Hubris.co.nz

Karen McLeod to me, Angie McLeod
Eats, drinks and no leaves
Ok: how does this sound: I make:
Foodage: pesto frenchbread crostini; pita bread & carrot sticks with hummus for dipping; chippies; cracker mix; brie.

Sound alright? There’s probably going to be approx 20 people for drinks, 12-14 for dinner.

My Saturday night is going to be yummier than your Saturday night. And there will be vegetable tempura in the middle of that. Not that I always order the same thing at Hede, oh no.

Now my big dilemma is about what to wear. I have two tops in mind, and they’re both a gift to the world (in terms of twin views, y’know), but one of them is very hard to sit in. I might wear it for drinks before and after but not to dinner. We’ll see. Dressing up is fun! Also, I’d just like to apologise for constantly writing ‘dilemma’ as ‘dilemna’. I just looked it up and I promise to try to do better in the future.

I took a Mental Health Day yesterday cos I hadn’t slept (again) and it really really helped. It made me remember that duh, I haven’t taken St. John’s Wort in weeks, so of course I was spinning out. I have taken it now. Next time I talk about going on antidepressants again, can one of you please remember to ask me if I’m taking my St John’s? I’d really appreciate it. Chur.

So this week there’s been some aaaaaaarghing on my part, but there’s also been some entertainment. I took Dave to dinner at my parents’ house on Wednesday night because he kindly volunteered (or was pressganged into) to retrieve files off my old computer for me and reformat it for my parents in exchange for a roast dinner. I don’t think he knew quite what he was in for – cue me not knowing what password I’d put on my bios, and my father having decided without telling Mum that he was going to build himself a new computer and blah blah blah blah. But he was very patient and good about it.

Last night Anji and I took her (STUPID DUMB AND I HATE IT) surprisingly heavy (AND STUPID AND DUMB!) small ridiculously small couch over to Karen’s place for Karen’s party. My vitriol at the couch is based on a) it’s not big enough to stretch out on, and I needed to stretch out with my leg up when I was sick with gangrene and it didn’t deliver, and b) damn that couch is heavy, and I was just so uncoordinated last night I could hardly lift it, and it was just ridiculous. I suspect this is about me being a spaz in my pajamas rather than the couch, but I don’t care. What, are you from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruel Words about Couches or something? I don’t think so. Fuck off.

Okay stalkers, time to get your diaries out. Next week I have dinner for Karen’s birthday with the Olds on Monday, and then The Wedding Crashers on Wednesday, and then Brad in The Seagull on Thursday, and then possibly a very expensive dinner on Sunday. In between you’ll find me on the couch. loving ‘Rockstar: INXS’. It helps that I never liked them as a band much so I don’t mind the trainwreckness. Plus: NO R.KELLY! EVER!

So I have no doubt that right now you’re all “fuck! It’s Jo’s birthday in less than ten days (on June 17th) and I must buy her presents! I wonder what she would like?”

I, of course, would like to take the stress out of your lives, so here’s what I’d like. You may notice some similarities to my Xmas wishlist:
- a thick long scarf either in a chunky texture or short stripes.
- Bed linen. Bright colours and queen-sized please.
- New shoes – chuck taylor lowtops (in a converse size 9) or Super Birkis in a 42 – metallic or bright green or purple please.
- Accessories.
- Magazine subscriptions to anything and everything.
- Online subscriptions to Nerve and Salon.
- The Breakfast Club on DVD. Make it exist. Also Garden State, season two of Twin Peaks (which isn’t out yet, as far as I know), Scrubs, My Neighbor Totoro and anythign else.
- dark coloured lipgloss
- A cellphone that’s pxt and polyphonic capable – I’d prefer a nokia.
- Things from my smokecds wishlist
- anything you’ve handmade for me – zines, mix cds, artwork, whatever.
- eatible and drinkables
- bathroom products.
- ps2, eye toy, sing star and dancing mat. Also the Buffy game and Tekken but I promise not to play them so much cos of the wrist thing.

So, it’s my birthday in less than two weeks, and many of you are invited to my Friday the 13th Drinks, so you’re probably wondering what to get me. Here’s a helpful list (actually, chances are if you’re coming to my drinks, I’ve already been to your birthday parties and haven’t given you anything, so you shouldn’t either)

• Knee socks
• lip gloss
• brightly coloured eyeshadow
• jewellary
• scarves
• kitchen knives
• cash
• books
• beauty products

Thank you. Having said that, the coolest present I received last year was Peter filling my entire bedroom with balloons in the coolest suprise I’ve ever had (no disrespect to the other presents people got me cos they were all brilliant too).

