I'm not usually one for fancy dress or being particularly bothered about Halloween, but tonight is a party at Tristan's pub in Stockwell with the charming theme 'fucked up'. This is good, in that it allows me to put in the minimum of effort and dress up as a man called Damian Abraham from a band called, luckily, Fucked Up (pictured here). I don't know any of their music, but it's pretty easy to make myself look like him. So before Mike, Tim, Jenny, Nick and Rick come round I stick on a pair of shorts, a white t-shirt customised by K and a baseball cap - and the illusion is more or less complete. While we sit around drinking cans before heading out, I liberally apply fake blood to my forehead to Halloween-up proceedings. K, rather brilliantly, dresses as the infamous Cat Bin Lady in an old lady's dress and kitten-in-bin-bag accessory.
We head out to Stockwell at about 8, getting a fair few looks on the tube and surreptitiously drinking disguised Jack Daniels in water bottles. The pub is quiet when we arrive, but soon the Halloween pub quiz starts and later we watch a couple of middling bands while getting more and more drunk and taking pictures alongside Rick's giant polystyrene skull.
We leave Stockwell in good time for the last tube, stopping off at Big Red on the way through Holloway, which is, predictably, in full All Hallow's swing. The place is absolutely rammed but a display of magic and fire eating create a fun, festive atmosphere to soak up before we finally head home on the 29. I don't really do Halloween - and I don't think I'll ever enjoy dressing up - but this has been a fun one.
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Friday 29th October
Since Alex has started her PhD back at Royal Holloway (the university where we met), she has been invited to a drinks and nibbles evening for current media students and alumni in Russell Square this evening. Being an alumni, and not having much to do in the early part of tonight, I agree to come along.
We meet at The Tollgate for a cheeky quick one just after six, before hopping on the Piccadilly Line to Russell Square. The 'event' is at the Horse Hospital, a small art space near the station, so we wander over there and head down into the basement. We're greeted by a room full of typical Royal Holloway types and a table laden with cheapo crisps and chocolate - but we push past to the bar, where, we're promised, our first drink is free. No such luck, apparently - all the free drinks have gone - so we're forced to pay £3 for a dribble of red wine. No matter, let's mingle.
Before long we bump into a couple of people who did our undergrad course; people I haven't seen for over three years. Needless to say they're still ghastly, so we try and stay polite for a few minutes before moving on. One interesting fellow guest at this 'party' is none other than Lenny Henry, who has also just started his PhD at Royal Holloway. He chats politely with staff and alumni while keeping a low profile (difficult for such a large man) but soon we tire of even this vague novelty and head back to the tube.
Alex has dinner to cook and so do I, so we say goodbye on Turnpike Lane and I head home for wine and Scrabble with K. It's quite nice to be getting in with the night ahead of you - but a crappier party I don't think I've ever seen. Royal Holloway just can't really do 'being a university' right. I don't miss it at all.
We meet at The Tollgate for a cheeky quick one just after six, before hopping on the Piccadilly Line to Russell Square. The 'event' is at the Horse Hospital, a small art space near the station, so we wander over there and head down into the basement. We're greeted by a room full of typical Royal Holloway types and a table laden with cheapo crisps and chocolate - but we push past to the bar, where, we're promised, our first drink is free. No such luck, apparently - all the free drinks have gone - so we're forced to pay £3 for a dribble of red wine. No matter, let's mingle.
Before long we bump into a couple of people who did our undergrad course; people I haven't seen for over three years. Needless to say they're still ghastly, so we try and stay polite for a few minutes before moving on. One interesting fellow guest at this 'party' is none other than Lenny Henry, who has also just started his PhD at Royal Holloway. He chats politely with staff and alumni while keeping a low profile (difficult for such a large man) but soon we tire of even this vague novelty and head back to the tube.
Alex has dinner to cook and so do I, so we say goodbye on Turnpike Lane and I head home for wine and Scrabble with K. It's quite nice to be getting in with the night ahead of you - but a crappier party I don't think I've ever seen. Royal Holloway just can't really do 'being a university' right. I don't miss it at all.
Thursday 28th October
K is out this evening, as is becoming more and more usual, and I sit and finish Chuck Palahniuk's Pygmy on the Kindle. The plan when I bought the Kindle was to try and buy a new book each payday and have it finished by the following payday - a plan mostly born out of frustration with my slow reading rate. I envy K, and all other tube commuters, that hour or so of trapped time she has to sit and read every day - while I (though enjoying the fact that I live only a 10-minute walk from work) have to grab ten minutes here and there to slowly crawl through a book. For example, Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show on Earth ended up taking me over a year to read, in between more manageable paperbacks.
Since having the Kindle though, I've now read The Fry Chronicles and Pygmy in under a month - and as we tick over to payday at midnight I'm on the Kindle store buying something new. I download a sample of The Accidental Billionaires, the book The Social Network is based on, but find the writing style not to my taste (I get annoyed with non-fiction books that try to read like novels, with imagined speech and dramatised locations) so decide not to buy it. However, my itchy trigger fingers flicks the select button and I end up buying the book by mistake. Nightmare!
