31 October - Scouring pads

Well, I try to be helpful at all times so here's my handy hint since am sick and tired of cleaning and re-cleaning stuff after painters left. They were neat but paint splashes are the kind of thing you don't see when you're at the end of your decorating day and before they've solidified on a tap, in a sink, on top of a cabinet etc. I tried various things and in the process turned my nails to an even more unattractive proposition than they normally are (yes, ah for fairy liquid hands!), but the best thing is a dry scouring pad - if you get it wet it becomes messy. Whilst dry it cleans most things, even did some horrid old glue from a moth or insect killer strip that had landed on a cabinet top and proved very resistant to removal. So there you go, cheap as chips and better than bathroom & kitchen cleaner products combined.

I do realise I have to find a way back to sexy time as have become a bore with domestic stuff and the rot could set in. To counter act all this have taken vow to never be seen in the house with anything but some killer brazilian heels I bought a few years back in that fair country. They hurt a bit but it's just when am standing up, can kick them off under a table later on.

I realise I should be talking about the US election or at least about Halloween parties (did anyone see Cindy Crawford dressed as Amy Winehouse? Great idea) and the like but have failed to procure any costume. Was half going to buy an african dress I saw in a shop, so I could go as African Queen with headress, curling back long stick on nails or at least nails with dangling jewellery attached, and so on and possibly just eat my weight in pounds for once. But I forgot. Shame as I can do bright colours but in my regular environment I'd look like a clown and have to avoid.

28 October - Chess

We had to entertain a six year old and to keep him occupied Toph played chess with him. Then he cleverly asked six year old to teach me (I don't play) so that he could go on his computer for a while undisturbed. The six year old who's clever, told me all sort of wrong information, not sure if because of cleverness or because he got it muddled up as to how the horse , the tower, the knight and so on can move.

Toph came to rescue the game and I still won pursuing my anarchic ways, much as I do when I bluff beyond belief at poker ((I get reasonably far but then of course I fall in love with my cards and never consider what's the best hand someone else can have). I didn't take to the game, my brain doesn't like anything where it has to consider too many multiple options before making a choice. But I had the following 'old before my time' thought 'Better take chess up as a) you need to keep learning new things to keep it sharp and b) when we're truly past it, I can give Toph (who's rather champion like) a game in some lonely nursing home assuming they keep us together'.

A friend has recently told me that I do go on rather too much about getting old and dying but she's five years younger. I don't think it's hit her yet. But it will. I think it may be easier if you're prepared. Plus, if it wasn't my main preoccupation this blog would not exist.

25 October - Bumpkin & Pumpin'

Sometimes you just have to go eat somewhere simple but you still spend short of £150. Easily done if your humble trio of radishes or beetroot (age alert, took me asking a colleague about 'that wine coloured vegetable you eat sometimes and that stains everywhere if you get the juice on it, what's its name?' to remember the word) is £7. But am not complaining, Bumpkin gets my vote, the staff were very nice. The we went to nearby The Oak, then we went to the William IV which was a bit dead, and then we went to The Regent and danced a little. Toph was very self-congratulatory about the fact that all our friends who are ten years younger were claiming to be too tired to go out/do something. Either it's true or they simply didn't want our company. Hard to believe I know...

The boy would have happily checked out the nearby Paradise too but I dragged him home. I am older than him. I think the motor is fine but I had had some minor surgery after all and bed was calling.

