Living in the Smoke

In honor of Friday I am saying fuckit to .....

Impending traffic chaos as I try to cross London and get to Reading to see parental unit among the normal holiday weekend traffic and Reading Rock Festival traffic. Joy.

Anything you'd like to say "Fuckit" to ?

Today will be a happy day.

I demand it.

I want silly jokes.

I want good natured teasing.

I want good memories.

I have the good memories part handled as my head is full of them.

Happy Birthday Cody xx

.... before they are considered assassinated and not murdered?

I just want to know what the arresting officer will charge me with before I go and beat a co-worker who is so full of their own self-importance.

Sitting here at work gazing out at the towers that make Canary Wharf and reflecting on friendships.

KB has a hard time getting her head around the fact that I have more blog friends here in the UK than I do others. In fairness I have only been in UK for 3 years. In fact I can honestly say there are 7 people from here (9 if you count 2 who do not frequent this establishment anymore) who I would not think twice about inviting to my wedding and there are only 4 non-blog friends who would be there.

Is that strange? Or is it just a sign of the fast moving times that we live in.

Anyway, I digress and shall do a post on that at a later date.

So here I am reflecting on friends and the two wonderful ones I have in Landers and Scooby.

For nearly two years they have had an invitation held out to me to visit, to just get away, to have somewhere I could go to get my head back together. I finally took them up on it and cheekily asked if I could take KB along.

I am not great a doing write-ups etc so I shall just give you a summary of my wonderful weekend and let you know that it's fucking cold over there, I have an adopted cat who I am so going to steal, the wind is incredible, I can hit a ball from the ground with a flat thingy, wall kicking is a must do, beware of being pushed off a wall, guiness isn't as painful as seeing a yellow mini, there are no eels in the river, KB can spot a for sale sign from 3 miles, bundles of towels make you feel loved, face licking from dogs is a great exfoliator, drag queens have great legs, we have a date on June 1st 2013, Galway Gay Pride is heaving, I smoke too much, Ryan Air uses traineee pilots and I love my friends.

It was nice to meet up with them sober even though we didn't stay that way (I have been reminded that the first time they met me I was throwing a glass of red wine over Nick - I do NOT remember this).

Merry Christmas, you cunts.

x

* typing out loud *

When sitting in a cavernous kitchen this weekend and commenting on how it would be a perfect 'Come Dine With Me' location an idea started to take hold.

What about a bloggers version?

Entries could be taken ... maybe the community could vote on which 5 they would like to see take part out of all those who 'apply'.

It could be carried out over a number of months to allow for the logistics of travelling to each others homes.

Entrants must be able to host such a dinner party (so booking a table at a restaurant does not count).

Each guest diner submits score (to me?) and is honor bound not to blog what they scored. Maybe a little video of them holding their score card and why that score??

Then at the end winner could be announced. Probably no cash prize but maybe some kind of prize can be arranged.

Hmmmmmm ... want to think more on this but out of curiousity ....

...anyone think they might be interested??

Edited to add

So far it looks like we have the following interested :

Scooby ( with Landers videoing and entertaining partners )
Jennie
Juzzzy
Sixpence
Myself (much to KB's amusment when she read this last night)

Anyone else and I do not mind dropping out on the poviso I will be attending all 5 diners as hidden guest to laugh/take scores etc.

.... the Irish are insane !!

More to come later.

.. I will be figuring out how to fit a weekends worth of stuff into a carry-on bag.

Ireland here we come !!

KB is insanely nervous about meeting the gorgeous beings known as Landers and Scooby.

I have tried to explain that she has not a thing to be nervous about.

I would have thought she would have gotten over that after meeting our very own shoe freak Row and the darkly witty TKK.

But it has just occured to me why she is nervous.

There are a select handful of you who while I do not see often I absolutely consider to be friends of the best kind and I may have talked you up in a way that has contributed to her nerves.

So, from now on I am going to run you lot into the ground so then if and when she gets to meet the rest of you who have helped me through the hell of the last few years well, quite simply she wont give a shit.

Perfect plan, you bastards

.... because I have just voiced my concern over the following:

"Only 22 per cent of 5 to 11 year olds in Tower Hamlets * speak English as a first language, according to a new report"

Articles then goes on to say:

"Research by the Department for Children, Schools and Families found that nationally English is no longer the mother tongue for a record 900,000 schoolchildren"

If being concerned by this makes me a racist then I guess I am.

* borough in London where I work (and lived until recently)

.. when I have been drinking.

We have been deathly polite to each other for two days all because of my big mouth.