do. Meantime... no gym last night. I said I felt like being reckless. Well not quite reckless in the end. Got home and Garry and I decided to do beers. It was fun, though I've realised why I don't really have any great desire to go back regularly to the Oxford (vile, 1 beer) or the Stonewall (viler, couldn't even bring ourselves to stay for 1 beer). I wandered home a bit merry by about 10.30pm - relatively sensible. The same can't be said for Garry who rolled in sometime around 2.30am. Good boy. Have not had any interest in work at all today. Am treading water until post Mardi Gras when my mind may be a little more focused...

Beers with Jason tonight in the Colombian. No gym for Davie... it's Mardi Gras time. Let's have some fun!

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Wednesday afternoon and I think the late night at the weekend is catching up with me. Actually it's overtaken me, turned round and is currently slapping me across the face with a wet haddock whilst laughing maniacally. Great. Well not a great deal to report. Monday night was a very quiet time. Chats to Garry; Pete popped over for a cuppa; beans on toast; quick internet play and bed before 10pm. For the best.

Yesterday was a slow day at work, rather like today. Willing the time to disappear didn't really seem to help and I busied myself with spring cleaning my hotmail account. A nicer evening. Met up with John for coffee - who is seemingly a very nice man. Bright and fun. We had a good chat and then once done I joined Garry in the Colombian for his birthday drinks. Caught up briefly with Brett and Brendan before joining Garry, Mat, Richard, Jeff and, somewhat weirdly, Darrin - a guy from Brisbane I know only from chatting online. We had a few beers and a bit of a laugh and then I decided I'd had enough and needed food. Pete joined me for that and then home time for Davie. Bed around 11.30pm when Garry came in.

Up early ish today as the TV repairman was due at 8am. And no, he's not cute. This repair has been going on since November, but finally all of the speakers have been replaced and I now have fantastic sound on the TV. He's taken the CD player off to replace the mechanism too, as it's been slipping a while. So, by the weekend I'll have a fantastic CD player that doesn't skip and that sounds fantastic. What I won't have is any money. Total cost of repairs, parts and labour? Try $1300. Bugger me. I've just been paid yesterday. I have exactly that amount free on my credit card (having transferred most of said pay). That leaves me with about $200 in the bank and about $100 in my wallet to last 2 weeks. Over Mardi Gras. And I am Old Mother Hubbard in every sense of the phrase. So, quiet times ahead it would seem. Very quiet times indeed. Lots of staying in and playing music and watching DVDs with fabulous sound at least. And I'm miserable about the lack of Barracks recovery. And now I'm back I'm getting more and more interested about doing MG. Bugger. Watch this space. Back at the gym tonight, though I fancy just doing something reckless. Oh dear. Lock up your daddies.

Monday, February 24, 2003

Monday 3.05pm. Rough as a badger's arse. Actually that's not true. I deserve to feel like that but in fact just feel a little jaded and scattered. 5 and a bit days back home - and quite a bit I've managed to pack into that time let me tell you. The morning I arrived back after my 36 hour Tokyo trek I thought I'd flake out. Not so! Seems I'm made of sterner stuff (or at least I've conditioned my body to survive on almost no sleep like some bizarre SAS training ritual). Instead I grabbed brekky from the local café, made lots of phone calls (Adrian, Garry, Gary, Dave, Pete) and did plenty of washing in the new machine that Garry had organised in my absence. Marvellous. Then it was out for coffee with Adrian at 5pm, segueing nicely into beers with Gary and Mark at the Colombian just after 6pm. Held out until about 9pm and then it was quick eat then home. Bed around 10.30pm ? well done me! Thursday was the start of the old routine. Into work which was quite nice - think it was just the novelty of being back though. Thursday night was drinks with Jason at the Colombian before he went off to tennis, also bumping into Dave. Dinner with Adrian then back for a quick beer with the aforementioned Mr Puls. Back to the ranch before bed post internet shenanigans. Friday wasn't so great. As alluded to earlier I think the reality of being back started to kick in and so things certainly weren't as rosy as they had been. Friday night was beers with Jason and then dinner at the Thai place opposite the Colombian. The gang was going off to Manacle so we went round to Tim's for a beer or two. You'd have been proud of me - in spite of numerous efforts to persuade me to join them, I refused - preferring to save myself for my 'official' relaunch at the Azure (Harbour) Party on Sunday. They all toddled off the Taylor Square, I went home. Yay for Davie!!

