13 March 2010

I'll start by telling you that I am listening to The Kinks. Quite upbeat for this time on a Saturday when vous are generally easing yourself into your evening...

I'm off to Andy's house tonight. Remember the little vignette of a week or so ago about walking down Seven Sisters High Street being accosted? Well, I was staying at Andy's house when this happened. I get to relive the charm of West Green Road once again. This time, I'll be carrying Andy's amp which I've been sitting on ever since Stephen left London. And that's a very long time indeed. Last time I saw Andy, I managed to return his guitar that I almost mistakenly sold on Gumtree... A guitar is a guitar is a guitar and I happened to have two at the time. It's a confusing business for a simple little girl even if she does seemingly have a head for business.

I think the morale of the story might be that you shouldn't lend things to Stephen. Not big items anyway.

Last night, when Nick returned from the gym, and I'd finished telling my parent's what had passed that week with my new sim card that call New Zealand for a mere 4p a minute (such a steal!), we took a stroll down to Martin's house, who lives but a few minutes down the road. This is his new apartment. It's swell. I made some congratulatory noises. Of course, our little ex-local has charm but no style. Martin's apartment has style. More importantly, his apartment has Rock Star or Rock Band or some such game and it turns out that after a couple of wines I'm an expert on the bass when it's in easy mode. Later, we found out that after a couple of wines, none of us are experts on the microphones. When all inhibitions are caste aside - it's actually quite a horror to observe us. Imagine, instead of sitting around a table shouting at each other, we're shouting at the screen, discordantly, piercingly when it comes to the higher notes. The Beatles will never forgive what we've done to their tunes. I can also assure you that Blondie will not be pleased either.

We discussed calling it a night a number of times between about midnight and three in the morning but we must have been having an amazing time because it wasn't until about four that I got to bed. That decision Nick and Martin would live to regret on account of the fact that they were catching an early flight to Thailand this morning. I won't recount the morning's hilarity when I woke at half past seven for my run and found that Nick wasn't quite out the door and on his way to Heathrow.

I myself contemplated for about half an hour whether I truly wanted to go for the run that I had planned and made the worthy decision that instead of running I would throw back a cup of tea and head into the office. Well, of course, there is nothing interesting to report about that. I powered through for about six hours at which point I felt so sorry for myself that I went home for a nap. I'm sure that the only thing that got me through was the four breakfasts I had over the course of the morning each accompanied with a strong black instant coffee. I'll pay for this tomorrow and ply myself with fruit and vegetables. Poor old body.

On the bus home from work I hit the same landmarks which I consider in much the same way each day. There's a restaurant on Caledonian Road which is missing a couple of letters on its sign. At first glance, therefore, it seems to read "Rest & Rant". I think that would be a nice name for a restaurant. Come in, passerby, stop and rest and while you're at it, have a little rant, it seems to say.
"What's on your mind sir?"
"Well, kind proprietor," he says as he takes the coffee that the man behind the counter has offered him and eyes up the cakes in their displays, "well, I just find that every time I [insert rant here]." Huff, puff.
"How do you feel now?"
"Oh, much better, thank you. Thank goodness for the Rest and Rant!"
And he moves on feeling a burden lifted.

I also hit Ponder Street. Now, I've already told you about Ponder Street but you wouldn't know it because I lost my first blog post. I like Ponder Street. It gets me pondering...

I always take biscuits to Andy's house. Generally the 89p variety. So I'm off to get biscuits and enjoy a night of loafing around in the studio.

Bye for now.