Saturday

Today is K's friend's hen do and the group will be assembling at our house before moving on to do some bowling and karaoke in Bloomsbury. Through the haze of a hangover I head to Tesco to source bacon for a frankly essential fry-up and we prepare for the visitors' arrival. By 1pm there are eight women in the house and I feel conspicuously male - especially as I am hiding in the kitchen eating a sandwich and watching Football Focus while they chatter away, doing each others' make-up and performing various other gathered female cliches.

Speaking of the football, however, things go very well indeed. Chelsea beat Aston Villa 7-1 at Stamford Bridge, taking them briefly back to the top of the league and edging a few goals ahead of Man Utd on goal difference. Arsenal also fail to make up ground on the two top teams by drawing away to Birmingham. Next weekend's Man Utd v Chelsea game at Old Trafford is going to be huge in the context of this season's run in. Down in League Two Rochdale beat Grimsby 4-1 and promotion is looking ever more certain. Never thought I'd see the day!

The hen party leaves the house at around 4 and I lazily watch final Score and play a little FIFA. I had planned to do a bit of work on the book pitch but by this point I am three beers gone (having joined in with the general party spirit in the house) and feeling less than sharp.

My general plan is to have a couple of drinks in Crouch End then to head into town to meet Andy and Joe et al in Soho to celebrate Joe's 25th. I wander over to the Harringay Arms feeling thoroughly rough - bloated and disgusting having spent the whole day getting over a hangover by putting away a few cans of Kronenbourg. Yuck. Regardless I sit with a nice big group of nice people and have a few more pints before writing off the central London idea and heading home at around 11pm. Having strung out a fairly heavy drinking session over so many hours leaves me feeling anything but drunk; more weary and full. I get home and watch a little of the interminable Football League show hoping to see the Rochdale highlights but end up falling asleep somewhere in the middle of League One.

The hens return shortly after I go to bed and I barely notice their arrival.