October 23 - Complicite'

Ok, so if it wasn't enough to feel old reading through old magazines you've kept till now but now they have to go oh no you can't let them go oh yes you can if you can sell each copy for £20/30 odd and selling twenty will pay for your storage unit for a year... Feel extra guilty at asking friend for £20 for old copy of Blitz which she wanted 'cause look Lisa, my name is on the masthead back in '85, I was the ad sales manager', but hey, when they want £14 to go see new Bond movie in Leicesters square, you can see how I'm trying to make ends meet.
So, back to where this trail started, it didn't half make me feel old to go see latest Theatre de Complicite' play at the Barbican, The Disappearing Number or is that A Disappearing Number, when we realise that the company has been going 21 or is it 25 years and we've seen the first shows though I can't remember them. Anyway, the place was packed, the play was interesting though patchy according to Toph and now that I think about it, it had 2 central characters who were very weirdly together and had some awkward dialogue. However, I learnt lots of stuff which I like, for example I never knew anything about this genius mathematician or remembered stuff I must have known at some point for example how the number zero was really invented not that long ago, or that there is no space in sequences etc. But seeing formulas written on a board make me come out in shivers much as when I was back in school. Of course I can get there in the end but I need a lot longer as I simply cannot see 'it'. Then again I have no fear of a blank page as you can tell and am sure some people come out in hives about that. Each to their own.
But yeah, 25 years ago was another life.

22 October - Sofa so Good

It may be one of my cheapest items of furniture I ever purchased (£240) but I can recommend the XXX sofa from the Pier. It took a while to persuade Toph that this would do for now (he was busy looking at £1500plus from Habitat and I'm like 'no no no, this one costs less than a pair of shoes, let's try it, we chuck it in a few months if it doesn't work'.

Turns out that the colour is a perfect match for the carpet and hence blends in, makes room bigger blah blah, but it's also very comfortable and firm. As firm as my boy who took no time in finally realising why I wanted a sofa with no awkward armrests or cushions and long enough to lie on it horizontally. Just as well that I'm practical enough to come sit down armed with convenient throw that saved new upholstery from some tell tell stains. Yes, too much information but if you're ever a guest over having tea and a cake, think of us and our new prop. Couldn't find the remote to turn the news off though, must admit that was slight drawback to concentration.

18 October - Bondage

Oh, not that kind, I should really say bonding but I like bondage better. A friend invited me to Oasis at Wembley and I went because hey, not seen them for years and curious. Once there though I simply could not find much enthusiasm for it because... well I could write you an essay on it but it boils down to the fact that I agree with the detractors that say it's all hot air, nothing new, I dislike the attitude with which they wish to disguise the lack of anything to say and I don't fancy Liam, never have done. This put me in awkward position as my friend was bopping away whilst i remained seated (I did have a good view behind the wheelchairs so no need to get up) and also credits them with giving her back interest for music (12/13 years) ago when she had slightly lost it. So I felt as a traitor, holding my £50 free ticket.

Afterwards went to the backstage for 'not the inner sanctum' and talked to a collaborator of my friend and when I asked do you like Oasis? he made a face that meant no. Though was quick to add he had appreciated the opportunity to work on their new release as of course you learn lot dealing with #1s. So we clinked beer bottles and proceeded to explore what we like instead. Having established that we're electronic clubby kids it was joy! Though when he talked about raves and I said did you use to go to Shoom he pointed out he was still at school. Oh silly me, I lose the plot sometimes, i must be 10 to 15 years older than him sadly. Turns out he knows Tiga who I love and he loves The The who I know. More joy and clinking of bottles. He said he'd make me a compilation aaahhh (he was off to Fabric and I was off... home) and I, being in the midst of sorting out storage, was able to scan and email him a 1980 fanzine article with an infant The The on the cover (as part of The Gadgets, that's real pre-history). I also emailed said article to Matt's girlfriend who being ten years younger was er.. 8 in 1980. She appreciated it too. Back in the days he used to buy lots of Complan (no idea if they still make it, it's powder stuff you mixed with milk to give you strength/muscle building nutrients) to make himself bigger. I also used to laugh at him taking laundry home to his mum. I took mine to the launderette of course....