Saturday morning was up and about in time for Video Hits. Gary popped in for tea and biccies and we ended up spending the best part of the day together. Brunch, coffees and meandering up and down Oxford Street in and out of Shop Yourself Stupid seemed to be all the rage. Swopped one coffee partner for the next as Dave and I caught up at Pelago's in Victoria Street. Wandered back to Potts Point where Dave entertained me a while (and vice versa!). Back to Oxford Street and if it's Saturday night it must be beers with Pete. And Colin. And Ant and Michael who happened to be passing. Showing remarkable restraint more than once in a few days I bowed out early and headed back to the house around 10pm after stuffing my face with Hungry Jack's. Sunday was another 9.30am start, with not much actually done though save brekky with Pete, a quick trip to Adrian's and another coffee with Pete and Crusty. Made myself beautiful for Azure and headed over to Dave's for pre-party vodka. We listened to music as a couple of people came and went and then it was time to head down to the party itself. It really is the most incredible location. For those that don't know, the Harbour Party as was (Azure Party as now is) is set by the side of the harbour in the Botanic Gardens with views of the city skyline, Bridge and Opera House. So imagine if you will that as an outdoor clubbing environment - great music, sexy men and great views. Oh, and the rain held off. Yippee! Once we got there Dave, Mark and I went out separate ways as wanderlust took hold. In fact I couldn't settle into dancing even though the music was OK (Paul Goodyear's set). However I did manage to settle into Mandy Rollins' set, which was more Bad Doggy and much more my cup of tea. In the interim I just meandered about, taking in the ambulance and catching up with lots of people that I'd not seen since the holiday. Fun. About 8.30pm though I was in a loved up melee with Jason, Tim, Stewart, Ross, Patrick and a few others coming and going. Great fun. The views change as the sun goes down and the light shows and shows kick in. Marvellous. Of course we couldn't let it lie and so as it shut at midnight we were already planning our assault on the next venue. The Phoenix. Dave was there and Jason came and joined us too. Not satisfied with that though we ended up at the Shift and despite a 4am curfew I only left at 4.50am because Dave told me to! Thanks mate. I'd have most probably still been there otherwise! Still minkered I played on the internet a wee while and finally fell into bed around 5.40am. Up at 7.30am and so work hasn't been the most focused I've ever been it has to be said. A quiet week on the cards I think. Not going to go to the Mardi Gras party next weekend. I'll go to a recovery but that's all. Think it's probably wise...

Friday, February 21, 2003

Friday afternoon. At work. I think the reality of being back here is kicking in. Oh dear. The good news is that I seem to have escaped the whole jet lag thing. Not sure how, but not going to complain too much. Maybe sleeping at random for 4 weeks has had something to do with it. The run up to leaving was pretty frantic, with sleep being snatched at the following intervals:

Thu 13 – 4 hours sporadic sleep, perched on bed edge with lots of snoring (Rich!)
Fri 14 – 9 hours (the most in a long while)
Sat 15 – none
Sun 16 – 4 and a half (interrupted only long enough to switch off the alarm at 6.30am)
Mon 17 – 1 hour (on the flight to Tokyo)
Tue 18 – 3 hours (at Tokyo airport)
Wed 19 – 4 hours early morning (flight from Tokyo to Sydney) + 8 hours overnight
Thu 20 – 6 and a half hours

So, if you’d like to avoid jet lag, please sleep in the preceding pattern. OK. Think it’s time to leg it, as everyone else in my team has gone, including the boss.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Back with a few more coins to retype Friday through until now as promised... though I have had to court the evil that is Starbucks to get the coins. So, post Pilar I went and got my hair cut and then met Stevie P at old work. Chrysalis now looks like a real radio station having expanded into a new building and had a makeover - very professional. Went to Bob's for beers (Bob's being the local after-work bar) and spent the night chatting mostly to Lisa and Angela. Off with Steve to Earl's Court for nosh - it was going to be Balan's but we settled for Pizza Express in the end. Tired and a bit merry we headed home - there had been talk of making a night of it, but we crashed.