Other than that, my mummy’s coming up to visit me tomorrow. Yay. And what else? I might go get some lunch now. Designer Brad gave me a chocolate bar for proofreading his 8000 word dissertation. I am a good girl.

Did I show you my pluto photos? I think I probably did. Oh well, you can see them again. And I guess that’s all I really have to say right now.

Thursday August 22nd

If the phone rings one more fucking time, I swear I am going to hurt someone – but of course, I’m on the net, so HAH, it can’t ring. Take that, motherfuckers. I’ve taken to barking “THEY’RE NOT HOME” every time it rings now, since it’s both Clay and Bopha’s birthdays and the phone has been ringing nonstop and it’s always Clay’s horrible family members. If I wanted to be a receptionist, I would not have spent three and a half years getting multiple qualifications. I probably would have dropped out in sixth form.

So, today is Thursday and the last day I wrote was Monday, so I guess I should feel obligated to fill you in on my week. After all, you’re still my captive audience even if I haven’t heard from you in forever – well, I’m guessing that I am, and if you’re not reading this, then you won’t be able to let me know that I’m wrong, so really, it’s a win-win situation, kinda but not really. But anyways.

Tuesday: I had to get up earlish to get my ass over to Newmarket where we went to Westfield’s Nuffield Street Project’s headquarters to listen to their communications woman talk about their public consultation programme and how successful they have been and how they’ve scaled back the “mega mall” project they were gonna implement, so that was kinda really interesting. Then everyone had to hop it back to campus for Human Resources lectures, and then I went to the library to start looking up my hypothesis – “HR communicators need to have a thorough understanding of the implications of Sick Building Syndrome in order to protect their workers”. This is a reminder once again, children, that you should go to classes in order to avoid the lameass topics (not like i did today). After that, I had coffee with Thomas (because just between you and me, I do still worry about him, and also because it’s cool we’ve got to a stage where I can send him text messages going “BOYS SUCK” and he will text back offering to beat people up for me). Later that evening, after much wardrobe fretting, Haley picked me up and we went to our client’s hat shop opening in Kingsland. I managed two and a half glasses of bubbly and conversation with an ex-lecturer (“that scary guy is still looking t you! he’s giving you the glad eye!” – haley) before Haley had to go to work and I had to go and meet Jezza and Renae at the pub for quiz night. There, tragedy struck – I realised I didn’t feel like drinking! Shock horror, and so consequently, we didn’t win. It felt dirty and wrong and soiled.

Wednesday: Hmmmm, I almost had a total memory blank here, but then I realised that Wednesday was yesterday, so in that case, I can remember. Half a day working, doing name badges and other such things, making sure that our big major event next Saturday is going to go smoothly. I was also told that I’ve been shortlisted for Terri’s position and will probably have an interview on Monday or Tuesday. Gulp. I also spent my time emailing KateH and asking her to make the final decision on an issue for me – BradM told me to ask (one of) the boy(s) I fancy out for coffee, while Jezza says that that particular boy isn’t interesting enough for me and I need someone with more spark – but she claimed she’s too much of a fence sitter. Inncidently, when I say I wanted her to make my decision for me, that’s not actually what I meant. You may or may not know that the way I work is that I make my mind up about something and then canvas opinions from my entire social circle until I find someone who agrees totally with me and then I get to use them as like, my expert witness. We all went out to dinner (like, twelve of us) at the Canton Cafe in Kingsland for Clay’s birthday, cos we’d finally managed to get a booking, adn we made it our mission to last there for at least an hour – it was almost two before dinner was finished. The food there is SO GOOD. But the company was real wack. Leo kept trying to get me drunk (cos sure, that’s hard) and I could see KateH and Jezza discussing me over the other side of the table, wheras Morrison was even less subtle with her appraisal of the particular boy that KateH and Jezza were appraising (their verdict – perhaps a change from the usual drama boys would be healthy for me). I like lazy susans. I also like all the food at Canton. I ended up paying $20 as my share of a feast, which included the rest of us paying for Clay and Bopha both in honour of their birthdays, and a $10 tip. Good good good value. It’s funny though, that Clay’s friends are all cheap and don’t bring their own wine, wheras all of my friends did. After that, we got taxis and went and danced and danced and danced at Retro. I got shirty cos of course goddamfuckingKara put her handbag down in the middle. I HATE DANCING AROUND A MOTHERFUCKING HANDBAG! DO I LOOK LIKE I WEAR WHITE PANTS? Grrr. Anyways, eventually we all went home, and since he’d been flirting iwht me hardcore all night and everyone was whispering “there’s definitely chemistry” to me, I decided to sort things out once and for all with the boy. When we were standing outside my building by ourselves, I said “Pop quiz!” to him, and he was all “umm, okay.. I dunno if I’m good at these” so I said “it’s a simple yes/no question” and he said he could do that, and so I said “are you at all interested in me?” and he was a little taken aback, but he said no, and I said that was cool, and he was like “wow, that was out of the blue (OH REALLY? ARE YOU A FUCKING MORON?) you’re really straight up, aren’t you? That’s really cool” and then Clay came up so I just laughed and reiterated that it was cool. I did end up calling Tom to talk about it later though, because hey, no one likes rejection. Especially rejection that makes you feel like you’re totally not fanciable by anyone. If I want to make myself feel better about it, I can think that maybe it has something to do with the fact that I ruthlessly shagged his best friend the night we all met (oh yeah, cos thinkign about that stage’o my life always makes me feel better). Meh. At least I’m not wasting anymore time on him, and he’s cool enough that hopefully, we’ll still be cool.

