Month of Madness

Well, March is well on it's way to becoming possibly the most manic month ever.

So far this month I've been to the doctors twice for vaccinations. Well, the nurse actually, her name is Zenith and she was very very lovely!

I had been slightly concerned that I'd have to have 5 different injections, what with needing Diptheria, Polio, Typhoid, Hepatitis and Tetanus. But luckily, those clever pharmaceutical companies have combined diptheria, polio and tetanus into one, and typhoid and hepatitis into something called Hepatyrix...catchy.

I'm glad it wasn't 5 different injections, because just those two made my shoulder ache like a bitch for about 3 days.

It's lucky Zenith was very lovely as I do tend to rather make a tit of myself....ALL the time. The second time I visited I was having an injection which had to be given in the bottom. It wasn't as bad as you imagine, they give it right at the top, so you just pull your trousers down a little bit.

However, the entire time I kept saying 'stop looking at mah ass!', or 'stop touching mah ass!'

A bit self destructive really, as the mixture of perplexity and mirth probably served to distract her a tad.

Yesterday was just ridiculous as EVERYTHING seemed to go wrong at the last second for a practical that I was running, including a fire alarm at the last second which sent all the demonstrators and students out in to the cold.

Coming up...well, I think everyone has decided that they must see me one last time before I go and die miserably and horribly in South East Asia, or, as ThatIsTheWhy kindly posted on a previous entry:

'kidnapped/sold for spares/struck down by jungle fever/lost/injured/struck down by malaria/robbed/raped/struck down by encephalitis/poisoned/sold to a whore house/struck down by typhoid... you know... the list goes on..'

Thanks for that!

So the next couple of weeks is a whirlwind of social arrangements. It's great actually because as well as mates whom I see every couple of weeks or more, I'm also catching up with friends whom I haven't seen properly for ages! Clara and Arlene came to my birthday party in November, but I was already as pissed as the proverbial fart, and they left relatively early as Claray had to work, so it'll be fabulous to see them properly next Friday, along with Mikey who I've only seen properly a couple of times since we moved from Streatham!

My mate Claire from college who lives and work in Loughborough now is down this weekend and I'll be seeing her tonight, it's months since we've managed to meet up.

Vicky, Kayleigh, Mark, my lovely Jojo, Steve, Angela, all people I must see before I leave! If I've left you out it's not malice...my brain just doesn't work properly.

I'm going to see Osteology Lady on Monday :o) So I should have an update on Yorkie for you!

I bet you simply cannot wait.

Epic Fedora Fever - Pub Crawl....The Pictures

Oh yes, enough of the misery and drama of the last couple of posts. I DO believe it is time for the photographic evidence of Fridays shennanigans.

Now, it wasn't quite the drunken extravaganza we've had in the past, I think partly because a couple of us had partners there...that does change the group dynamic somewhat I've found. But we didn't all have partners there because no matter how many times or how sweetly I asked Wilerf to 'be my boyfwand??' he wouldn't do it!! Gah!!

However!!! Poor Neil decided to turn up in a fedora that he'd bought in Madrid during the week (disclaimer, it may not be a fedora...but for the sake of ease...I don't care :D). Of course, at some point in the evening, this turned into the ideal opportunity for some semi-drunken photos:

This is Ann, Gregs long-suffering wife :D

Greg, looking decidedly less elegant than Ann

Wilf, looking cheeky

Neil, looking suave and happy to have his hat back....even if only for a second...

Linda, looking very cool!! She should have picked one up herself

And me...just being me! :D

Here's a pic of the lot of them, minus me of course!!

There are a few quite funny ones that I haven't put up anywhere yet! But maybe I should ask for permission first ha ha!! For now, here's a little selection of the crawl......

Greg swigging Sam Smiths wheat beer at the Princess Louise

Wilf looking decidedly unimpressed at his cognac being served in a wine glass, at the Seven Stars

Very orderly arrangement of bottle at the Wellington outside Waterloo....I couldn't resist a picture

The Bunk-Bed-Booths at the Bangalore! Yippee!! Did feel slightly for those dining below us though....blessem.

Notting Hill Carnival

For the first time EVER this weekend I went to Notting Hill Carnival, I went Carnival!

Now, my housemate Katrin has described it as her worst nightmare, blazing sunshine herded around narrow streets and surrounded by hundreds of drunk people. That's kind of what I expectoo, but not what I experienced funnily enough, although we took a good stab at fitting in with the drunk image by grabbing our first can as we emerged from the station. Personally I was a little worried...were we REALLY allowed to just drink on the streets?? It took spying a few people with cans and watching Kayles and Tom walk past a few police with theirs blatantly on show before I chilled out and cracked my first one. Lammmmmmme.

