A busy weekend

Gosh, can't you just tell that Christmas is looming? My calendar - OK, my iCal - is loaded with exciting things to do, and it all kicked off on Friday…

Friday

I think my brain has already switched into Christmas holiday mode, because I've been counting the days until I finish for the year (this Wednesday coming) since the beginning of the month. And on Friday I was counting down the hours until the evening, because Yazzle Dazzle had organised a get together with some old friends and work colleagues: good times!

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An aside:

Before meeting up with Yazzle Dazzle, I headed down to Hammersmith to grab something to eat. And on tonight's menu? KFC - YUM! (I haven't had a KFC in a while and I was pretty much gagging for one). Anyway, there I am, queuing up when this woman goes up to the till next to me and asks for (and please imagine this in a slightly chavvy accent) "chicken breasts - I doh whan no leeeeg, I doh whan no fiiiiiiii - I just whan breast."

I was very tempted to turn to her and say "look luv, you've in KFC, you'll be lucky if you get chicken."

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Our venue of choice for the meet-up was Ginglik in Shepherds Bush, which is an awesome subterranean bar that, to cut a long story short, used to be a public toilet, and before that was the laboratory of a Victorian scientist who conducted experiments in an attempt to bring the dead back to life, apparently. Oh, and Robin Williams did a surprise stand-up routine there a couple of weeks ago - no doubt inspired by the Victorian scientist he was probably looking to bring his career back to life - ba-doom tish! 

Na-noo, na-noo, and all that jazz.

Anyway, so we got there and nabbed some sofas alongside a Christmas tree that had a toy monkey at the top of it instead of an angel, thinking that we had an awesome spot. Unfortunately, it turned out that our awesome spot was reserved but they'd forgotten to put any signs up, so we had shift and go slum it in the regular bar area with everyone else. Still, it was a good evening - caught up with a few lovely old faces, watched an old grey-haired dude massively perve at a young woman, and saw El Deanio lay down some fresh dancehall moves. Oh, and then there was the fact that a couple of workmates took a bizarre interest in my shirt; Scanner decided to that he'd pull open the press-stud fastenings (fortunately I was wearing a t-shirt underneath), leaving me looking like a male-stripper tidying myself up seconds after finishing a routine, while El Deanio decided it would be funny to rip out some of my chest hair (oh, how a v-neck tee leaves me exposed!); it hurt, and I now have a little baldy patch just below my collar bone. It looks like I've developed torso-based alopecia.

The best part of the evening was reserved for the moment after we stumbled out at just after half-twelve. One former workmate had brought along a friend called Aman, and when someone asked where another colleague was and someone answered "she's dancing with Aman," Yazzle Dazzle did not miss a beat in replying "yeah, and your friend too."

Good times.

Saturday

I got up late Saturday, which was a tad annoying because I had lots to do. Nevertheless, I got it done! And what did I have to do? Why, wrap Christmas presents of course! Holy crap, I was a wrapping maniac - I think I might've even wrapped a couple of things I shouldn't have, like the kettle, the TV remote, and some cushions, but I'm sure they'll turn up at some point; hell, I can have a Christmas practice run by opening them up! Anyway, yes the wrapping went very well, aside from a few awkwardly-shaped presents but I compensated for screwing those up a bit by using more tape than was strictly necessary to cover all the gaps.

In the afternoon I braved the Christmas shoppers and atrocious weather (it was pissing down something chronic) to go pick up a few last bits in Kingston. Actually, the traffic on the way there was virtually non-existent, which was an unexpected Brucie-bonus, but the shops themselves were heaving. Still, I got what I needed, including a tin of chocolates in the soon to close Woolworths (I wonder if my plastic carrier bag will be worth anything when they do close?), and then it was back off home to wrap-up (heh) the wrapping.

Sunday

I was late getting up today as well. Whoops, because I had an appointment in Reading to drive a Mini Clubman Cooper D (that's diesel). How late was I? well, my appointment was at 12, and I didn't leave home until, um, 11:50… and I've never been to Reading before so I actually didn't really have a clue where I was going. Ahem. Anyway, I actually got to Reading itself in about half an hour; good times, I thought. Unfortunately, I then spent another hour faffing around trying to find the Mini dealership. The directions I'd printed off were next to useless, so thank the baby Jeebus for the marvels of the iPhone - Google maps eventually had me heading in the right direction. I found the dealers an hour and 10 minutes after I should've got there, at which point the salesman told me that he didn't think I was coming so he'd put the car away. 

Luckily, he was more than happy to go get it out again.

I then enjoyed a half hour drive in the Clubman diesel, and very nice it was too. The one I drove is the manager's car, which they're looking to shift because he's getting another one soon. It's only three months old and it's got all the bells and whistles on it (more than I would spec on one if I was buying new). It's also got that funky stop/start function on it that cuts off the engine if you're sitting in traffic or not moving for any other reason - or, as I like to call it, the idiot function because I kept thinking I'd stalled it, so kept muttering "shit" under my breath. Anyway, my love of Clubmans (Clubmen?) and Minis in general is well-documented, so I won't rattle on about it too much. Just need to decide if I want to buy it now…

Oh, and I got a bit lost on the drive home too. Stupid Reading.

By the time I did get home, it was too late to have any lunch, so I satisfied my hunger by having another go at making the world's best milkshake. This attempt was much, much better than my last go, in so much as I actually blended the biscuits up good and proper this time, so it was a lot smoother and not as much like drinking lovely tasting vomit.

And now? Hmmm… 2.5 working days until Christmas break. Bring it!