Thursday: that being today, of course, was making yoghurt&peach cake for the flatties, more work, and too many goddam people ringing this evening for Clay and Bo. I got to see Emma this afternoon though, which was choice, cos I’d just been thinking about her before I got home. And I wanted to have a catchup chat with both KateB (who was just on her way out) and Anji (except she texted to say she was out to dinner with the whanau) so I didn’t talk to anyone. But I might go have telephone conversations now, and so that will be good. I have a big meeting at work tomorrow to discuss all the final details for this big event, so I guess I gotta get to bed at some decent hour so as to be able to cope with the things I gotta do.

Thursday June 20th

Happy Birthday Daddy! I’ve fucked up everyone’s birthdays lately – it was Shirley’s on the 15th, not Andee’s. Andee’s was yesterday, not o’s. And o’s is tomorrow. Happy birthday o!

This morning I dragged myself out of bed and the house into the most miserable weather ever (three sleeping pills (relax, they’re just herbal) had actually allowed me to get a decent night’s sleep beforehand) to go down to tech and sit my Intergrated Marketing Communications exam. I decided last night that I’m going to get an A on it. I wrote about telemarketing, databases, heirachy of effects and the implications of new media in 2010 on IMC. I kick ass.

After that, back home in the horrible weather for a few quick puffs on a spliff with Bops and Emma and then it was off to Newmarket for my half hour massage. Ahhh bliss. I just wish that the guy hadn’t had coins in his pocket that kept jangling. I also wish that I wasn’t so tense and that I didn’t feel the need to fight back when someone is pushing me. At least I’m more comfortable about strangers touching me. Oh shut up.

Home again to laze around, completely relaxed except for Bopha scaring me. I had a lovely nap and mooched around doing sweet fuck all, except for baking a birthday cake for Emma. Her birthday was on Tuesday, but we were slack so we’re gonna celebrate it tomorrow along with Brazil/England. Come watch the soccer with us. (Oh also, Mazzy/Kate; yes Emma HAS moved out, don’t get worked up! We just like hanging out with her, okay? Good!)

Blah blah blah blah. I want the other half of my massage now please. I was afraid that I’d end up gurgling on the table but luckily I didn’t.

Tuesday June 18th

Because it’s all about loot, and because you may be interested, and now I’m actually sober (last night was crazy), I will write you a list of what I got for my birthday, in the semi chronological order that I received things.

When I was just on my way out to work yesterday morning, I spotted a large parcel and poster roll sitting in the lounge that had been sent up from Wellington, and even though I knew I was running late, I took a little time to open a few of the things inside, which were:

• A poster of Antartica from Karen, with bears drawn all over it in various different styles, which was obviously a collaborative effort on the part of the good people at Unity Books in Wellington (after all, my height is measured on their door).
• One of the parcels in the big box was “Manufactoring Consent” by Chomsky from my parents
• The other thing I opened was a MUFF that Karen made from me, along with a long list of muff ettiquite. Fuck, I so can’t spell that. You know what I mean though. It’s all soft and brown and furry and has a bear face on one side. Hehehe. I like bears. She also gave me a can labeled “Batted Salmon” which on closer inspection is actually tuna. I like injokes. This is my muff:

Then I had to run away to work and I found out that Teri had broken her ass. Heh. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but she laughed at me when I told her the catching on fire story:

All day today I have been wearing my pajamas, cos I haven’t had a pj day in aaaages, and I really love my pajama top – it used to be my grandfather’s, and it just looks really good on me and it’s actually probably one of the bestly seductive items in my wardrobe. Anyways, this evening I was cooking dinner, and I leant over the stove to stir something on the back element when WHOOSH! My pajama top caught fire. I started screaming immediately, of course, and freaked out, but luckily, I had the good sense to pull it straight off and dump it in the sink. Then I stood in my slip and pj bottoms in the kitchen for ages laughing hysterically. So much for thinking it was a cotton top.

