Well, I thought I was rather clever. I’ve got a fair bit of work coming up, so this previous weekend was probably going to be the last one I can be social for about 6 weeks. And – I managed to swap my on-call with somebody else, and organise a fairly small gathering of people. By coincidence, yes – it was my birthday – but I figured I wouldn’t mention it, and I could get away without people thinking it was some kind of birthday thing. But – no, not to be. I had forgotten several things. Firstly – not everybody is as bad as I am about the whole birthday thing. Several people seemed to remember off their own back… even before the second thing I’d forgotten – the hated technology. Facebook especially – apparently may have some feature reminding people of upcoming birthdays. And even if it doesn’t, family members will of course send publicly visible birthday wishes via Facebook and/or this here ‘web-log’.
So – after sitting at a table covered in delicious yum-cha for nearly an hour – I started feeling pretty smug. A couple of people had said the whole happybirthday thing – but I managed to keep it quiet from everybody else. Or so I had thought. And then cards are pulled out. And, it seems, the only people that weren’t actually aware were my own flatmates. I really had thought I’d gotten away with it. Not happy. But – oh well… It was a good day anyway.
(And thanks to everybody who attended, everybody who tried to attend but couldn’t, everybody from overseas who sent me messages, phone-calls, etc. I think I have finally learnt my lesson – I can’t escape.)
Yum-cha in Chinatown – followed by a couple of quiet beers in a nearby pub. The pub, however, was a dutch-themed pub – and therefore no beers that I was really too keen to drink. So, champagne it was. And, next thing we all know – it’s some ridiculous hour of the morning, and a few of us are in a taxi back to Balham – for a few more hours of drinking wine, beer, whiskey – and listening to music. And discovering we have new neighbours upstairs. Who probably have a very bad impression of us – after their first night being rather loud. Not sure how many weekends of not-so-rowdy behaviour it will take for them to forgive us, and perhaps start to realise that this isn’t a particularly regular occurence – just very very bad luck on their part to move in on that particular weekend.
Anyway – that’s about all that’s happened since I’ve returned from NZ. Have upped the squash-playing up to twice a week – but still a long long way off from giving Chook a serious challenge. Have noticed my bank account shrinking – mostly due to the trip to NZ, and a sudden influx of bills. That should turn around soon – as I’ve cut down my wine-drinking bill significantly. (Well – the amount of wine has been cut severely – but the quality has probably gone up). Anyway – looking at the costs of this trip I want to do at the end of the year, I should probably start caring about money a bit more, and trying to be ‘sensible’. (ie: not drink champagne because I don’t feel like Amstel).
Oh – and it’s April very soon. April’s New Month resolution – in honour of Spring (which I’ve heard should arrive soon) – I will be eating lamb. I’m a little worried about breakfasts – but have some ideas.