I run through to the other room and quickly send off an email begging for a refund from Amazon. I'm pretty sure it'll get sorted fairly speedily - surely this sort of thing happens all the time? Sure enough, the book is soon gone from my machine and I can find something I really want to read. I settle on Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything - a layperson's guide to science that I've been keen on reading for a few years now. It's only £4.00 or so, and I'm reading it less than a minute later. This truly is the future, my friends.
Since having the Kindle though, I've now read The Fry Chronicles and Pygmy in under a month - and as we tick over to payday at midnight I'm on the Kindle store buying something new. I download a sample of The Accidental Billionaires, the book The Social Network is based on, but find the writing style not to my taste (I get annoyed with non-fiction books that try to read like novels, with imagined speech and dramatised locations) so decide not to buy it. However, my itchy trigger fingers flicks the select button and I end up buying the book by mistake. Nightmare!
I run through to the other room and quickly send off an email begging for a refund from Amazon. I'm pretty sure it'll get sorted fairly speedily - surely this sort of thing happens all the time? Sure enough, the book is soon gone from my machine and I can find something I really want to read. I settle on Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything - a layperson's guide to science that I've been keen on reading for a few years now. It's only £4.00 or so, and I'm reading it less than a minute later. This truly is the future, my friends.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Wednesday 27th October
After work I sort out some dinner and head over to Crouch End. There's a meeting in The Queens about a somewhat Secret Project, so I arrive at around 8 intending to meet Mike, Nick and Ellie. A stranger grabs my arm on the way through the door and asks if I'm here to meet Nick. Unsure, I answer in the affirmative. The man turns out to be Nick's housemate, and he assures me we've met before. I attempt to style this out, trying to guess his name - but fail just as he says it anyway. Phew. I go inside, hoping that he won't follow me and force any uncomfortable, strange chat. Luckily he doesn't and Nick soon arrives to join me at the bar.
Mike is his customary 45 minutes late, but eventually all four of us are sat on the big sofa discussing the Secret Project. It's good fun and we all get overexcited - and, frankly, we have more beers than are strictly necessary for a proper meeting. I proselytise about The Social Network and hopefully convince some of them to go and see it - it's only sinking in now quite how inspiring I found it.
Eventually it becomes time to leave the pub, and while Mike heads to Domino's to have a row about extra pots of dip, I stick my headphones on and listen to loud hip hop all the way home.
Mike is his customary 45 minutes late, but eventually all four of us are sat on the big sofa discussing the Secret Project. It's good fun and we all get overexcited - and, frankly, we have more beers than are strictly necessary for a proper meeting. I proselytise about The Social Network and hopefully convince some of them to go and see it - it's only sinking in now quite how inspiring I found it.
Eventually it becomes time to leave the pub, and while Mike heads to Domino's to have a row about extra pots of dip, I stick my headphones on and listen to loud hip hop all the way home.
Monday, 1 November 2010
Tuesday 26th October
In the spirit of making things up with K after being a bit rubbish on Sunday, I offer to take her out to the cinema this evening. I also cook a delicious chilli to eat quickly before we go out (I can totally do sucking up when I have to) and we head up to the Cineworld in Shopping City at around 8, to see The Social Network.
I've heard nothing but good things about the film so far, which tells the story of how Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook - which is not something I had expected when I heard last year that there was to be a 'Facebook movie'. As it happens, the movie is one of the best dramatic films I've seen in a long time.
David Fincher's typically accomplished direction, Trent Reznor's atmospheric score and Aaron Sorkin's funny, clever dialogue make for a film that oozes class and confidence - and adds genuine excitement to a film that is basically just about guys sitting in front of computers. There's a lot of angry laptop lid slamming and a great deal of insight into the bizarre social and intellectual hierarchy at Harvard. Justin Timberlake is great as the Napster founder and one-time Facebook executive Sean Parker, and Jesse Eisenberg's performance as the odd, reclusive and not-particularly-likeable Zuckerberg is bang on.
The film leaves me feeling at once inspired - to create, to use my talents and to embrace the new - and sickened; mostly at the fact that Zuckerberg (now worth $25 billion) is only six months older than me. It's crazy to think that he came up with Facebook in his first year at uni in 2003; at exactly the same time I was in my first year at uni. I also joined Facebook in (I think) 2005, when you still had to be a student to sign up. It's a film for our times (and it could have been so awful) and it's a triumph of dramatic filmmaking.
I've heard nothing but good things about the film so far, which tells the story of how Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook - which is not something I had expected when I heard last year that there was to be a 'Facebook movie'. As it happens, the movie is one of the best dramatic films I've seen in a long time.
David Fincher's typically accomplished direction, Trent Reznor's atmospheric score and Aaron Sorkin's funny, clever dialogue make for a film that oozes class and confidence - and adds genuine excitement to a film that is basically just about guys sitting in front of computers. There's a lot of angry laptop lid slamming and a great deal of insight into the bizarre social and intellectual hierarchy at Harvard. Justin Timberlake is great as the Napster founder and one-time Facebook executive Sean Parker, and Jesse Eisenberg's performance as the odd, reclusive and not-particularly-likeable Zuckerberg is bang on.