Bopha and Leo heard me screaming but they thought I was some random street person. Typical. Things could have been a lot worse, because the slip under my pj top is completely synthetic too. The way things are now, the bottom of my pj top is just charred and missing a chunk. Maybe once it dries out, I will consider whether or not it is still wearable.

Apparently Bridget was even gonna bake me a cake but she just didn’t. I did have a piece of someone else’s cake though. Actually, I haven’t had a birthday cake since my 17th birthday. Sigh. Anyways. Also at work I managed to finally finish my very first article and put it online. I’d give you the link but then you’d know where I work (because it’s SO hard to figure out right now).

Anyways, finally I managed to get home and open the rest of my presents, and this is what I got:

• ‘Chemistry’ from my parents, which is a NZ book about a drug addict with kidney stones who goes to live in Timaru. I’m presuming Karen chose it and it will therefore be good.
• A 3M ergonomic mouse, which wouldn’t run off the proper port for some reason, but luckily it works off USB as well.
• Some bodylotiony stuff which I initially suspected Neil had just got at a hotel he’d stayed in.
• A jar of Mole sauce they got me in Mexico. There’s an accent or soemthing somewhere in there, it’s not actually potted rodent. I hope.
• A weird purple pen which just perplexed me, but apparently it doubles as a screen cleaner. Mum said on the phone that she felt like she had to get me something that wasn’t on my wishlist. (And of course I’m still going to put the link in to that, it’s never too late to buy me presents!)
• A book called “The 13 and a half lives of Captain Bluebear” from Karen. There are precious few books about bears at Unity. It looks good though.

And then after that, eventually Bopha and I went to Caravan Serai to meet up with everyone else, and this is the rest of the loot that I got:

• A Virtual Fireplace video from JeremyO and Renee. I put it on today and it was strangely mesmerizing and made me feel warm.
• Bright lime sheets from KateH and Maree, and also some body glitter. I’d actually been thinking I should buy new bed linen just hte other day when I saw it advertised but I physically restrained myself.
• A pez dispenser from James. It has a lion on it, but we all initially thought it was a bear.
• A big bunch of flowers and a book called ummm hmm crap, I forget and it’s in the lounge and I’m lazy from KateM. I’ve previously seen her sobbing over it before, so I’m not sure what she’s trying to do to me, but I’m looking forward to reading it. Plus, that’s like the 5th time ever in my life anyone’s given me flowers, so that was exciting. I am so spoiled!

The best present of all, which was the guy finally listening to me yelling and finally working up the nerve to come into the women’s toilets to go and get me someone to give me a screw driver so I could get the fuck out after I got locked in the toilets by a broken lock. Apparently everyone was like “where’s Jo?” cos i’d been gone fifteen minutes but they all thought I was just talking on my cellphone. Of course, if I’d had my cellphone withme, I would have fucking called them! Grr.

Anyways, so that was last night, or the dinner part of it anywyas – I hope I didn’t forget anything. Afterwards, Bopha and I sat around being dicks at home smoking cigars and basically being looney. Today we went out for lunch at Fire&Earth and she told me that she’d kidnapped my cellphone the night before and sent out text messages to various people trying to get gossip but since no one replied I can only presume that she fucked up and nothing went out. Phew.

Oh! Exciting news! I saw Marion in the downstairs apartment when I went to ask the builder to move his car so I could get mine out and apparently, I’m getting carpet tomorrow or the day after! Wahoo! Six months later.Tonight I watched a two hour doco on Robbie Williams. I don’t want a webpage anymore, I want a documentary done on me please. It’d be great. Plus, I think my dad is smoking crack. This is the email he sent me yesterday:

Hello Joanna It’s a long time since I saw you pop out, but you’re still my little baby. All the best for the day, that’s probably pretty well past, at your end. Here I sit in Singapore, waiting to go and sell people on the idea of electronic certification. What some peole will do for a living, eh? (Call it “living”?) Anyway, better do some work. Happy birthday, in case you missed the rerefence, Yer ole man

Actually, that’s kinda cute isn’t it?