Anyway, after the show went to a party for a while and managed to have minor falling out with my friend whilst discussing Madonna of all people. I was simply saying that it was obvious it was not going to last as men eventually tire of ball busting girlfriends who sleep 5 hours a night, never ever ever not go to their 4 hours a day gym session and generally function with human clipboard attached who barks schedules at you (am not wrong , at this party was person who worked with Madonna and had major downer on her ways, great music but shit attitude to whoever happens to work for you) and besides if you've spent 30 years paying staff who by definition say yes to you, you forget your husband is not paid member and can do what he likes. This was not do defend Guy Ritchie who am sure is all those things that we think of him too but the match was not a made in heaven one. My friend took all this to mean I put down strong career women (she is one herself) and well, we just couldn't fix it.

I could take this opportunity to say that much as I can try to be a feminist, and you fight all these battles when you're thirty, when you get to over 45 you just give them up by and large because it is as your mother told you, you want to be with a man (and not everyone does), you are the one who will compromise the most, they simply don't as don't have the brain power to even see where they go wrong. It just doesn't change in the 100 years we've had the vote of 50 years since bra burning and all that. It will take considerably longer. And that's just my opinion and it so happens that for all the gold records on b'day girl walls, she and a few of the other career women were going home alone and I was going to snuggle up to Toph. He may not be that much of a trophy one could say, but he is to mee and a darn side much more satisfying than being just one of the people involved with other people who have success as artists, by which I mean none of the people there were actually the ones who write them or play them but support stuff. Well earning but not creating if you wish.

17 October - Cupid fails

Ok, I need to learn how to play this game. The only time I played cupid successfully was when I hadn't planned anything of the sort and the two people involved (8 years and still fine, in Mauritius on holiday right now) just fancied shagging the other one madly and then built up from there. Had I thought about it, I probably wouldn't have introduced them on account that he's 12 years older than her and at the time she was fancying people her age or a touch younger.

So, I probably rely on looks (ie. will they fancy each other madly?) and a little background. In this case I know her a little but not him. And when he started saying few things that pointed out to the fact he's gone out with plenty of 'chicks' I thought 'oh oh!, mmhhh, maybe once a player....'. And he's obviously very charming so used to drawing you in. He and I would have no problem flirting along an entire evening but as to making it to second date who knows... So that, combined with the fact that he mentioned drugs etc, though he hasn't drunk for ten years on account of massive benders back when an ex girlfriend died, meant that I just thought there were a few things that suddenly didn't make him good material for my g/friend.
Just as well that she picked up on same scraps of information and plus did not fancy him, because he gave me a lift to a gig somewhere and in the car didn't refer to her at all which of course was a bad sign ie. not interested either but polite enough not to say. Makes you feel bad though...

There you go, I tried. He was off to some friends and she was off to watch a pole dancing championship which turned out to be interesting only up to a point as one woman was very very good and the others boring by comparison. Which reminds me of the evening I went to a very sad dinner in the middle of nowhere and boy was I in a bad mood. Toph has a few friends from yoga and this malaysian one is entertaining for a drink or two after a class. She invited us to a party at her house and Toph accepted before realising she lives at the end of the northern line somewhere which not having the car that night took a while to get too. We couldn't drop out of it as it was not really a party but dinner for 6 and you just can't be rude. Once at Edgware of wherever, we couldn't find a cab and when we did it was another 15 mins drive to some new development where her flat was tiny teeny. Conversation was ok but I was just itching to leave as we had to be somewhere else at midnight and that gave a gap of an hour. I know, I know, me and my double bookings. So, part of the conversation was to do with the pole in her living cum dining room. She goes to lessons and she loves it. And I like the fitness side of it as well though realise it takes years of toil at it to become any good. But there was something just sad about it. Don't know why am bothering to write all this except to record it somehow.

16 October - Cupid

So excited, I am playing cupid tonight to two people who don't know each other. A rare occasion as I don't have any spare men I'd recommend. This spare man I don't know at all, but he's very handsome, so when I met him outside a cafe' last week (he was with a mutual acquaintance) and they let it slip they had been on the hunt the night before in shoredtich, I quickly got his number and told him I'd call. The little I know is that he's spent too much time filming docus for the UN in Africa and has left himself w/o much chance of love (no sex for a year I think he said! crikey, was he in the desert?). It would also appear that he has no money and he's 40odd, so you see, I'll have to trade on his looks and 'interestingness' factor.

