Weekend

Went to my friend Mike's leaving do on Friday evening - he's off to New Zealand to settle down with his girlfriend Kim, who's from there (they met over here about, blimey, 5 years ago now. Don't time fly etc etc). Was fun, but I was a bit tired & the bar got noisy & thus difficult to hear in, so Pete & I headed home around 11 rather than staying for the late-night bit. I shall miss Mike - though he promises he'll be back in April for a visit.

Saturday morning we got up horribly early to cycle to B&Q on the Old Kent Road, & also a place called Floors-2-Go or something. Ye gods, the horrendous domesticity of it all (current house update: mortgage sorted pending surveyor's report, surveyor having apparently visited house this morning, & Pete & I sending them ID; solicitor instructed & sent cheque for first lot of fees). We were very taken with bamboo flooring, which is more expensive than laminate (but not *that* much more than decent laminate), but is very nice indeed. And also environmentally friendly & longer-lasting. Possibly we are horribly poncey but I do not care, pretty floors. I have spent far too much time over the last few days looking at flooring websites.

Anyway, after returning from that expedition I headed up to Camden to meet kitty_goth in order to get lunch (very very slow service at a cafe down towards Mornington Crescent, & the food was only average on arrival) & buy Whitby tickets. And also some comics. There was a vague plan involving more shopping, but after hideous slowness of lunch (pleasant though it was of course to chat to Ben) & about 5 minutes of Camden-crowd, I was becoming irritable, not to say homicidal, so we went home instead. Via the Highbury Jeans Shop, which looks like a distinctly pikey establishment, but in fact is a rather nice place containing a very helpful bloke with an extensive knowledge of his stock, who was able to find me a pair of reasonably well-fitting jeans within 10 minutes & 3 pairs. I felt this was impressive. And lovely Ben paid for them, for he is lovely. I now, therefore, have more than one pair of reasonable trousers. Yay.

Went out to the pub Saturday evening with assorted folk inc. Pete, Rick, Marna, Sean, Katie, Amos, & jdc. This was a Good Thing. Especially as I also did much knitting (although had to rip back a couple of inches of hoodie sleeve due to picking-up wrong).

Sunday morning Ben got up early to pack, & I attempted to continue sleeping; before heading to Paddington to have breakfast at Raffles cafe (lovely chips&beans&mushrooms) & see him onto the Heathrow Express. Bah. After which I met up with angelmine & katyha at Waterloo for lunch (well, they had lunch. I had eaten too many chips&beans&mushrooms to eat lunch as well) & extensive conversation. This was Good.

Post-lunch was enormously lazy - looked at more flooring websites, knitting, had dinner, watched some West Wing, etc etc.

And this evening I am off to Didcot for a couple of days, for a conference. How utterly thrilling for me.

Weekend

Went to my friend Mike's leaving do on Friday evening - he's off to New Zealand to settle down with his girlfriend Kim, who's from there (they met over here about, blimey, 5 years ago now. Don't time fly etc etc). Was fun, but I was a bit tired & the bar got noisy & thus difficult to hear in, so Pete & I headed home around 11 rather than staying for the late-night bit. I shall miss Mike - though he promises he'll be back in April for a visit.

Saturday morning we got up horribly early to cycle to B&Q on the Old Kent Road, & also a place called Floors-2-Go or something. Ye gods, the horrendous domesticity of it all (current house update: mortgage sorted pending surveyor's report, surveyor having apparently visited house this morning, & Pete & I sending them ID; solicitor instructed & sent cheque for first lot of fees). We were very taken with bamboo flooring, which is more expensive than laminate (but not *that* much more than decent laminate), but is very nice indeed. And also environmentally friendly & longer-lasting. Possibly we are horribly poncey but I do not care, pretty floors. I have spent far too much time over the last few days looking at flooring websites.

Anyway, after returning from that expedition I headed up to Camden to meet kitty_goth in order to get lunch (very very slow service at a cafe down towards Mornington Crescent, & the food was only average on arrival) & buy Whitby tickets. And also some comics. There was a vague plan involving more shopping, but after hideous slowness of lunch (pleasant though it was of course to chat to Ben) & about 5 minutes of Camden-crowd, I was becoming irritable, not to say homicidal, so we went home instead. Via the Highbury Jeans Shop, which looks like a distinctly pikey establishment, but in fact is a rather nice place containing a very helpful bloke with an extensive knowledge of his stock, who was able to find me a pair of reasonably well-fitting jeans within 10 minutes & 3 pairs. I felt this was impressive. And lovely Ben paid for them, for he is lovely. I now, therefore, have more than one pair of reasonable trousers. Yay.

Went out to the pub Saturday evening with assorted folk inc. Pete, Rick, Marna, Sean, Katie, Amos, & jdc. This was a Good Thing. Especially as I also did much knitting (although had to rip back a couple of inches of hoodie sleeve due to picking-up wrong).

Sunday morning Ben got up early to pack, & I attempted to continue sleeping; before heading to Paddington to have breakfast at Raffles cafe (lovely chips&beans&mushrooms) & see him onto the Heathrow Express. Bah. After which I met up with angelmine & katyha at Waterloo for lunch (well, they had lunch. I had eaten too many chips&beans&mushrooms to eat lunch as well) & extensive conversation. This was Good.

Post-lunch was enormously lazy - looked at more flooring websites, knitting, had dinner, watched some West Wing, etc etc.

And this evening I am off to Didcot for a couple of days, for a conference. How utterly thrilling for me.