Saturday must be go and see the apartment day. Nice to see the old place, and to catch up with Nicola and to see how well they've been looking after the place. I knew they'd be OK, but it's still reassuring. Took lots of photos! Off to Wimbledon again - I've done a fair old tour of the suburbs this trip that's for sure - this time for brunch with Sal and Gus from Borders. Back into London for a long overdue clothes shopping spree and then back to Balham. If it's Saturday it must be XXL - though this time it was prefaced with a very nice dinner at Jon and Mark's. XXL fun again - Danny and his friend Michael met us there and also Max and DL turned up. Fun. Thence to Trade, for their one off Valentines Day Party. It was great for the boys to see Trade is it is unique. Met up with Kay and Tara and crew and had a blast. A very minkered one at that. Stumbled out of there around 11am and then on to the Vauxhall Tavern via Jon and Mark's and Balham for me. No repeat of the late arrival this time and so one by one the gang all arrived until it was going off. Great fun. We were almost partied out and so only made it briefly to Chemistry at Crash for a last boogie. Home around 4am I think and bed. Slept through the alarm and so didn't even get chance to stand by for the earlier direct flight to Sydney.

What a great holiday. Big thanks for Rich and Russ for making it so much fun and for all the gang back in the UK for making it extra special. I'll rant on at length about what I thought about being back in London etc., but for now it's almost time to go through to the departure lounge. A bit of reading I think. My body clock is so all over the place from this week that I've no idea what time it currently thinks it is. I'm hoping I'll confuse it so much it'll almost be back to normal by the time I land tomorrow morning!
Bugger. Just lost half the last post and no more coins for the moment. I'll be back later to retype Friday through Sunday. Bugger, bugger bugger.
Er. Who? What? Where? What the hell happened to the last 3 and a half weeks? Someone's been creating little ripples in the space time continuum again haven't they? It's the only possible solution to us seemingly just leaving for England and me now sitting here at Tokyo airport where I have a lovely 9 hour (count 'em!) stopover before the connection down to Sydney.

The rest of the time in York went as described. Lovely to see Bob, Con and Carol though everyone's starting to look so much older. Life goes on I guess. Was slightly worried about Dad driving back from Scarborough as he was almost falling asleep at the wheel and hadn't changed the insurance so I could drive. That kind of thing really worries me as it's stuff like that which could be the end of him - let's hope not though. We stopped for coffee on the way back and then just hit the pub later for a couple of pints. Thursday was more relaxed. Up to the cemetery as I mentioned in the last post and then into York for lunch. And that was that. I'll fill in some more details about my attitude to York in another follow up post, but suffices to say I was breathing more easily as the train pulled out of the station. Nipped back to Balham then out to meet Andy and Sue for dinner at the Union Café. Very nice too and great to see them both. I then decided to meet up with the boys at Central Station to see what was going down. As it were. And people were :o)

Went back to Jon and Mark's with Rich and Russ as it was easier than doing Balham. Had to be up and off early in the morning though as I was to meet Pilar. We eventually ended up meeting in Wimbledon and having lunch at Est Est Est. Very nice. Lovely to catch up with Pilar too - good old talk about life, the universe etc.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Lordy lordy lordy. Rapidly running out of time and money! Where did I leave you all? Ah yes, last Friday. Had a lovely dinner with David and Brett and before you could say beer monster we were in Barcode. As were lots of others. Suddenly as if by magic we were at Sleaze at Crash again. And yet again it was fantastic. And yet again we ended up at the Orange. It's all a bit hazy (I wonder why?). We had Dez with us this time as we finally managed to hook up with him after a few false starts.

