Tuesday, April 6 2004, 20:49

Look how small the money is!

Hi everyone. This is the first of my London diaries. Sydney chapter closed, London chapter opened. So I'll begin at the beginning...

I arrived at LHR at 5.30am 18th March after a 20 hour flight, and Pete W and Paul met me at arrivals, bless 'em. I could have made a better effort to be cheery to match their smiles and hugs (sorry guys), but I think I was a bit more genial by the time I got to Vicki's & Pete J's place in Bermondsey. I spent the day catching up with them, Christian, and Pete J, and crashed into bed sometime around 11pm.

"Whirlwind of emotions" would probably be the hackneyed cliché to describe how I felt, if you could make it sluggish from lack of sleep. Resignation for being back early; sadness for being wrenched away from my pals; relief and happiness to be with friendly faces; disorientation at the new things; comfort and surprise to see much is still the same. So much has happened in one year, it seems crazy that so little has changed in everyone else's lives. What I fear most is that the ripples that the last twelve months have made will smooth out as I return to London; but I'm determined not to be putting on my old comfy Londoner slippers - I'll be wearing some flash new sneakers whose sole purpose is to get me back to Sydney some day.

My brief sojourn in Hereford with my family is coming to an end, and it's been dogged by illness. Although everyone assured me that the weather here was "quite warm really", it feels like the cold has seeped into my bones with a permanence that makes the Queen Mum (gaw' bless yer marm) look short-lived, and this has turned the nasty cough I had in Sydney into 'flu. Great. Still, I haven't let it cast a pall over the thrill of being reunited with my family, wardrobe, and shoe collection; although the presence of so many long-sleeved items is a bitter and unwelcome reminder of the unfriendly climate here.

Enough whinging... I'm off this weekend, hopefully recovered, to go out and party and start my new chapter in London! A few lovely things to note about being back in the UK: supermarket vegetables that are unnaturally large, non-scabby, clean, chopped, and vacuum-packed; more varieties of crisp flavours than I can shamelessly try; squash (cordial) in pleasing, non-garish colours; and jaffa cake bars :)

I don't know why they're all food - I'm not hungry.

Tuesday, April 6 2004, 20:49

Some kind of wireless gag

Noone actually played an April Fool prank on me today, unless you count the jokers who made my new wireless networking card! I bought this new gizmo so I could use the internet in Vicki's & Pete's flat without having to sit in Vicki's room, plugged in. My new network card allows me to access the marvels of the internet from the grand distance of two metres from Vicki's room (as long as the door's open). Imagine how hard I laughed... It went something like this: ha ha ha!

So I had a great time out last weekend, although I literally dragged myself from my sickbed to join Paul and his sister, Pete, Glenn, and Anthony for a night out at Heaven to see Paul van Dyk doing his stuff. It was another late night of it, and followed by a late night at Shinky Shonky with Vicki, Christian, and Vicki's friend Lucy, but this time entertained by Boogaloo Stu and Princess Knickers... I kid you not.

Unfortunately, such wild shenanigans really took it out of me, and my health hasn't improved. Poor Graham has been tired and sneezy all week, and quietly incapable. I'm off to see a doc tomorrow in the hope that s/he'll be giving me something to swallow that doesn't taste yuck.

Tuesday, April 6 2004, 20:56

Some git...

...hacked into my website and removed my journals! How rude... Luckily I had backups (albeit old ones), but there may be a few bits about the site that aren't as new as they should be. Bear with me...

Saturday, April 10 2004, 18:23

And now the screaming starts...

It wasn't really screaming... Today I went to the Royal Opera House to see an opera, courtesy of Alex, who gave me a free ticket for the dress rehearsal of Der Rosenkavalier :)

I've never been in the ROH before, but it was suitably stupendous - lots of red and gold and velvet, and I made myself comfortable. I'd forgotten that operas tend to go on, and was a bit shocked to note that it wouldn't finish for another four and a half hours (with two half hour intervals).

Not wanting to review the show, I'll summarise briefly; inconstant 17 year old count dumps older princess to poach young bourgeois girl from fat, uncultured baron and does bad drag act as chambermaid to expose him to girl's social-climbing father. All in German, but ends happily nevertheless. I quite enjoyed it! :)

For the rest of the Easter weekend, I'm picking up Vicki, who's returning on crutches from her skiing holiday (a cautionary tale for everyone...), and helping Clare, returning from her round-the-world tour (which featured Sydney at New Year!), to move back into her place tomorrow. I know what you're thinking... I know how to have fun... ;)

For those Brits among you who saw "How clean is your house?", I finally saw the first episode yesterday, in the home of its first victim, my mate James. Well... it was cleaner, I'll say that much, but then it was never as gross as it was in the TV show... It's funny to think that in my absence, James has been on TV with Melinda Messenger, and made it into 2003's best TV moments (number 6 I believe)... Very bizarre.

No more news other than I'm recovering slowly from my many respiratory ailments with the help of my daily cocktail of drugs, and I'll be job hunting in earnest from Monday!

Tuesday, April 13 2004, 17:35

Happy happy joy joy!

Just a quickie; probably the key moment really since I got back.

I have just got back from an interview with a new media agency, and (joy of joys) I've been offered a four week contract! :) It's all a bit exciting. And the funny thing is that after four weeks, I'll have earned more than I did in a year in Australia! (cue weak laughter). So it's not all bad being back in London.

But what does this mean for me? It means it's time to get the Cheerful Graham Show back on the road, and box up Miserable Git Graham until the next time I get close to deportation...

It's not all good news though. When I got home, I discovered that my Lipsyl had melted in my pocket :( And on that note, I'm going to open a bottle of wine!

Sunday, April 18 2004, 22:17

A little something to make me sweeter

After three weeks of convalescing, staying in, and resting up, it was time to let my hair down; and what better way to do that than to return to my fave London club, Popstarz, with a bunch of my nearest and dearest chums?

After a year of indie/pop deprivation, I was really looking forward to seeing the old place, and it didn't disappoint! While I love what I've been listening to in Sydney, it was fantastic to dance to some good old fashioned cheese or crazy indie music. I think I'd be lying if I said I didn't go crazy when Erasure's A Little Respect came on...

But apart from all that, it was a bit of a moment; while some of the moments I've had since I've been back have been bittersweet in that the last year sometimes seems to be slipping away, Friday night was like catching up with an old pal - familiarity and sheer enjoyment. ;)