The right girl came to mind a few nights later when she said she's been invited to a charity trip to Uganda! Now, I know her and I know she knows a lot about Africa and has been to many countries and needs no advice, but it allowed me to ring this chap, M, and say 'have you been to Uganda?' 'no - he answered - but I know the director of Last King of Scotland'. 'Never mind - I said - can you come and have a drink with a friend who's goig to Uganda and just talk about it? And btw she's very attractive and only 32 and (I didn't say this) has her own house and income thank you very much?' 'Oh yes' he said.

So I told her about it (she screeched 'I love that film' but I advised her to tone down the enthusiams, and told her to feign helplessness re. Africa which will allow him to help, they all like to help. And voila'. 7.30pm tonight and conveniently she has to go to ado at 9pm latest and it will be a short and sweet introduction and they'll either like each other or... not.

She very sweetly said 'you realise he'll think you're angling for an affair?' Ahhh, she gives me too much credit to figure in this 40 something's hunk's life or fantasies. I did meet him in the company of Toph and I'll make sure to mention him repeatedly to leave no impression of latent interest on my part. Well, I lie, M is gorgeous! But no, no interest. I mean... at this point in life, if he had a house in Marylebone I may consider him above Toph but w/o that, no chance. Mmmhhh. Guy Ritchie is free and has a house in Marylebone....and he directs... and will have spare cash and he was not into adopting another ghastly kid ...mmmhhh. I am younger than the soon to be ex wife and not scarily veiny.

But I digress. Here's to Love. I forgot to mention that in my girlfriend's life there are now 2 other people trying to set her up for Xmas. One of the contenders is Colin Firth's brother (though am not sure he knows about this yet), so I'm imagining some sort of X Factor competition here where I think my protege' will win but there are others... I've never seen the X Factor so I don't know which one of the judges I'd be more like... past or present... It's fun though. Here's to Love again or at least a happy coupling by Xmas. She'll owe me many dinners to come if M. pulls it off.

15 October - Mexican Radio

"I wish I was in Tijuana, eating barbecued Iguana, I'd take requests on the telephone, I'm on a wavelength far from home... I'm on Mexican radio".
good old stan ridgway. From time to time that song comes into my head and I remember those days.

Ok, it's not that imaginative and I have been there before which sort of contradicts one of my rules about not really going to the same place twice unless you really really really love it but the thing is. I have to go, for personal reasons. So when the credit goes crunch the soon to be crunched book holidays. And I'm still not in debt so come Christmas it's truly hasta la vista and off I head to playa del carmen and/or tulum for a bit of ceviche, some yoga on the beach, and mexican waves. Oh and an outdoor shower, we like those a lot Toph & I.

I'm telling you all this now because unless you want to profit from the krona going down and wish to be cold in Iceland (friend just booked w/end in the capital in staying in expensive hotel now down to £80 a night) you must be thinking that you can't last here beyond the actual boring day which is fun only for the kids if you have them. On my return I'll stop in NY so now's the time to book that lipodissolve and other stuff I forgot to book in Krakow. I wonder if they'll do me a deal. I like this crunch time thing, it brings it all down to being in a market in Africa. How much? What? I'm not paying for that! I shall look out for empty hairdressers and walk in and offer £40 for doing my highlighs or... nothing. There has to be a silver lining of some sort.

A friend rang to ask me to check some websites for jobs in the WE/banking/equities. I said I thought you were fine where you are. She replied that some of these people offer benefits like free lunches and that's got to be worth £2k a year. This lady and I almost share a birthday. And she wouldn't have laughed at the money lender character in Ivanov who snuffs out the candles the moment the guests go outside in the garden 'because why let them burn if there's noone here'. I don't find that odd at all.