I went with my mate Kayleigh and her boyfriend Tom, both of them really into their music. Tom DJ's and it heavy into the drum and bass scene. Going with them I discovered the other side of the Notting Hill carnival, a part that many people wouldn't necessarily see if they came solely to see the procession.

Over in the backstreets, away from the procession route, you have craploads of stalls setup in front gardens, food, drink etc etc, and you have the sound systems. Some of these you can just tell have been hammered together in someones garage somewhere, massive contructs of speakers, wood and metal. One systems we stood next to just vibrated your very soul, if someone with a heart problem had come by they'd have been in trouble!! Kayles and I wanted pee pee somewhere nice for a change and so paid £1.50 each to use a clean bathroom in someones house lol!! We probably got pickpocketed on the way in...but who cares eh?

It was lots of fun just wandering down the backstreets, following the sounds of music coming from one direction or another, dancing in front of massive speakers and generally having a laugh! We did catch the procession once or twice and saw some cool outfits too, so we didn't miss out on that.

Thanks Tom and Kayles for a wicked day! :D

The Posse

I'm feeling better now, avid follower :o) Friday evenings do a lot for the chill factor!!

I thought I'd do some little blogs about me, on the offchance that someone stumbles across this and might be interested, you never know, I might become famous!!!

I'll start off with work, much as we try to ignore it, we do spend most of our waking hours at work. I'm lucky in that I enjoy my job and work with some fab people. Apart from the getting up in the morning bit I can't say I have much to complain about! So I work at UCL in the Division of Biosciences as it is now known, estates and buildings stuff, not academia. I've been there for about 3 years now.

Over those 3 years, four of us at work have developed a little 'Posse', I think it was Linda who started calling us that. We're a strange little group, and my facebook mates often wonder who these people are in most of my photos! We're a bit of living proof that you don't have to be similar to be really good mates.

We've got Big Boy as he is affectionately known, or Greg, he's the subject of my digestive updates :o). Big, welsh, opinonated, semi-vegetarian, real ale lover, bit of a perve and pretends to be much grumpier than he really is. He's very funny and can take it as well as dish it out. Oh, and he harbours a hatred for home-baked goods that people bring into work, a nasty, dirty hatred. With Greg every conversation ends up on sex or shit....usually not both.

Now we have Linda, Noise or Marlborough Grey, depending on who you're talking to. She's the physical opposite of our Big Boy, slim but not petite, you simply cannot miss Linda if she's in the room, she's a natterer!! We discovered in Dublin that if you walk her all day, then feed her a big meal and get a couple of drinks down her then she goes all quiet....but how much time, money and energy would that take?? She's recently discovered a passion for unpaid leave and the electric cinema :o), not quite as mad a drinker, but matches Greg with halves.

Both those guys are in their 40's and going 'translucent' as Greg would argue

Then we have the Wiluf, just turned 60 and proud of it, you'd never know. If you've heard of the place Wilf has probably been there, having travelled round the world on various ships in his navy career. He's also a photographer and a foodie, and an eternal batchelor. Brandy is his drink of choice on a pub crawl. Wilfie lives quite a healthy lifestyle (apart from the drinking we thrust upon him...apparently....I got the blame the last time :o)), but then he's had more time to come around. Convo's with Wilf usually come around to food or a funny story about a friend in another country!

Then there's me......I'm not sure if I have a nickname, but I have been informed that Greg has taken to calling me 'slaaaaaaaaaaaag' behind my back........which is nice. 25, I like a bloody good drink and do my best to keep up with Greg, to my detriment! Like my food too much, I'm pretty liberal, love travelling when I have the dough, a beer drinker and talk quite a bit, though not as much as our Linda.

Both Wilf and I have 'drunk hair', the more pissed we get the scruffier our hair gets. Wilf may kill me for that picture...enjoy as I may have to change it!!

So we have much fun and laughs together, various pub crawls, day trips and weekends abroad. We do get some funny looks sometimes....especially when we're wandering along the Thames pissed as farts at about 8pm when everyone else is just going out.....

Out of interest I looked up a little bit of info on the psychology of friendship, and apparently one of the main criteria is the 'breadth and depth of self-disclosure' and the reciprocation of it.

.....So there we go, basically, we all like talking bollocks about ourselves...and listening to each others bollocks too :o). The recipe for a perfect Posse......