2001-08-27 - 11:28 p.m.

It seems to have been a weekend for slackness. In this part of the world, it was a three-day weekend for the "Late August Bank Holiday" so I had extra time in which to be idle with my crazy pals. I couldn't see my sometime-sweetie 'cause he was busy trying to get one of his motorcycles back together , so I had to occupy myself *somehow*.

Friday afternoon I finally got dressed, talked on the phone a little and wandered over to Their Maj's house for dinner. Nice dinner, chat time with Queenie, sitting in the garden, watched some mindless TV (a South Park episode I'd seen last winter in the US, part of The Court Jester, one of my all-time fave movies). Sleep, eventually - took a while to get there - crashed on the spare mattress where I have often slept with my sometime-sweetie. Miss him.

Get up relatively on-time Saturday, cute Q is still asleep, so have a morning chat with their housemate Liz then head off into the heart of High Street (Oxford Street, in London - big shopping area) for a trip to buy work clothes with Nina, my "personal shopper". (She's actually a friend of mine but her mom is a couturier so she knows shopping!)

Shopping is a bust. I'm in that in-between stage where nothing fits right, plus it is miserably hot out so I'm sweaty and sticky. Ugh. After much rummaging, one coffee break and a lunch break later, I come away with a pair of linen blend slacks, a linen blend dress, a skirt and a top. It's a start, at least. Too much trying on of clothes, not enough water, much walking at a slow pace through shops, all makes for a sleepy, cranky Keilyn. Eventually we meet up with some of Nina's friends from Oz who will be staying with her that night, have coffee at Marks & Sparks, then I head home - too tired to continue socializing.

I crash out at home, reread some of Harry Potter, make myself a light supper. Snooze....

Sunday, Nina was going to come over and sew, but she doesn't. I finished up the last of the Pennsic laundry (well, almost), puttered around the house a bit, read some more, napped. Got a really splendid email from one of the guys in Scotland complimenting me for something (but I'm not sure what). Eventually (after much delay) headed up to my apprentice's house for a poker evening.

This was splendid, even if none of us particularly play poker. We were playing 5p ante, 5-card draw, with a "bug" (weird joker wild card rules). I got pretty consistently crappy hands, so I wasn't too enthused by the game, but it was good to see my mates, hang out, drink whisky, eat pizza, etc. At 11:30 I had to take a Board conference call - how *tedious* - that ran for almost two hours. By the time I was off the phone, only Meesh and I were left from the party. (Blessings on Tina & Nina who kept me supplied with beverages during the call!)

For those of you who don't do maths, it's now something like 1:30 am. But we're not tired, we haven't seen Meesh in a month (she's been on holiday in the US), two of the three of us are having life/relationship issues, so we have to gab. And gab. And drink. And gab. Somewhere in here, and mostly by my lonesome, I polished off a small bottle of Laphroaig and the tail end of a bottle of Auchentoshan, along with some champagne (and various non-alcoholic drinks during the conference call). The girls made serious inroads into two bottles of gin, a lot of vermouth, the champers and some of the whisky. So we were far from sober when, at 5:30, it occurred to us we might should get some sleep! Meesh & I bedded down on the spare mattresses and talked for another half hour or so in the dark, so my estimated bedtime was 6 am. Ugh.

At 10:57 I was awakened by the blaring tune of Sunshine of Your Love as played on the Nokia 3210 telephone. Ugh. Who is calling me? Where is my phone? It will wake Meesh -must find it! Ow, my head hurts! Where did I put the phone last night? Ugh! Ah, phone is here somewhere - in envelope with conference call materials! Aha! Answer it, must answer it.

It's Nina, wondering if I'm still asleep and at Tina's, and wanting to come over and sew today (I vaguely recall having discussed this the previous night while on the Board conference call...). I say I'll call her when I'm awake and hang up (probably more rudely than I intended - sorry, chica!) Must sleep more. Wake up around 1:30 and realise we need to get Meesh moving - she's supposed to be meeting people at 4 and has stuff to do beforehand. Tina brings us tea in bed, and we sip and chat. About 2:30 Meesh actually gets on the road, and I begin rousting myself - dressing, freshening up, taking Vitamin I for my hangover, having a beer and some cold pizza. Breakfast of champions. We plot a little about the upcoming event this weekend (the first ever feast by yours truly and her apprentice!!!) I stagger home carrying 4 kg of wild boar....

Get home around 5-ish. Call Dan, he's settled in at his place so we scrap our original idea of going to a movie - I can't even tempt him with Sree Krishna excellent curry. Housemates are gone (turns out they went to the Notting Hill Carnival). Nina decides she's tired and isn't coming over to use the sewing machine after all. I've finished the Harry Potter book I was reading and have queued to reread the last one (but need to wait for roomie to finish it). So I putter, roomies return, we go out for takeaway dinners.

Sigh. It was good, we ate in the garden, I had a nice curry and played some computer games.

So,sum total accomplishment for the weekend was almost nil, but it was okay. Tomorrow is fighting practice and I get to see my sweetie. Whee!

�

previous - next