12 October - Plays

Ivanov’ was good but Toph implored me to never get cheap tickets again. The ungrateful little sod. I dislike spending time with finger on the dial trying to book tickets for something within the first hour of them going on sale and frankly I have other things to do.

In this production I was limited to the Friday or Saturdays only due to his lordship’s absence in the belly of the beast in the provinces (where one’s hotel is the Jack Rabbit, I can only imagine) so yeah, the cheap balcony seats came up and I grabbed them. I have to agree that watching the top of actor’s heads is not that great but they do look up and frankly the difference between last row in balcony and front row in balcony is not significant. The voices carries fine, and ok you miss some facial expressions and nuances but these plays are sort of by numbers by now if you’re familiar with the canon: the bored farmers/bourgeoisie in the provinces, the impending bankruptcy of one or the other character, the old man in love with the young girl or vice versa and all generally moaning about their lot in life. I wonder always how much of it comes from Chekhov’s first hand experience with his patients…

We then went for a drink at the Groucho where we were very well behaved and left before witnessing anything of note. I’m always reminded of the story about this woman who worked with a friend in TV (god it’s always TV that features the biggest drunks) who gave up drinking after one of her very regular sozzled evenings ended here – as was her usual - and she found herself snogging Johnny Vegas. Which, you know, she’s a good looking woman of 40 something I’m told, no need to go there.

10 October - Balconies 'r Us

What better to look forward to on a friday afternoon than an evening at a play we've never seen, with Kenneth Branagh in the lead and good reviews garnered? And all for the princely sum of £12 each. With drinks at the Groucho afterwards courtesy of lovely AP. Someone asked me earlier what the tix where for (on my desk) so I said Ivanov. He looked puzzled so I said an early Chekhov play that's not much performed. He didn't get the Chekov bit. This person earns 3 to 4 times as much as I do. Not sure what he likes but somedays you can't help but passing for some snooty cow.

8 October - Sexy Paintings

So I didn't go to the new Saatchi, have a downer on him. But went to another gallery behind the Ritz specialising in oriental artists, in fact Chinese as they're all the rage. No sign of crunch time here yet as the champagne and sushi kept flowing and the DJ kept djing and the burlesque clad girls did what they normally do ie stand around and look pretty. I have no idea if Li Bo will sell any of his ultra sexy paintings, they were not expensive and I'd buy one if I had the wall to hang it on as £1,500 to £3k does not break the bank.Still, if he doesn't sell now, he's only 21 and can take a bit more rejection.

I was meeting a friend who in turn was meeting the ex married lover who she's had no contact with for a few months. She had deemed it a safe option to meet in public and with me as chaperone. Neither of us had expected the sexy paintings though. He took one look at them and declared they were too much (of a reminder of his nighttime romps with my friend) and having just come straight from his psychotherapist and not wanting to undo the good work... they repaired to the pub. My friend told me she finds him slightly pathetic now which is a good sign of recovery and getting out of providing just the relief from his stupid marriage if you see what I mean.

This quick exit though left me with no one to talk to apart from the lovely host but she has also other people to entertain and ones with pockets perhaps. I ended up chatting to this woman who normally ignores me at events though we know various mutual friends. This time she had her son in tow, fresh from joining Goldsmith where he will be an artist, and so I made nice conversation with the 20 something and this suddenly must have put me in her good books. Bizarre. I forgot she had been married to a famous magazine editor who in turn is the son of a famous painter (but she reminded me). When I got back I told Toph and he reminded me she'd also been the lover of a crazy actor father of a crazy singer. But what does the woman do I asked? She's a writer/columnist. Ahhhh. I see. All in all another one of the evenings I seem to have recently where I go out of my usual curiosity and because it's nice to be invited but I then have no appetite to talk to anyone much. What's going on? Will books be my only friends? Eventually?
tbc

