w/c 27.07.08

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Sunday 27 July 2008
Chillage.

Monday 28 July 2008
Last lesson ever!!!!! Well, for the summer at least. Had a nice class - managed to give them a test for most of it so I could sit in peace. Should've brought a book... Gave them a tin of boiled sweets as a final farewell. Kind of sad, but exciting as well because it means I'll get to do other stuff instead. Every closing door opens a window of opportunity, or however the saying goes...

Major problems with the keyboard so Alex decided to take off all the keys. Turned out not to be of any help at all...

Tuesday 29 July 2008
Met up with Javier for another intercambio session at the coffee shop. As soon as I saw him I thought he looked a bit geeky. Then he started to speak and my suspicions were confirmed. He seemed alright though, nice enough. Not sure if I could handle more than an hour or so at a time with him though...kept telling me things that I didn't really need to know. And did things like drew a map of where he was staying in Bournemouth.

Last day before I fly to London, so bit of packing and trying to write a list of things I need to do once in London.

Wednesday 30 July 2008
Lots of preparation for London in the morning, although I was certain I'd forgotten something. Nevertheless I caught a taxi to the airport with Alex for my evening flight, with my boarding pass already printed. When we got to the airport, I still had to check in my bag, so it wasn't really that much quicker than if I had checked in at the airport! Guess I already had my seat though... Started being a bit ditzy though, because while in the queue I put the bag in the tote, which I was supposed to lock, only to find that I didn't bring the padlock. Doh! Then I realised that I had my toiletry bag in my hand luggage and I wasn't allowed liquids on the plane, so I had to undo the tote and put my toiletry bag inside. I checked my luggage in without locking it - suppose it holds all the straps in. I was worried that the bag would be overweight, but it turned out to be only 16kg, so well underweight 😊 I then proceeded to the departures area, and said goodbye to Alex. I nearly took in the bottle of water I was holding before Alex reminded me I wasn't allowed it. What's wrong with me today??!?! So I walked through passport control and got to the x-ray machines. I picked up a tray, put my jacket and everything in my hands in the tray and the bag through the machine, only to realise that my pockets were still full of electronic equipment! There's obviously something seriously wrong with my brain. It's not functioning properly! So I had go back and grab a tray, empty my pockets and line up again. Once I got through though, there wasn't much more that could go wrong, so I wandered around for a while until my plane was ready. The flight was delayed by an hour. Eventually I got on the plane with my Daily Mail and was sat next to some loud northern bird who was doing my head in before she got her laptop out and started watching something on it. When I got to Heathrow, I couldn't see anyone with a sign with my name on it, so I called momma who called the cab firm and the guy walked in from outside. When I got home, momma paid the driver and made me some noodles, which was nice of her 😊 I think she's pleased to see me.

Thursday 31 July 2008
I arranged to meet up with Simon from work for lunch at 14:30 at Japacen. Before I met up with him, I popped into Boots to pick up some supplies for us - ended up spending £25!!!!! I was shocked. Lucky I had another card to use instead of the Halifax, as I didn't seem to have the right pin..!

Lunch was really yummy. I had the spicy beef gyu-don, which turned out to be not very spicy at all. It came with a raw egg, which I didn't really know what to do with, so I mixed it in the bowl and poured it over the rice. Interesting... Simon got the duck, which was really nicely presented with a slice of cucumber between each piece of duck. We had a nice chat, and he kindly paid for me. I tried to give him some night nurse as payment back, but he didn't want any.

I wanted to go to Brent Cross to pick up some more stuff, but the Boots bag was getting quite heavy, so I decided to drop it off at home first. By the time I got home, I figured I didn't have enough spare time before my evening appointment to go to Brent Cross, so I sacrificed my shopping spree and chilled out for a few minutes. After my appointment I picked up some dessert from M&S - lychees, figs, and cheesecake. Yum!

I had to help momma with the shopping for the BBQ on Saturday, so we went to Morrisons, where she spent over £80 on food and drinks - and that wasn't even including meat!! Just the veg and drinks. I wanted to meet up with Saj after so I could meet his new girl, but didn't really have time, because there was so much stuff to do! So had to sacrifice the meeting and I guess I'll just have to meet her next time... Dinner was nice and got to catch up with momma 😊

Friday 1 August 2008
Was meant to meet up with Amar at 14:00 for lunch before embarking on our afternoon of drinkage, but ended up meeting around 15:00 in Kilburn at the Brondes Age bar. On the way to the train station I got a text from an unknown number that started “ahoy hoy”. As Nil always starts out with the same greeting, I automatically assumed it was him. So I told him what my plans were for the evening and agreed to meet later.

At Brondes Age, I got my usual, which I enjoyed a little too much, after not having a nice soco lemonade for so long... and we shared a jug of pimms, which was really weird and they'd put mint in it and it just tasted of cucumber. Shame. Cyntac joined us a bit later before he started work and we went to Small and Beautiful across the road, where I had calamari for starters and chicken for main. Those guys had mussels for starters and duck (Cyntac) and fish (Amar) for mains. It was nice. Cyntac had to leave early to catch the train, so that left Amar and me to go forth and find a pub.

We headed to Camden, where Nudz was drinking to celebrate his birthday at the Edinburgh Castle. They had a BBQ going on there, but we were already stuffed so we just got a drink and had a cotch with him, Luke and a guy whose name has escaped me momentarily. Ryan CK then joined us later, which was nice as I hadn't seen him in so long 😊 Unfortunately we had to leave sharpish because we were meeting Milky near the station. Got another text from Nil to say he was in Farringdon already and should he come to Camden. I told him we were leaving soon so probably not worth him trekking here. So Amar and I left the other guys to meet Milky at the World's End pub, and on the way bumped into her pops and bro who just left her to get some dinner. I found her in the toilets putting on her make up, and then Sach called to say she was here and I told her to join us in the pub. Once we were all gathered, we started to make our way to Farringdon.

