Monday, May 21, 2007

Congratulations and Celebrations

Ok ok here’s an update…

Last week started on a bit of a downer but quickly got better as the week progressed. I didn’t end up going out that Saturday night, because Kim called and cancelled because she was feeling ill. By then I’d gotten myself out of work mode and in to drinking and dancing mode, and so I was a bit miffed and didn’t feel like doing any work. So I spent the evening mooching and feeling sorry for myself and didn’t get anything done. Sunday was much the same, the weather was shitty, raining all day and I wasn’t feeling like doing any work. Simon brightened up the day when he popped round for a cup of tea, but my mood dropped again when another friend cancelled a prearranged meeting in the evening because something came up. I’d also had shitty sleep that weekend too and was generally feeling grouchy. I spoke to DL and she said that some of the side effects of smoking a joint could be insomnia, wrestlessness, irritability and paranoya, and I think I got all of them that weekend after getting stoned. Think I’ll stick to alcohol from now on if it leaves me feeling like that.

Monday was much better though. My dad came over for my birthday meal, and helped me clean up the flat, as some one mentioning no names hasn’t been feeling like doing her fair share of the house work lately, and because I’ve been either working or out the place needed a good vacuming and mop. It’s amazing how much mess one Labrador can make, all the hair that comes off her is amazing, you could make a quilt with it if you left it for a few days I’m sure. Anyway after the tidy up and a good old catch up over cups of tea, we took both dogs to the park which they loved, and then headed out to eat. My dad wanted to try tapas, something which he’s never eaten before, so we went to a lovely Spanish restaurant in town and had fried squid, chicken and chorizo sauceage in a garlic and white wine sauce, bbq chicken scures, vegetable rice and potato wedges in a tomato sauce. It was delicious, and after eating we headed back to the flat for coffee before he left, the evening I spent working on an essay due in today.

On Tuesday morning I headed in to uni for my last ever seminar, and finished in time to meet my mother afterwards. We went to the flat and she had some lunch, and after procrastinating for a while we decided to go clothes shopping. Unfortunately we didn’t realise the time and got stuck in really bad traffic in town, and so after sitting going nowhere for a while we decided to just go to the supermarket and buy food for the party I was giving on Wednesday for my birthday. We arrived back from shopping just as DL arrived from London which was fab, and there was much unloading of shopping and birthday presents, and after feeding the dog and relaxing for a while we all headed out to eat. This time we went to a bar and grill just down the road and we all ordered steak, and messed around taking photographs of each other while we waited for the food. I’ll try and post them online somewhere and put the link here so you can have a look. After we ate we went to the bar area and had cocktails, and there was much sexual innuendo because of the names of the cocktails, a multiple screaming orgasm for example.

Wednesday was my birthday, and I was woken up at 8:20 AM would you believe it by my uncle and cousin calling to wish me many happy returns. I was a bit sluggish and think I just muttered thank you, and was thinking, “why have you called me so early, damn it!” But it was good to talk to them of course and after that everyone got up. The day didn’t get off to a great start because my foot which had been hurting for the past few days for some unknown reason was causing me great pain, so much so that I could hardly walk on it and was forced to call the chiropodist first thing to get an appointment. Luckily she saw me within the hour, so I threw on some clothes and left the house, leaving my gifts unopened for the time being. After examining my foot and listening to what my symptoms were, she said it appeared that I had a case of Gout, would you believe, which is bought on by either too much spicey food, or acidic alcohol. Well I’d drank wine every night the week previously which I don’t usually do, so the build up of acid must have caused it to flare up. The bad news was that unless I saw the doctor and had my blood tested there wasn’t much she could do to ease the pain, as it’s a form of arthuritis that attacks the joints of the foot. So I spent the day in flat shoes, not walking around much, and haven’t drank wine since. It’s a lot better now although it still aches a little, and I haven’t managed to get to the doctor yet to have it checked out and something proscribed.

So after that incident I came back home and DL got out the camcorder while I opened my gifts. I mainly had money from my family which is always nice and from my mum I had some dvd’s, a beautiful pair of earings, a stunning chrystal candle holder and a framed photograph of myself in the middle of Times Square in New York. DL gave me a gorgeous matching ring and necklace which I told her off for because it must have cost her a fortune, and she was very sheepish and said she knew I would be mad but that they were so beautiful that she had to buy them. She also bought me the new dvd of Pink live at Wembly, the same tour that we went to see which I was very pleased with. I also got some beautiful cards, some that were hand made, others that were brailled, we had a great laugh trying to read my mum’s Braille which was full of mistakes, the same ones she makes every year bless her. This card read: “to ux precious daughter, happy twenmy firsq birthday, lots of loblei, mum xxxxxxx.” Heehee, you have to love her, ten out of ten for effort! In one card from my uncle he had found the worsed possible photograph of me when I was a kid that you could ever imagine and pasted it in to the card. The caption was something like, “you’re as cute now as you were then”, and the photo is of me looking very wind swept, my dress billowing up around my waste and my hair blowing wild in the wind, and a grimace on my face taken when I was about four years old. It had mum in fits of laughter and she proceeded to show it to everyone who came to the party that night, very embarrassing indeed.