Right, maybe I should go and try to sleep now, either that or read through my IMC notes. I’m a little annoyed with myself for my lack of study, but you see the thing is that I only need 9/50 to pass the paper. Sure, yes, I could aim high, but I guess it seems to me that there’s not really any point unless I was going to get the top score out of everyone, which I’m not going to, so why put in all the extra effort? It’s like “a C is a degree” and all again. Even if I am a ‘mature student’ now. Then again, I can probably pull marketing out of my ass quite well. And I have til Thursday morning anyways. Hopefully I can get my massage after that. I’m freaked out about my wrists and hands though.

Monday June 17th

Today is my birthday, my 22nd to be exact. Any and all of you who haven’t seen me, called, txted or email suck. That’s right, ALL of you. So there.

Work was long but hey, I was weraing my pretty new skirt so at least I looked good.

Evening was Bopha and Berrin which apparently means Little Bear so I love him yelling “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” and breaking like mad as soon as I walked in the door which was a little scary.

Evening was dinner on the pillows at Caravan Serai with Bopha and Jezza and Renee and Maree and KateH and James and KateM and Jody, and oh my god that was so cool apart from getting locked in a toilet stall and having to take the lock off with a knife as an alternative to climbing over the roof into the dust and air vents to get out, but maybe we’ll write about that when we’re soberer, cos I’m actually reaaaaaaally sleep so I migth go sleep and write up an inventory tomorrow. I had a kickass birthday, and it would only have been cooler if You had called. Ha, who’s that You? You all are, maybe. Also, I’m worried that you’re not going to email me again, after my last letter to you which I guess was a suggestion that you shouldn’t, but that’s not really what I want, it’s just what is obviously for the best. But fuck the best! I want the rest! Anji says I should go and leave the boy another note with my number and see if he wants to have coffee, but I’m so not even sure that I wanna see him, I think I just want SOMEONE to fancy. Meh. Think about it tomorrow? For now bed looks all warm and soft and stuff. ANd there’s no one left to drink with cos everyone’s gone to bed and I almost fell asleep in Bopha’s when I wenmt to wake her up for the soccer which she’s not even going to watch (I’m in shock). Yeah, so I’m cold and drunk and mostly really happy, bed would be good here.

Hey, do you think I’m grown up now? We’ll see. xojo.

PS – Did I mention that I set myself on fire yesterday? Whoops!

Saturday June 15th

Happy Birthday Andee! I tried calling a couple’o times but the phone was always engaged (Nassy!).

Clay woke me up an hour earlier than expected to take him to the airport but that’s okay. The traffic was slow and crawly on the way there but actually it was nice to be driving again. On the way home I passed a shop with a big “SALE” banner hanging off it, so I went in and gave the shop woman style advice cos she was trying on her own products. Then she went away and another saleswoman told me that she had the same jacket that I bought on layby and wanted the skirt that I got only it has a pleat at the front and it was too long for her and if she’d had it taken up it would have lost the pleat. So yeah, I finally got a denim jacket and it’s SO NICE, really classily cut and thick material, not quite silvery but deep ink coloured, $125 down from $180, and I also got a long grey skirt with a little frilly pleat thing at the front down the bottom, which was $65 down from $130. Yay for new clothes! I haven’t had anything nice to wear lately and my social life seems to have picked up some so I really do need more stuff to wear out. And to work.

After that I swung by the supermarket for some stuff and bumped into Sarah from my course who told me she’d been studying hard all week – scary. And then since I was in the neighbourhood, I went to KateM’s, and she was actually home, yay! Nigel was there too, so we caught up and chatted and I gave them the fresh bread and pineapple juice that I’d just bought. Some people are so cheap. It was lovely to see her, as always.

I can’t remember what I did for the rest of the afternoon. It must not have been that significant. I wore my jacket a lot. Later I watched ‘The Magnificant Seven’ and found myself curiously attracted to Yul Brynner. I couldn’t go out because I had to wait at home to make sure that Bopha woke up in time for England/Denmark, so I actually did some study. I know, I’m astonished too. Whilst studying, I listened to both discs of Mellenchollie. I think I’m going through a grungeretro patch. Then it was time for the soccer, of course, and it was very exciting for a little while because I was backing England, but then it just got too easy so I amused myself writing down quotes from the commentator instead – “We’re not home to Mr Grumpy”.