Once we got there, we met with Amber at the station - it's been even longer since I've seen her so that was nice :D We then made our way to the bar that Amar had told everyone to go to, which we found out was called Raduno and right next to Fabric, picking Saj up on the way. As we neared it, Milky said it looked shit, but once she found out it was 2 for 1 cocktails, she was sold! I started off with a cider, as none of the cocktails took my fancy. Amit and Duncan were already there when we arrived, so we had a nice group there. As we sat down with our drinks, I asked Saj if I could double check Nil's number for some reason - and good thing I did too, because it turned out it wasn't Nil after all. Oopsie! We checked the number on his phone, but it didn't come up with anyone's name so Saj said qutie logically that we'll just have to keep an eye out and whoever walks in that I recognise but haven't spoken to will clearly be the culprit. Baffling tho - couldn't for the life of me figure out who it was.

After Rich arrived, Saj said “look who it is!”, clearly indicating it was the mystery man, and I turned to see Bobo. Made sense really - he'd say “ahoy hoy” too... So I double checked the number again but on Saj's other phone where Bobo's number's stored, but it still didn't match. So that just confused me even more. Saj then said we should call the number, but then that would have made it quite blatant that I didn't know who it was and that I'd been texting this guy as if he was someone else. So he said he'd call it, but then if it WAS Bobo, he'd know because he was standing right there. So he had the clever idea of dialling 141. I permitted him to carry out Operation Mystery Man, and he said it went straight to voicemail, but he couldn't quite catch the name, and suggested I go outside and listen to the voicemail message. So I went outside and redialled the last number. Unfortunately this time it actually started to ring, and as I looked inside, I could see Bobo reaching into his pocket. Shit! So I tried to hang up, but it wouldn't hang up!! So I ran inside, mouthed to Saj “It's him!” while pointing to Bobo and gave the phone back halfway through climbing over the seats to get back. I think Bobo could tell it was us because he was looking in our direction, but I don't think he sussed out why, so think I'm safe for now. I don't think he reads this blog so could be home free...

Nudz, Luke, Mo, Marc, Sinead, Kenji, and I'm sure some other people eventually joined us later on too, and had a nice mini catch up before the club. Amit asked what shot I wanted, to which I replied I didn't, but he insisted. So he got me a sambuca, which Milky didn't like because she thought I'd had too much! I survived it tho. Then Moses turned up with his mate from LA, and he asked if I wanted a drink but I said no, only to have him hand me a shot of sambuca “on his (Amit's) recommendation”. Bastardo!

We managed to convince Rich and Bobo to come to Fabric, as Raz had a couple of spare tickets. Although it didn't take that much persuading after a few drinks... We decided to leave at 23:00, but Moses went to get some cash out and the machine swallowed his card, so we waited outside the club while he tried to sort it out. We eventually got inside, with Rich and Bobo a few metres behind us, only to find that Rich had misplaced his ticket. Silly moo! But then he found it in his back pocket. Silly moo! We managed to find the others, but only for a short while before losing them again. The dnb room was good, although I found out that Moses hates dnb and was only there because of Milky - dedicated boyfriend! The main room was pretty crap and we ventured upstairs for a couple of minutes before heading back downstairs to the dnb.

Milky left early as she had a wedding to go to the next day, and Rob and Bobo petered out around 5:00. So we left at 5:30, saying our goodbyes to Mo, Marc, Nudz and Luke, and made our way to the train station, where we caught the train home. As I reached home, Bobo was still waiting for the bus. Haha! Times like these I love living close to a tube stop...

Saturday 2 August 2008
Got to sleep around 6:30, and got woken up by the architect who was measuring up for the loft conversion at about 10:30. Had to help momma with the preparation for the BBQ, so dragged myself out of bed and got ready. Lots to do, including a beautiful Spanish Omelette that I made. Well, half made. I started it and as it was in the pan, my first guest arrived, so I had to entertain and let momma finish it off! It was Mett/Egypt/Gayew! Nice to see him after so long, and he'd come bearing rose. We had a nice chat, and CC and Amit arrived as Ken and Dani and momma carried on with the prep. There was soooo much food! Egypt picked up a piece of meat thinking it was chicken and when momma told him it was pork, he plonked it on my plate instead. Nice! No biggie - more food for me! :D Later Rich and Ruth arrived, with a big chocolate gateau for momma. That was nice of them, and it pleased dear mother 😊 Saj then arrived a while later and we all feasted. By the time Milky arrived with Moses and Ryan, I was pretty full but they were hungry so she told everyone it was such a nice day that they should be outside. Once everyone went into the garden, she guarded the food inside, i.e kept it all for herself. Cheeky. But I like her style... I half planned to go to Edgware Road later with Egypt, but by the time he was finished with his meeting, we were both pretty knackered so I just watched TV with momma and went to bed.

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Photos

Keyboard
just in case we forget the order the keys go back

Keyboard #2
we didn't need these in the end, but they might come in handy in the future....

Yum!
don't disturb me while i'm eating...

Arty photo
there's actually a bee under the cup

Action shot
robot dance...?

YUM!
mmmm....chicken

The chefs
without them, the world would implode

Punters
enjoying the goods

Beautiful branch
i was captured by the stunning leaves and forgot about the people

Chocolate cake
tasted like truffles