When the gifts were all opened we ate breakfast, drank shampagne and watched the Pink dvd, and then set about preparing the flat for the party. Mum and DL put up birthday banners while I blew up balloons which seemed to scare the poor dog, especially when she burst one, and after that we began cooking the food. By the time we’d finished the big kitchen table was crammed full of lovely things to eat, we’d sorted out a party play list on the Ipod, and the flat was ready. Origionally mother was supposed to head home before the party, but she’d done such a wonderful job of helping us prepare and it was so obvious that she didn’t want to go home that I asked her to stay. Honestly though my mother is more of a party animal than myself, she’s far more inclined to get even more drunken and embarrassing than I ever could, but thankfully she behaved herself and got quietly tipsy and chatted to all my friends.

People began arriving at around nine with bottles containing various sorts of alcohol, and birthday presents, some of which included a gorgeous silver jewellery box from Kim, a bottle of Bailies from Helen, a home made cake from Simon, a gorgeous necklace from Frankie that she very drunkenly insist I put on, and lots of chocolate and things from Lush which I adore. By ten the flat was packed and I was struggling to make it around to say hello to every one in turn and make sure everyone was ok and had a drink and something to eat, but by about eleven thirty some people had left because of getting up for work etc and it was a little more manageable. After that there was room to dance, of which I did quite a lot with various different people, and the patio doors were open for people to smoke and the music was great. After that the birthday cake, or should I say cakes, being a chocolate cake from my mother, the home made cake from Simon and a Bailies cheese cake that DL had baked especially, all came out and were forced on people who had crammed themselves full with food from the buffet wich was very amusing. I was asked to make a speech and got very embarrassed and just told everyone to eat, drink and be merry, at which everyone cheered and the party resumed, thank goodness. I did have a bit of an emotional moment when a drunken Frankie started saying that I couldn’t go and live in London because I would be missed too much, but I told her to shut up and save that for my leaving party which will be in a couple of weeks. I also spent a lot of time talking to the gorgeous Helen, who insisted that I go to Climax that coming Friday night, which I couldn’t do because I was due to go to London to view houses. She and several others tried to railroad me in to going, but I tackfully said I’d consider it so they’d stop hastling me, having no intention of going of course because I needed to head down on the Friday for a full day of house viewings on the Saturday. By two A.M we were dropping and ready for bed, and finally coaxed the last few people out the front door at just after two thirty to drunkenly make their way home, after which we covered up the remaining food and collapsed in to bed. It was honestly a wonderful day, a birthday I’ll never forget and I am truly, truly blessed to have such wonderful, caring, devoted friends around me. I’m going to miss them all terribly, and I daren’t think about it or I’ll cry.

On Thursday morning DL and I had to be up bright and early. For my birthday last year she’d given me a spa day as a gift, and I’d never got round to booking it until now. So we decided I’d keep it for this birthday instead and we’d go the day after. We were booked in to have our first treatment at eleven and had to be at the Hilton hotel looking reasonably smart, not just like we’d had a heavy night of partying and only a few hours sleep. We staggered out of bed about an hour before we had to be there and to be honest neither of us felt like going very much. But when we got there that soon changed, we each had a back and neck massage followed by a facial and then had full use of the pool, steam room, jacusi and sauna for the rest of the day. The massage was just what I needed, and she did it deep and hard just how I like it, (stop sniggering!) and by the end all the tention had gone from my back muscles. The facial was also heavenly, although I started needing a wee half way through and spent the second half clenching my pelvic floor and wishing she’d hurry up and finish so I could go to the bathroom. It left my skin feeling wonderful though and took away the tired look from around my eyes. After the treatments we headed to the pool and spent a blissful few hours floating around in warm bubbly water, and clensing our bodies in the sauna and steam rooms, before hunger hit us and we dressed and headed home for a very late lunch. While we were at the spa we had a bit of a serious chat, and both clearly know where we stand. The basic facts are that we are not going to get back together anytime soon, if at all. Neither of us wants a relationship right now, and we’re going to work on the friendship. DL even talked about a woman she knows who she quite likes and I told her she should pursue it and see where it goes. She certainly knows I intend to do the same if some one comes along who grabs my interest. So yeah, that’s the story, I’m free and single and not leading anyone anywhere, and I feel much better for us having the talk.

