I have got quite behind on this. I intended to write a little at the end of each day to document occurrences, but instead I end up writing nothing for ages, then having to spend a whole day writing stuff up, most of which I have forgotten, Consequently I shall attempt to be brief.
23/04 - On Friday morning I had to head straight to the dentist, where moulds were taken and I think I swallowed a fair bit of that rubbery goo they use to take impressions of the teeth. I then proceeded to putney, where I met Kelly on the train and we headed on to Chiswick for Dad and Hattie's party - The venue was a fair way from the station, and repeated references to maps and a couple of guesses were made before we arrived, at precisely the same time as my cousin and aunt. I aimed to find my Mum and greet here, but as she was on the far side of the restaurant this was quite a mission, as I had to run a gauntlet of faintly recognised (and, of course, more familiar) relatives to get to her. I remade some acquaintances I did not realise I had ever made and had a few too many glasses of champagne before lunch - it was tasty and free, so I found it hard to say no. The meal was great, I was positioned between Clare and my Aunt (the birthday girl) and a good way away from Kelly, but she seemed to fare pretty well on her own. There were some speeches and I feel I may have done some mild heckling at one point, when I was sharply shushed by a female voice - unsure whose, but I feel a bit bad about this. I had a great time, there were some good chats and an incident with a bra in a pocket, then all of a sudden it seemed to be time to go - Dad was being chivvied by Mum, most people had left and I had various invitations to stay in Chamonix and Luzerne at the weekend, which I agreed to enthusiastically but doubt I will be able to honour.
As we were leaving to walk to the station we encountered my cousin Alex, the only other person who did not seem to have a pressing engagement, and adjourned up the river to a pub (Clare and Paul were keen to join us, but they had rabbits in tow and it was a very sunny day). We had a few more glasses of wine while he awaited his friend, the arrival of whom I have only just remembered. We went home to meet Simon and Ed at our house before going to see LCD Soundsystem in Brixton. We thought we were fine, but looking back I think Kelly and I may have been extremely drunk when we arrived. The gig was incredible, I know I enjoyed it a lot, danced about and sang loudly, and came out with the firm conviction that This Is Happening is my favourite album of 2010 so far. On our way home we persuaded the others to stop for another pint in the rather grimy Brixton Bar & Grill, then we headed home. On our arrival we cooked up some drunken snacks and I cooked a whole pack of sausages to make a point about sell-by dates, I think.
24/04 - Eugh. I did not feel ideal this morning - Ed gave us a shout at 9 am to see if we still needed to get up early to go and get tickets for the treasure hunt we were planning on doing. This we did, so I left to go and get them and left Kelly to catch me up. I was in Brick Lane by about half 11, it took me over an hour to get there as all transport in South London appeared to be closed. Anyway, I got the tickets and waited for the others - Ali was the first to arrive, followed by Clare and Kelly a few minutes before the hunt was due to begin, and Tim joined us en route. I have taken part in murder mysteries/treasure hunts organised by the same guy twice before, and they always prove to be fun and exciting. We did our very best sleuthing all over central London but still failed to solve the mystery - I won't go into detail about any of the clues now, but suffice to say they were all pretty ingenious (once again, pictures are on facebook in the same album). On the downside Kelly and I ruined our feet somehow, to the extent that we got a taxi to and from the restaurant we had chosen for dinner, as walking to the bus was simply not an option.
The restaurant in question is Lola Rojo, a Spanish place on Northcote Road which Kelly has declared to be her favourite in London. It was delicious and great value - we had some incredible octopus, cod and black pudding parcels, massive prawns, chorizo lollipops, fig and serrano ham salad, a course I have forgotten and a cheese selection, all accompanied by some great wines, and followed by massive glasses of strong fino. My only complaint might be that Kelly and the waitress both recommended three courses each, which is ample for tiny ladies such as themselves, but I was definitely not full when I got home and had to have some crumpets to top myself up.
Potato parcels filled with cod and black pudding
25/04 - Today could be best described as pleasant. After a lazy morning I went onto the Common with Henry and Ed to play some frisbee, we ran about a while and got back to the house just as Kelly was ready to come and join us. Instead we decided to go on a bike ride, so Kelly and I got some helmets (at her insistence) and rode down to Battersea Park, around the Thames path a bit and stopped in the Draft House for a third of ale. We then went home and persuaded the others to come and see Acora, a film about the fall of Alexandria - good, and the audience had no choice but to side with Rachel Weisz's atheist Hypathia, but it felt a bit more like a BBC miniseries or a feature length episode of Rome than a film in its own right. Back at home we had a simple but great dinner, a massive sirloin steak cooked rare and cut into strips, topped with roasted vegetables and griddled tomatoes with a load of salad, heavy on the goats cheese.
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