6 October - C Crunch

Am personally not that bothered (yet) having no debts, no major overheads and no clouds on my horizon and finding it easy enough to renounce a dinner here and a concert there. But boy it's catching. Am surrounded by people with much bigger salaries who, whilst still in jobs, are sort of having to almost interview for their positions again. It's not funny.
Of course they're not 25 so they're not stupid and they know that any management edicts is spoken with a forked tongue. Always.
I was 30 or 31 and still naive when one Wednesday I stood with everyone else in a large conference room to be assured by the MD that despite having merged with larger company X, we were all fine and the synergy would be even better, make us more competitive blah blah and a ton of blah. On the Friday lunchtime I was let go.... I think I spent the afternoon crying (it was my dream job) after of course trying to salvage my position first by appealing to said MD who I considered if not a friend, a sympathetic boss. He told me it was not his decision. Pah! what are you an MD for then? This being the second time in my life that something like this had happened (in other words I had not seen it coming and/or had believed management words), but the first time I was 26...) I resolved thereafter not to believe anyone. And whilst expecting the chop still doesn't mean you've sent off your CV and sorted it all out in advance. No, you kind of wait till you have to react...because life is like this.

Have to say that whilst in the past I was fearful of these kind of changes, now I sort of view them as the only occasion to alter anything otherwise you're pleasantly stuck in a rut. So bring it on I say. Sack me (with a decent pay off of course) and I'll be on the first flight to Thailand where I will not even go near an internet cafe for a month of lying on a beach. And then, I'll worry afterwards.... What's the worst that can happen?

Funny how a g/friend who's friends with wife of top banker said this woman was bemoaning the fate of the little people who depend on her for a job and who she'll have to use less (personal trainer, nannies) and was not considering NOT buying some stupid £800 designer handbag of which she has about twenty already in the closet. It's a shame this is a downturn and not a revolution, because if it were, finding the designer handbags in the closet would be all that the hordes need to deem to off your head instantly. But I should temper what I say given that this idiot has two small kids and some of my best g/friends do buy designer handbags too.

Just as welll that there are no dinner parties lined up as I don't think I could tolerate all the talk that is already in newspapers of the middle classes discussing how they now shop at Lidl and so on. I think they should actually be forced to sell their houses and go live next to a Lidl... in Enfield for example.

3 October - The Wrong club

On a recent night I went to a charity quiz with some friends and then onto the Embassy for a night a friend, RP, was organising there and featuring another friend, G.

I arrived though having missed quite a bit of the action as they told me the guestlist closed at 11.30 and so I arrived then, thinking it would start then! But met her man J again and had a chat also with a very hunky friend of his Richard, who was grumpy though as you could tell he hated just being there on his own waiting for J to leave . I told him to chat to gorgeous N (friend of G) as I knew he didn’t want to be stuck with me and he said ‘If she’d wanted me to sit/talk with her, she’d have made it known’ and I though ‘oh dear, grumpy!!!’ . Then spoke to N who said she thought he was boring. See ? it’s all a matter of where you are in life (N is 30) and she likes younger guys (she’s just started dating a 27 year old who chatted her up at Fabric... sigh!) and skinny , whereas this guy was a 40 year old, tall rugby style man working for an arms company and I'd have been all ears.. Ah well. I left with her at 1 am… some other people there I knew and good at doing introductions but it’s a strange thing.. you find yourself being introduced to Rebecca, Dominick, Annabel and so on and you just think ‘Er.. I don’t know what to say to you’. And they don’t’ either .. so you move on, stand there on your own till your host rescues you again. I can’t be bothered anymore, it wouldn't lead to anything but a fruitless search of commong ground.

Anyway, the evening was notable for the first concrete real sign that my brain is missing beats now. I drove and parked by The Embassy in New Bond St, only for the Embassy not to be there. I walked around the block puzzling before asking a security guard who directed me to Savile Row. And the penny dropped. I was horrified. I had basically driven and parked where the Embassy was back in the 80's when I was there pretty often. This would not be that strange if I also hadn't been to the new location in Saville Row over a dozen times in the last 2 years. So I knew both bits of information but my brain only gave me the information from 15/20 years ago.

