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satyricaI was in again last Tuesday, reminding myself that, whilst I enjoy an evening in by myself, two in a row and I start to get pretty antsy, but N saved me by coming over on Wednesday. Thursday was the eve of my 40th and I got a random call from my gig-buddy J who was going to try to tout-it to see Friendly Fires down in Brixton: we met up with his brother & his girlfriend in one of the gentrified Brixton market bars I’ve never really explored before and we managed to get in okay. The band weren’t quite my thing, a bit dancey maybe, but fun enough and, as with everything involving J, the booze flowed, so I felt like I had seen in my birthday enjoyably.
I’d taken the day itself off, for once, and M was back down so we’d decided to revive our birthday tradition of castle-visiting [twice makes a tradition, I reckon] by heading down to Leeds Castle (in Kent). It was pretty lovely and unexpectedly sunny, although given the castle had had quite an eventful medieval life (twice besieged, one queen and one king imprisoned there, Henry VIII stopping off with his entire court en route to The Field of the Cloth of Gold), I felt they could have made more of that and less of the 20th Century heiress who had modernised and renovated it. We saw a bit of falconry and made it to the centre of the maze, so it felt a pretty satisfying day out. Back in London I headed up to N’s and had a really nice evening hanging out with his housemates past and present, fajitas and wine.
We had brunch in Tottenham in the morning before I headed home: lovely Joe had come down for my party so headed over and we just hung out for the afternoon before heading down to The Knights Templar, which I had booked out for the evening, N’s housemate having sorted out some speakers so that I could inflict my choice of music on everyone. I’d been pretty anxious about numbers (I was supposed to guarantee 100 to use the venue, which I didn’t quite manage) but lots of people came, and some even danced, although as with all hosting I felt like I only spoke to everyone for about 5 minutes and I wish I had done more to try to mix the groups.
I’d made no real plans for Sunday but I was feeling far better than I deserved to and pottered out to Camden in the afternoon to nose around the Jewish Museum, which I had never known was there. The floor about the religion was fairly introductory but the floor on the history of Jews in the UK was pretty interesting.
On Monday evening we managed to have an Aberrant session down in Lewisham, then I had food in Dalston with N on Tuesday before going on to Birthdays where I knew both bands on the bill: 485c, who seem to be everywhere at the mo, and October Drift, who I like more and more each time I see them. Excitingly, I also ended to chatting loads to a guy who’d seen me around at other gigs and also the singer from Paves came and said hi.
On Wednesday we had an end of season get together after work in Clapham (work was pretty full-on all week, the shelters having finished on Sunday, one caseworker having left last week and another on holiday), which we got all the overnight staff along to for the first time. I only stayed for a bit as I had agreed to see Girli at The Garage with PFW: she’s a female pop/punk/rap singer with an exceedingly enthusiastic following of (mostly) young women; probably not something I’ll seek out again but certainly an experience I don’t regret having.
Thursday evening Tell Tale Tusk were playing back at Balabam: they did a show of two halves again and former FNB friend M popped along for the first half; they seem to have now added a cellist on a permanent basis and are always impressive. Then last night I headed up to N’s for the evening as he’s about to disappear into shows again for a couple of weeks. On the train down to my parents now for a birthday lunch with them but just heading there and back in a day.
I’d taken the day itself off, for once, and M was back down so we’d decided to revive our birthday tradition of castle-visiting [twice makes a tradition, I reckon] by heading down to Leeds Castle (in Kent). It was pretty lovely and unexpectedly sunny, although given the castle had had quite an eventful medieval life (twice besieged, one queen and one king imprisoned there, Henry VIII stopping off with his entire court en route to The Field of the Cloth of Gold), I felt they could have made more of that and less of the 20th Century heiress who had modernised and renovated it. We saw a bit of falconry and made it to the centre of the maze, so it felt a pretty satisfying day out. Back in London I headed up to N’s and had a really nice evening hanging out with his housemates past and present, fajitas and wine.
We had brunch in Tottenham in the morning before I headed home: lovely Joe had come down for my party so headed over and we just hung out for the afternoon before heading down to The Knights Templar, which I had booked out for the evening, N’s housemate having sorted out some speakers so that I could inflict my choice of music on everyone. I’d been pretty anxious about numbers (I was supposed to guarantee 100 to use the venue, which I didn’t quite manage) but lots of people came, and some even danced, although as with all hosting I felt like I only spoke to everyone for about 5 minutes and I wish I had done more to try to mix the groups.
I’d made no real plans for Sunday but I was feeling far better than I deserved to and pottered out to Camden in the afternoon to nose around the Jewish Museum, which I had never known was there. The floor about the religion was fairly introductory but the floor on the history of Jews in the UK was pretty interesting.
On Monday evening we managed to have an Aberrant session down in Lewisham, then I had food in Dalston with N on Tuesday before going on to Birthdays where I knew both bands on the bill: 485c, who seem to be everywhere at the mo, and October Drift, who I like more and more each time I see them. Excitingly, I also ended to chatting loads to a guy who’d seen me around at other gigs and also the singer from Paves came and said hi.
On Wednesday we had an end of season get together after work in Clapham (work was pretty full-on all week, the shelters having finished on Sunday, one caseworker having left last week and another on holiday), which we got all the overnight staff along to for the first time. I only stayed for a bit as I had agreed to see Girli at The Garage with PFW: she’s a female pop/punk/rap singer with an exceedingly enthusiastic following of (mostly) young women; probably not something I’ll seek out again but certainly an experience I don’t regret having.
Thursday evening Tell Tale Tusk were playing back at Balabam: they did a show of two halves again and former FNB friend M popped along for the first half; they seem to have now added a cellist on a permanent basis and are always impressive. Then last night I headed up to N’s for the evening as he’s about to disappear into shows again for a couple of weeks. On the train down to my parents now for a birthday lunch with them but just heading there and back in a day.