The film leaves me feeling at once inspired - to create, to use my talents and to embrace the new - and sickened; mostly at the fact that Zuckerberg (now worth $25 billion) is only six months older than me. It's crazy to think that he came up with Facebook in his first year at uni in 2003; at exactly the same time I was in my first year at uni. I also joined Facebook in (I think) 2005, when you still had to be a student to sign up. It's a film for our times (and it could have been so awful) and it's a triumph of dramatic filmmaking.
Monday 25th October
Last week I ordered a USB stick from Amazon - a cheapo 4GB one - partly because I've never actually bought one before (the 1GB I've used for the last few years was, inexplicably, a free one given out by a sales rep I met while working at Waterstone's, branded with the logo of the Financial Times) and they're such ubiquitous and useful things these days, but also so I can try out an Ubuntu Linux install on my netbook.
I've been enjoying the netbook a lot - but frankly, I hate having to use Windows. I use Windows at work and the last thing I want to do is keep wrangling with it when I get home. Friends have recommended trying out Ubuntu netbook, and I'm keen to try it if only for its alternative (and staggeringly nerdy) vibe. Also, of course, it's free.
So my USB stick arrives today and I head home to download the install file and boot it up. This involves fiddling with BIOS settings and partitioning the hard drive and basically doing the back-end PC stuff I was fascinated by when I was a kid. It's also the sort of stuff I used to destroy the first couple of PCs my parents bought in the mid-90s.
K is late home because someone was pushed on the tracks at Kings Cross tube station, so I have plenty of time to fiddle about with the quirkiness and awkward newness of the OS before she comes in for tea. I feel a bit like a first-time computer user, but I'm pleased to be away from the drudgery and endless, endless updates of Windows XP.
I've been enjoying the netbook a lot - but frankly, I hate having to use Windows. I use Windows at work and the last thing I want to do is keep wrangling with it when I get home. Friends have recommended trying out Ubuntu netbook, and I'm keen to try it if only for its alternative (and staggeringly nerdy) vibe. Also, of course, it's free.
So my USB stick arrives today and I head home to download the install file and boot it up. This involves fiddling with BIOS settings and partitioning the hard drive and basically doing the back-end PC stuff I was fascinated by when I was a kid. It's also the sort of stuff I used to destroy the first couple of PCs my parents bought in the mid-90s.
K is late home because someone was pushed on the tracks at Kings Cross tube station, so I have plenty of time to fiddle about with the quirkiness and awkward newness of the OS before she comes in for tea. I feel a bit like a first-time computer user, but I'm pleased to be away from the drudgery and endless, endless updates of Windows XP.
Sunday 24th October
We get the shopping done and K gets busy in the kitchen making a stew for tonight's dinner. I help out, a little, by making dumplings from flour, butter and herbs (a quite fun, tactile bit of cooking that is so embarrassingly simple that I get quite a lot of pleasure from not immediately cocking it up) and chucking them in the bubbling pot. Next, the doorbell goes and Alex is here - we're off to the Hope and Anchor to meet Will and watch the Man City v Arsenal game. I kiss K goodbye and promise to be back for dinner at a reasonable hour. The game kicks off at 4, so I make vague (but eminently keepable) nods at the idea of being home by 8, not pissed and ready for a nice Sunday night in.
We get to the pub and grab a comfy if unusual seat on the sofa at the back of the pub and wait for Will to arrive. It's been a while since I've seen the lanky one and it's fun to catch up while Arsenal (helped by an extremely early red card) run riot and beat City 3-0. After the game we play a bit of darts before getting involved in the winner-stays-on pool rotation. This is a bad idea, not just because this pub attracts some very, very good pool players on a Sunday night (I am told, at one point, that I'm playing against a former world number 57) - but because the night slips away from us just as fast as my phone battery.
When Alex and I are queuing up at Pizza Go-Go at 11pm, I know I'm probably in some trouble. I survive the killer look I get when I step in the door, heat up some stew and basically keep my head down until bedtime. I'm going to have to do some serious sucking up this week.
We get to the pub and grab a comfy if unusual seat on the sofa at the back of the pub and wait for Will to arrive. It's been a while since I've seen the lanky one and it's fun to catch up while Arsenal (helped by an extremely early red card) run riot and beat City 3-0. After the game we play a bit of darts before getting involved in the winner-stays-on pool rotation. This is a bad idea, not just because this pub attracts some very, very good pool players on a Sunday night (I am told, at one point, that I'm playing against a former world number 57) - but because the night slips away from us just as fast as my phone battery.
When Alex and I are queuing up at Pizza Go-Go at 11pm, I know I'm probably in some trouble. I survive the killer look I get when I step in the door, heat up some stew and basically keep my head down until bedtime. I'm going to have to do some serious sucking up this week.
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