11/06 - I was still feeling awful when I got up, so I stopped off at the pharmacy on my way in. I have fixed my suitcase so that it (kind-of) works now, with the aid of some hammock rope and a caribener. I had a couple of meetings then headed off to the airport at 3pm, arriving in Brighton by about half 6. I dropped my stuff off at our hostel, then proceeded to the restaurant, bumping into the others en route. There were probably 25 of us there, quite a few for the restaurant to handle - the meal was adequate, although I didn't eat too much of mine as I had an emergency pasty on the train. Also I felt very ill all day, so my ill-advised gorgonzola gnocchi did not sit too well. The next stop was the pub, somehow we all split up very quickly and I ended up in a Wetherspoon's with Pat and Rob, chatting about boats (they were chatting about boats, I have no knowledge in this field). We then went to Oceana, which was really huge and grim - seven interconnected bars in a massive windowless building. Simon and I did some tours of the place, occasionally stopping off for Jägerbombs and the like, leaving at around 3ish. On our way home I managed to lose my wallet (again), and after some optimistic searching Simon found it on the street outside Oceana, still with the money and cards within. My hero.
12/06 - I didn't feel as awful as I could have today, although I completely failed to finish a full English. We got a bus at 1pm to go go-karting. I did not do very well - second to last in fact, and that was probably only because Simon missed a heat. It was really well organised and really nice weather, in fact I was wandering about shirtless in the sun. We had 5 races each (18 heats in total) then a final, in which Mark came 3rd and Nikhil 2nd.
We came back to town and met Birdie, who had just got in. We went and watched the England vs. USA match in the basement of Audio, a club on the seafront - I ditched the last 10 minutes of the 1st half and the 1st 10 of the second half, preferring to get more sun and relaxation instead. Once again we split up sharpish, wandering around the pubs and clubs of Brighton - Ed was going to get the last train back to London at 2338, but I persuaded him (it was not hard) to get the first train instead, at 0350. Even then, he went home a good while before the rest of us.
13/06 - I awoke not hungover, just very tired - I made it down to breakfast at ten, then managed to get the 1140 train back to London. Everyone else stayed and had a day at the beach, I think. At Clapham Junction I got on the 37 bus tofind that Kelly was upstairs - perfect timing. We both had a much needed nap (she had been in Somerset on a tandem with Georgie, riding round cider farms for the weekend), then got some BBQ stuff. We had Clare and Georgie round for dinner, and for once the whole house was in. It was a pretty nice relaxed Sunday summer's evening, after Birdie sorted out my disaster of a BBQ. We had a fair amount of wine, watched some episodes of The Pacific and then went to bed - the whole house had an early night, in fact.
14/06 - I had a good start to today - Kelly went off to Journal Club at around seven, while I stayed in bed. We had leftover BBQ for, well, brunch I suppose, then just hung out in the house - this is something we have not really been able to do here as of yet. I went and met Clare after work, and we walked back to her house (via getting a refund on my broken suitcase and buying some smartish shoes, finally). We met Kelly in a really nice pub on Roupell Street, possibly called the Albert, then Kelly and I got a cab to St. John where I had pig's head and radishes, then roast beef with carrot and aioli. Kelly had brown crabmeat on toast then turbot. It was a really good restaurant, very simple and delicious. We had intended to get an early night as I am on the 0815 flight tomorrow morning, but (as always on our last nights) I couldn't really sleep at all.
15/06 - Eugh - I was up at 6 after no sleep and somehow got distracted while brushing my teeth, which resulted in my jamming the head of the toothbrush down between my gum and my cheek. I did this pretty hard, and it ripped a whole in the flesh down there - well, three holes actually, which I do not expect to heal too quickly. The replacement suitcase I found in the basement is pretty awful (in that the wheels don't work, so it is just an inconvenient sack) and once I was on the plane they informed us that the flight was delayed by 40 minutes AND took 40 minutes extra due to the French air traffic controller's strike. I had lunch on my own at CERN and worked until pretty late, when I had a salad (well, there were no leaves, but it was definitely from the salad bar) for dinner, then went off to French. There were only four of us there this time, which is ridiculous. We just did a load of exercises, then I made it back in half an hour, unpacked, talked to Kelly for a while and ended up staying up until one or so - that's 18 hours or so, that'll do.
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