This is akin to those old people who go home after the pub and suddenly turn up at the home they lived in with their mum 70 years prior to the home they now shared with thei equally dementia prone old wife.

Worried? moi??????

I told D. all this and we're now starting to refer to these kind of things as 'OLP' old ladies problems as we don't want anyone to read of all this in our emails. Tragic doesn't beging to explain how this makes me feel.

2 October - Shock Horror Clothes from Sainsburys

So I found myself with the clothes from the day (which I didn't want to wear the following day) and/or the scruffy stuff you wear to paint/clean/re-decorate. It was 8pm and in a part of London that's not that stylish. What to do? Whilst I was thinking about it I went into a big Sainsbury to get some groceries and lo and behold, they do clothes. They're as cheap as Primark only very boring, sort of M&S basics. And so it is that I broke the 1 month of not buying anything for mysel with a £7.50 pair of trousers (down from £10) in a dark grey/blue that I've actually never owned anything in but seems a nice colour and a matching light grey/pale blue cardie that from a distance could pass for cashmere but at the touch feels bizarre. That was £9. Some knickers for £1.50 and voila', ready for work the next day.

I realise that £20 may still be a big budget. Would have done marvellously on it down some flea market/second hand stall but necessity called.

This may still be a very boring post but it's not as boring as it could be if I started writing about my re-decorating all consuming weeks. I wonder if one has a mansion if it all gets multiplied for months on end. In fact I know it does. My lovely headgirl friend who married in early May is still not finished at her large but not so huge abode in Essex. And she's angry... with workmen. She tells me she's had to do some finishing jobs afther they er... finished. Welcome to my world. Maybe not all people would notice the small splashes of paint on windows but I do and they have to come off or else. And who's available to do it when I want them done? Only me.

1 October - New Cross /Old Cross

It was south of the river in New Cross but my good friend PE who lives in Clapham, reminded me that she regularly comes up West to see us and that other guests were coming from much further afield and what's the big deal. Well the big deal was listening to Toph dissing the Old Kent Road and beyond till we got to our destination. Frankly the south does not disagree with me that much, I was excited we went past a 24 hour Asda and wanted to go in on the way back... for the sole reason to see what possibly can happen in an Asda at 1am but Toph refused to stop. However it was hard to fathom exactly where we were with me saying things like 'I recognise this, I came to a gig here about ten years ago' type stuff. To be honest I also dated someone in Hither Green (Lewisham to you) nearly two decades ago but I hated the trip even when there was sex to lure me. Now there was some nice drinks and food with the Icelandic friends who were not quite at war with us yet.

The party was lovely but full of kids rushing around and screaming at the top of their lungs because someone forgot to remove the 2L bottles of coke from which they were freely drinking. So it was a bit hard to hear anyone believe it or not. The house was so untouched from the 70's and bohemian that I started to get itchy. The primary colours on every wall were probably a good idea to cheer up the kids when they were small but now??? We spoke to a new teacher girl (who had previously been a volunteer and travelled a lot). She was great as she spoke for probably an hour about herself and her job and there was no need to make an effort. She was sharing a house in Croydon with a lovely sculptor guy who told us he'd moved there originally because of ex wife's job (she had to go to some suburb nearby that I've never heard of and have excised from my memory. Then, after about 20 years together, the ex wife had now run off to live with a lawyer in.... Hampsted. Either she's not working anymore or the commute would be bizarre, but the net sum was that sculptur was stuck in the unsellable huge house in Croydon. I think Toph and I probably intook breath at the same time as the thought of Croydon. Don't care what you say. I am never going that far from the centre. He seemed ok. Very metrosexual and tall and attractive. But somehow can't think of any g/friends for him. Yet. We chatted to a couple more people we knew and love and who can be found mostly near us at any time of the week, and then returned. It's no good turning parties down but they're not what they used to be let's face it. No dancing goes on, no snogging and in a corner were some seriously older than us people busy smoking funny fags.