Thursday 2nd September

K's twin sister is coming to visit tonight, as she's off travelling in a couple of weeks and is donating her bike to K while she's away. As a result, this afternoon she is getting off the train at Waterloo and heroically cycling all the way to Wood Green. I get a call from her at around 4.30 to say she's outside my office, so I take her my house keys under the assurance that she's going to get some cans of beer on the way home. Anticipating the fridge being nice and full, I head home an hour later and join her in watching the double-whammy of inexplicably compelling student television that is Come Dine With Me and Coach Trip. Come Dine With Me tonight features a transsexual and an apparently heterosexual sweet shop owner chatting up a skinny northern man, which Coach Trip sees the introduction of two idiot South London yobs and the continued existence of the two worst giggling moron girls ever. Strangely, neither show manages to enrage me into smashing the TV - but it's probably for the best that we're due to head down the road to meet K for dinner in a few minutes.

K's picked a highly recommended Turkish restaurant for a nice dinner tonight, and we're joined on the walk down there by our friend Lloyd - who, it must always be noted, bears the most uncanny resemblance to Woody Harrelson. The restaurant, the unpronouncable Antepliler, is also bring-your-own-booze, so we stop off to pick up a bottle or two of red before we head in. It's amazingly busy, but luckily K already has a table for us and we get served fairly quickly. We have a bit of a mezze starter including spicy Turkish sausages and some rather tasty hummus, then I opt for a lamb shish kebab for the main course. The food is really tasty, if a little bland - the shish is just lamb and rice, after all - but the best part of all is that the waiter forgets to charge us for two of the main courses and we get ourselves a bit of a bargain.

After paying we walk back up Green Lanes to the Salisbury - the first pub I ever went to as a Londoner and a little bit of my London history - and enjoy a couple of pints of their peculiar Czech lager. An odd man from Nottingham starts to chat to me about my favourite places to go in London, and I'm ill-prepared to engage him in meaningful conversation. On the way home I beg to have a go on Lloyd's bike - confirming the fact that I've probably overdone it for a second night. We get home and the girls have a final drink, while I admit that two nights' partying has caught up with me and I head straight for bed.