So much for my promise to myself to post more frequent updates. Sorry self. I'm not good at keeping promises to myself. In fact, I usually forget my New Year's resolutions by 2 January, beating most people's time-to-forget by a good month.
So, to catch-up and summarise late December and January ...
For most of December and until mid-January we had C and L (a hetero married couple - C is female and L male) staying with us. They are good friends from Perth who have temporarily moved to London. I wish I had some funny stories to tell about their inappropriate house-guest behaviour. Sadly for this blog, I don't. They were perfect house guests (and C and L - I'm not just saying that because I know you two are in the teeny tiny group that reads this blog!).
C, L, G and I brought in the new year by attending a party in Islington. The party was in a flat occupied by six people. Unfortunately, one of those people was Ricky. Ricky is a man. Apparently his actual name is Richard. The fact that someone named Richard chooses to be known as Ricky (rather than Rich, Richie or any other one of the many acceptable abbreviations of the name Richard) should have sent alarm bells ringing. But, after a few pre-party champagnes at our flat, I was willing to be open minded. C and I therefore struck up conversation with Richie. Very early in the conversation, Richie asked if C and I had come to the party together. We said we walked there together, yes. Richie clarified that he meant did we come together. I then clicked and asked if he was in fact asking whether we were romantically involved. When he confirmed he was, I explained we were both married, each of us to men. At that point Richie asked if I was sure, saying "but my gaydar is never wrong". Clearly C and I have made the wrong lifestyle choices and Richie knows something we don't!
In early Jan G and I managed to fit in quite a bit of fun, including spending time with my Dad and family who were in London for a week. We had a few dinners together and all went and saw the RSC's production of As You Like It at the Roundhouse, which was excellent.
G and I also did the usual January activities, being sales shopping (not many bargains to be had this year) and ice skating at Somerset house. We survived the latter with no broken bones.
January saw yet another near-fight between G and a random girl at Kokos. Kokos is a club/music venue we often frequent. Unfortunately, every time we frequent the venue, a random female punter decides to try and pick a (usually pretty ridiculous) fight with G. Those who know G know that he's the least likely person to attract aggro but, for some reason, it always happens at Koko. The first time this happened (when we were seeing Avett Brothers, not exactly a heavy metal or hard rock band!), a random girl started remonstrating with G over his height and the fact he was blocking her view. All G said was "it's a club. People are going to stand in front of you. Anyway, I'm about a metre in front of you" before the girl's boyfriend leapt between the two of them, placing a hand on the chest of each and telling everyone "to chill. Just CALM down". This January we went and saw Dirty Projectors. At the end of the night we joined the (reasonably short) queue for the cloak room, to collect our winter coats. When G politely told a girl that she was queue jumping (she was blatantly pushing in front of us) she shoved him and asked him if he was from Melbourne because he had a "squishy nose and tight arse". G wasn't sure what to make of that one. Nor was I.
January also saw us attending what was probably the booziest cocktail party that I've attended in the last couple of years. J and J were the hosts and put on a fine spread of cocktails. C, L, G and I all went along, not intending to have a big night. I can't remember what time we got home. It's a sign we're getting old that we spent all of the next day curled up in the foetal position on the floor (or at least I did, I was in too much pain to see where everyone else was!).
In mid-January C and L found their own place and so moved out. Their new flat shares a toilet with the flat next door, a fact which I'm rather worried about; moving into a flat with a shared loo rather suggests that C and L were somewhat desperate to find a flat and move out of ours. This desperation may have been caused by by poor L's experience of having to look after me for a week in January when I had a nasty stomach virus and everyone else in the flat was working. I'm not the best patient, and playing nurse to me with a stomach bug is more than any house guest should have to endure.
The rest of January progressed as per usual. These days, usual means that I'm frantically busy during the week, doing my teaching work and regular work.
No doubt we did various other noteworthy things during January but I've already forgotten them. I blame the cocktail party.
I am promising myself that I'll summarise Feb over the weekend, to bring this blog up to date. But I suspect that by now you realise just how much that promise is worth!