Monday June 10th

Somehow I managed to only get four hours sleep last night, and since i had to work at 10am, that’s really not that cool eh. As I was leaving home, Bops was like “I don’t want you to go to work! I want you to stay home and hang out with me” which really is a lovely sentiment, but unfortunately, someone’s got to earn the fucking bacon around here (not that I’ve been paid yet, and this is my fourth week there, so things are starting to look a little worrisome). I even let the coffee man talk me into a pumpkin&pecan muffin with my latte (“how are you and how was your weekend?” “really tired thanks, and pretty crap, how are you?” “should I make that a double shot then?” and I think: “oh you lovely man”) because he’s always trying to pitch them to me and today I was sluggish enough to be vunerable. They were really good though. According to Teri, that place is notorious for trying to upsell.

Work all day was good, we had our weekly meeting and I volunteered to do a new database, because I knew that if I didn’t I’d just get assigned it anyways because I’m the bottom’o the heap and plus I have lots of free time. So doing the database was kinda sucky, but everything else was good. Also, I’ve arranged my days and timetable to accommodate my three exams and also a week long jaunt to the town’o Well. Yeah. So pretty much that was my entire day. Oh yeah, and I’ve asked this elsewhere, but if you’re Aucklandwise, please recommend me a restaurant for my small and intimate dinner gathering to celebrate my birthday NEXT MONDAY. I need it to be BYO, innercityish preferably and cheap. And good, obviously. Also, if you haven’t been invited to my birthday dinner it’s either because A) I don’t like you or B) I forgot to and will very shortly get around to it or C) you know you’re not My Girls but D) you are most definitely invited to my birthday party on the 29th, here at theslab. (And of course when I say “you” that’s assuming you actually know me and are not a crazy fucking get the fuck away from me you psychopath kinda person)(Oh shut up Joanna, no one wants to come to your fucking party anyways)(And if I slot in one more set of brackets, I get the next one free).

Tomorrow I intend to start studying – or at least sort my notes out by subject anyways.

Friday June 7th

Morning is a mad dash to the supermarket with Bopha to get there and back in time for me to get changed and go to work,and I end up being ten minutes late, but it’s not like they’re really keeping time anyways, or so it seems. There’s a lamington waiting on my desk when I get there, sprinkled with baby m&ms and with a chopstick stuck in it, and as soon as I walk in, Skew and Terri are like “Happy birthday” and I’m like “thanks, who’s birthday is it?” and they’re like “yours” and I’m like “no” but it was really sweet anywyas, and apparently we’re gonna have a drinkathon on my birthday. That kicks ass! I can’t imagine any other workplace doing that. Oh yeah, at Foodstuffs, they laid on morning tea – biscuits and buttered muffins when they all knew I was vegan. Choice. But anyways, work is fun, and at three pm, Terri and I go for a 10 minute walk to the graphic designer’s office (the people I work for have buildings ALL OVER town – we 0wn Auckland) and that was fun too. She’s choice, I like her, and I will miss her when she is gone. Also she said today to someone else that I’m being groomed for her role, so that could be interesting.

Afternoon/evening is meant to be going down to Deschlers to meet up with the lovely Annabel but Bopa made me smoke a spliff with her so I couldn’t actually leave the house, so instead Annabel and later Arch came here. They were cool, and I invited them to my birthday party and she was like “oooh maybe the HJT could play” and I was like !!!! and then I giggled lots cos I have silly rock star crushes. Fuck, was I supposed to be writing present tense? I think it’s like, 5am or something, so fuck you and your grammar rules. Anyways, so there’s martinis martinis martinis and Bopha’s friends are over and they’re loud and shit so I go to my room, and KateM comes over and we drink and gossip and giggle, as girls do, for ages and ages and ages. Eventually we go down to Deschlers where we find Andy all by himself so we chat to him for quillions of years before Nigel & Jarrod show up. Razza is behind the bar, so that’s flashback to auldskool days, and the thousands of hours and cocktails and thighgropings consumed at Deschlers. Eventually we manage to grab ourselves a booth, and KateM holds me down and covers my mouth so I can’t scream when they get Andy to start smoking. And then there’s text messages and cellphone calls, and suddenly, I have Other Things To Do, with lots and lots of capital letters and a fair amount of injokeness, and I’m trekking up to K’Road by myself and by golly it’s cold. But it’s okay, because it’s wonderful and lovely, and yeah, but now I’m home again, cos you know what I’m like. But cool.