london journals :: january 2005
After my year in Australia, I lived in London for two and a half years, but always with the intention of moving back to Sydney eventually. But I carried on writing my journals in London... mostly because I just liked writing them, and my friends in other parts of the world (and some in the UK) still liked to read them. Here they are! You can keep up to date with what I'm up to now in my new Sydney journals, far out!
Monday, January 3 2005, 12:51
Sorry for the delay, folks
Alright, alright! I never thought I'd get nagged for the next instalment of the journal. So here it is....
Sigh. Holiday season long over.
Christmas day was fantastic. Food in vast and luxurious quantities, alcohol in abundance, a mountain of gifts beneath the tree, demolished in short order; Star Wars projected on the ceiling, and seven of us dozing on the floor below. Boxing day spent sluggishly.
Those delightful "free" days off between Christmas and New Year spent catching up with the folks back in Hereford and a little time scouring the sleepy shops, before returning to London to see in the New Year with a spree of partying. Well, if you can't see in the New Year with a bang, when can you? At midnight, I was at Manuel & Craig's place, watching the (rather impressive) fireworks on tv, and quite surprised to be kissed by someone nearby - shame he wasn't better looking (or sober) *sigh*.
The main party for New Year for me was at Orange in Brixton; I won't bore you with a description, suffice to say I emerged exhausted and ready for bed, and not particularly ready for work two days later...
I always find the first days after new year to be a complete anticlimax after the mad partying of December, and this year got off to a more miserable start than most. I have to admit that it's with some relief (and shame) that I finally became desensitised to the heartbreaking scenes of destruction from around the Indian Ocean; I wonder if I'd have been quite so upset by the images and reports if I hadn't suffered the brief, horrifying suspense brought on by having a friend in the region at the time; I'll never know, but the connection was made, and I found myself dismayed every morning I picked up Metro on the Tube, or read through the articles on the BBC website. I can't even begin to imagine either the terror of being caught up in such a titanic disaster, or the desperation and shock of being a survivor. :(
It seems amazing that life can so normally continue for us here in the wake of such an event, but it clearly does, and I've been back at work for a couple of weeks now and my project is getting closer to an end. I've had a nice bit of culture to keep me going through these cold winter days:
Went to see Pam Ann, the Aussie comedienne whose cabin crew routine is now familiar but still hilarious; and last week I went to see my first panto, Aladdin, starring Ian Mckellen and Maureen Lipman. Seeing the great Sir Ian flouncing around as a panto dame in a dayglo fake fur coat, pouting and dropping obscene innuendoes in every line was quite something. I never knew panto could be so shockingly rude... Truly the man is a versatile actor.
So January is flying by, leaving an icy slipstream behind it, I might add, and now it's only a month before I will be flying away, back to the warmth for an all-too-brief sojourn in Sydney. The excitement is exquisite, and I swear I'm wishing my life away like never before. I should probably look into some residential therapy for when they drag me back off the plane in March... ;)
Tuesday, January 25 2005, 16:45
100th lucky customer! Lucky, lucky, lucky... :)
"Britain woke up to a cold snap this morning."
That's met-speak for f**king freezing, it would appear. Noone's ever managed to adequately explain to me why it still gets colder after midwinter. Hmph.
On a cheery note, the number of subscribers to this journal has now hit the century mark, thanks to Mikey Robley, who signed up yesterday. Hurray! The congratulatory auto-email I coded up in February 2003 arrived in his inbox promising a prize, so I guess I have to come good. Doh! I thought I might celebrate my hundredth subscriber by plastering his image and interesting facts about him over this entry, but I don't want to drive him off just yet...
Mikey isn't really my hundredth subscriber in any case... some people have unsubscribed, and some have subscribed more than one address, so I'm not sure what the exact number is anymore. But here's a big thanks to all of you who are still reading! This all started as a way of keeping in touch with you while I was in Australia, but I discovered that I just enjoy writing the entries now; I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy churning them out. :)
120 subscribers - show list
matt andrews, stu anthony, chris ashford, claire ashford, christian b, e bacares, matt back, lisa bate, glenn bell, james beven, edward bevington, simon blosse, tony bolton, deborah booth, nick bradley, adam coady, kymme courtney-vega, anthony cowie, jumpy crawl, lizzie curren, trish d'souza, matt darwin, matt darwin, siobhan de souza, siobhan de souza, chris duggan, laura elder, rick ellis, colin findlay, dan fischer, timothy fox, nick franklin, theo g, phil gazzard, moira george, ian gordon, deborah grim, mat h, kate hallward, helen henderson, emma herbert, adam hibbert, tash higham, wayne horne, chris howard, doug howe, louise howells, pete jameson, ed jolliffe, alex jordan, keau katsunuma, john kerswell, christian laws, colin leckey, scott lefcourt, dan lowden, katy luu, craig mack, alex macrae, curtis malasky, andrew mason, jon matthes, elana mccauley, chris mcgillick, chris mcgillivray, will mcintyre, shane mellow, kelly messer, simon middleton, lee moore, sarah morgan, dan mortimer, martin mrbdamien, robert mueller, cameron murray, tim newman, siobhan nichols, frances o'donoghue, bryan o'donovan, kate onions, mary jo palmer, beth peacock, matt pettitt, petey pine, warren prasek, shane quinn, egidio r, ed rees, b rees, nikki reid, james relph, brian revett, tracy richmond, marc roberts, tom robinson, mikey robley, kate rodgers, ben roets, fiona romeo, wally s, debbie schiel, dan smart, paul smith, glenn solomon, marty steel, natasha stevens, ashley stewart-noble, brendan swan, vicki taylor, vicki taylor, katherine thomson, michael tomlinson, paul truesdale, stephanie walker, bastien wallace, steve walters, katya williams, ross wilson, peter wonson, kim young.