Saturday was a day for seeing sisters, so I arrived back at Steve's at around 10am expecting to find loads of messages saying 'Where are you?'. Fortunately Karen had had her leaving do the night before and so they weren't up and about either. Headed over to Richmond and met sisters for brunch. Scrambled eggs and toast was about all I could manage. Went to see Sue's new house and saw Jules again which was lovely. Back to Balham and out to XXL for the second week running. Dez was there, as were Jon and Mark; Tony and Roger; Steve and Audrey, Andrew, Max and DL... and again it was great. Fun men, fun music. Fun! And of course we couldn't resist the lure of Beyond for another night. Hey ho. What are we like? Again it was great. Max left early and so I snogged DL for a while. Can't remember being so twatted in ages! Finally stumbled (quite literally folks) out of there around 9.30am and back to Steve's. Who was of course in major sort out mode and full of the joys of spring! I finally had some kip from around 11.30am and woke around 4.30pm, having missed lunch with Danny and Rob and Wayne. Bugger. Headed down to the Tavern and of course were too late to get in before the show. How's this for dedication? We queued for almost 3 hours to get in. Mad. But once in... ay caramba!! All the gang were there. And then some. The lovely Richard who I snuggled with on the sofa at Sexy's Dave's in Brighton was there. We got reacquainted.:o) Sexy Dave himself was there too - flown in from Stuttgart specially bless him. Fortunately the time seemed to last forever. At one point I was in the middle of Dave, Brett, Rich, Russ and Adrian and I swear if they'd have all moved out of the way quickly I'd have keeled over! Still, well worth it. Finally we were kicked out with the trash and decided not to go on. Yay. Back to David and Brett's where I collapsed in a heap after a cup of tea.

Slept until 10am Monday morning. Brett came back from the gym and eventually headed back to Balham. Had lunch with David O in Kennington and then dinner and a few drinks with Danny in Clapham. Bed around midnight. Up to York yesterday. Lunch with Dad and then a relaxing afternoon. Out for drinks with Nels last night which was great. Good to see him after so long. Weird we've known each other for 33 years or so... Today it's into York for an update on here and then lunch with Dad, Uncle Bob (yes Bob really is my uncle!), Auntie Con and godmother Carol. Yippee. Then the local pub tonight with Dad as it's my last night here. It would have been Mum's birthday tomorrow so Dad and I are going up to the cemetery tomorrow to give it a spruce up and leave flowers and stuff before I head back down to London. Glad I'm here tomorrow as I think it'll make things a bit easier for Dad. Hey ho.

Right. That's it. Time to go and buy some clothes I think. More later. I'm actually now looking forward to getting back to Sydney and some sort of normality.... honest!

Friday, February 07, 2003

Way too quick, but here's a brief synopsis - there'll be a full update after the weekend...
Did my time in York and ended up back in London a week ago via Peterborough for a snatched lunch with Charlotte. The weekend was a bit of a haze, but featured Taboo, the Boy George musical, Central Station (a bar for those Aussies wondering), phone nightmares, dinner with the university crew (good fun), on to XXL to meet the boys (also great fun and a Dave speciality memory trick on one bloke I met 4 years ago), a trip to Bermondsey (!), my sister's birthday bash, the Vauxhall again, LA3 and the Orange and finally a day of rest (Monday).

Tuesday we hit Dublin which was a bit disappointing, but then who would rate Sydney after a Tuesday and Wednesday nights? The place itself has some cool bits, and we ended up doing a bit of a trek down the coast to see some proper scenery which was great. It's now Friday and a day of sightseeing once I've sorted some money disasters out. We'll get there! Seeing David and Brett tonight and then day with sisters tomorrow then probably XXL again. Sunday is the Tavern and beyond that.. who knows!