The rest of the day I spent calling people to try and organise my house viewings, but didn’t manage to get it sorted until the Friday evening. On Friday we drove down to London in the afternoon, and went out with our ex house mate Doctor Taylor in the evening for drinks and met her current house mates who are all lovely. I think DL quite likes a French girl that doctor T lives with, called Elodie, just a sense I get when she’s around her. I won’t bore you with the details of house hunting, let’s just say it was a day of stress and hell. It was the FA cup final and every man and his dog was trying to get to Wembly fucking stadium on the fucking tube, so every fucking train was ridiculously overcrowded, and it took us hours to get anywhere. I was hours late for each appointment and had to keep calling people to appologise, and the majority of places I viewed were either in bad areas, or shitty houses. I was really beginning to give up hope and had one more house to visit. I should have been there at one PM and it was now four thirty. I’d texted the land lord throughout the day explaining the situation,and sheepishly called to see if it was still ok to view. He said it was fine and to come straight over, so we followed directions and arrived at the house. He had explained that there was building work going on in his back garden, they were putting in a new patio so the place was a bit of a mess. When we arrived the front door was open and there were workmen’s tools outside. So I knocked on the door and called inside, and a foreign guy came to the door. I said I was here to see the room for rent, and he disappeared inside, and came back out with about three or four other foreign guys, who all just stared at us. I tried again to explain who I was and why I was there, and they just kept repeating what I was saying, obviously not understanding. Mortified we turned away, thinking we’d got the wrong house and I again called the landlord who met us on the main road, and took us back to the very same house. Well then we all started to laugh, because it turned out that he had popped out for a minute and it was the pollish builders I had spoken too who hardly spoek English, and it was the right house afterall. The place might have been a mess with tools and dust everywhere, but the beauty of the place was apparent even then. The land lord and his partner are a gay couple and bought the house a year ago in a house auction and have basically gutted it and started from scratch. Downstairs is all wood floors just like in the flat I’m in now. The lounge is lovely and open and large, with comfortable and modern furniture and patio doors leading to the back garden. There is a separate kitchen and bathroom, and then upstairs are three bedrooms, one of which will be mine. It’s a double room, smaller than the one I have here, but it’s got everything I need, double bed, desk, wardrobes, small table and a fridge so I won’t need to take any bulky furniture with me. The gay couple are lovely, the only ones to offer us a drink the whole day, even though they were busy with the builders and so on, and they loved the dog. Apparently there’s another girl living there who I didn’t meet, she’s german and staying for a couple of months. The rent is really cheap for London prices, I just have to give a month’s notice when I want to leave, and it’s in a lovely area, a bus ride away from the underground in North London which is where I wanted to be. There’s also a lovely little park just next door where I can take Una for walks, so it’s ideal. I was so relieved to have found somewhere I liked, and yesterday I called the land lord and said I’d be happy to take the room. He’s sending me a contract via email and I start renting from the third of June, actually moving in on the twelfth. I’m so excited and it’s such a weight off my mind knowing I’ve actually got somewhere.

So now all I have to concentrate on is the remaining two weeks of my finals that I have left. I handed an essay in today and have one more plus an exam to revise for. Roll on June 1st!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, things are moving right along for you...or so it seems-from this end. I know it's been hectic for you though. I'm glad you found a happy place for yourself and Una!

That food from the Spanish restaurant sounds very interesting. There's just no place that interesting around here. And if there was, I wouldn't know what to order anyway. LOL! Speaking of which, how about getting that recipe from DL for the Bailey's cheesecake?!?? Never heard of it, but with Bailey's and it's cheesecake, it HAS to be heavenly!

I can't wait to see the pictures you took of your and your mother and DL's dinner out. It's so interesting to read about life in a different "world" and to see pics to go along with it, make it even more fabulous. I don't know if you realize how much of a different world it seems to me to be between us! Do you ever feel that way when you read people's blogs from other countries?

I wish I could've been at your party! Sounds like you've had a fun week in spite of a few things. How's your foot feeling today?

I'm glad you and DL had the honest to goodness talk that you had. That's refreshing to see such honesty and it work out without a scene. I wish she'd write in her blog again too. She may have...I haven't checked in a few days. Yours is always first, then hers, then the others that I read.

You're almost finished! Woohoo! You go girl! You are so on your way! I'm happy to "know" you, what I do know of you. You seem like such a fun person! And yet responsible at the same time!!

Don't forget to post those pics. SOON! I'm not beneath begging, but know it makes me seem like a weirdo, which I'm not. Well, maybe, but in a good way. LOL!!