diaronic

so here's everything that happened between me finishing at kids' city and the start of half term:

week 1: kids' city. at the end of the week the band played a gig at the white hart, at which we were the only band, following two non-descript acoustic acts. we played all the songs we new and had a great old time. seated gigs rule. the next day i went off to mole end cottage with rachel and her mum; they were going for the week to work on their book, and invited me to come for the first weekend.

mole end was in some remote surrey micro-village, a lovely furnished rustic terraced cottage owned by the next door neighbours, with a shared garden with a river at the bottom, two gay swans, and the possibility of an otter swimming by at dusk. we never saw the otter, although sitting outside listening for the distinctive splish-splashing sounds was marvellous. we went to sutton hoo, which i had become all excited about - i had been reading the ilustrated version of heaney's beowulf, and some of the treasures used as illustrations had come from there. it was too hot to do much but still good for a wander, despite the burial mounds being pretty anticlimatical. mysterious yes, but not as much on a boiling hot day with loads of people wandering around. all the stuff was on display inside the visitor's centre, most of which is replicas of stuff that's now at the british museum - so as a site, it's not very thrilling. but a very nice corner of the wold.

week 2: i came back to london on monday, to spend the week without rachel or employment. she was due back on saturday and james - who was living with us at the time - and i were to keep the house in order until then. or at least, get it in order for then. the week passed quickly with nothing coming in from my agency, and me not doing much here. that was until thursday night, when we had ian and thalia for dinner. you can read all about that night here. however, what i never filled you in with was the repercussions.

i felt very ill the next day and spent it largely in bed, being sick a couple of times. ian came round later that evening to use our internet and we watched the blues brothers film. saturday, i was feebly trying to get the flat in order in preparation for rachel's return, with a little of james' help, before he dashed off to brighton pride at 9 in the morning. i felt... strange. i was still ill. the hangover had mutated into an odd kind of indigestion that nothing could clear. i did the best i could - not very good - then left the flat in still-a-bit-of-a-state to go to rugby and see laurence and his parents. i shouldn't have done, but circumstancers being what they are it was my onlychance to see laurence those 6 months. i came back on sunday, having digested as much as i could, to an understandably stressed rachel - what had i been doing all week, &c - in no fit state to comfort her.

week 3 - i rang up the agency in the morning and was offered work in a post room. i regretfully took up the offer, pottered around a bit, still constitutionally amended, and got there for about 11.30. there was talk that the post was ongoing, rather than the week i had been told; i didn't exactly jump at the chance to stay on there, saying how i would be looking for other things. it involved a lot of lifting, being not in the post room exactly, but rather the loading bay for parcels - which i also expressed reservations about, having had back problems in the past. in quiet moments (there were alot with exactly nothing to do) i would read. the next day i felt really too sick to go back, and rang up to let them know, to find that they 'would no longer be requiring my services', ostensibly due to my appearance, which was smart office dress as i had been told. this was upsetting to both rachel and i, who felt i had squandered the opportunity, which i had needed to make things work for both of us, through fecklessness. ah well.

that weekend we went to rachel's colleague alison's wedding at hackney town hall, which was fun in quite a ridiculous way. walking down the aisle to the theme from the sweeney - no sorry, it was minder; they giggled through the wedding vows; the reading was the lyrics to 'especially for you'; the speeches were everybody slagging off everyone else, inaudible over the chattering bridesmaids. it was like the whole thing was a big joke. but the dinner was good and the disco was fun. it was all just very silly.

week 4: london fields moved to the brecon beacons for the green man festival. it was very wet and muddy. there are photos on my flickr page. oh god i had a whole list of reccomendations. the following were at least good, based on names i recognise off the play bill:
radio luxembourg
cats in paris (their album is the best i've bought in... two years?)
wild beasts
cybient
bower birds
pentangle

on the other hand - sennen - you were shit. you were a dismally boring band. indie pretending to be post rock. wierd that bands like that filter through. how does it happen?

not long after that, i found some work - for mailsource again, but at a different bank. that's the great thing about these big companies, you can get sacked from one branch and find work at another and it's totally anonymous. i bought a job lot of blue work shirts and finally understood what 'blue collar' means. i worked there for two months then was replaced by a permanent guy who can drive. no big whoop, but the problem was i was let go the week before i'd booked a week's holiday, circumstance that left me totally dry of cash for weeks about... now.

coming next:my half term hols by me xxx