Downtime, friends, binges, and more

So after a couple of weeks of internet downtime we're back online at Andrew Reed House. Much has come and gone in those weeks, and is now stale, but I'll do my best to recount some of the antics for you.

Biggest news is obviously that Tam and Cails arrived in London for their 'summer vac', which is now in all fairness a 'wet winter vac'. They crashed at our most legend (ok, it will be soon) pad for a couple of days before heading over to Camden Town to work. We only really got out once as a group while they were here, but it was all good. Pound-a-pint pints of Bitburger, followed by a party in a house somewhere, Jim Beam out of the bottle, boring some Brazillian chick till she just turned her back on me and spoke to someone else. Why you ask? Purely because Brazil is close to Columbia, and Juan Pablo Montoya comes from Columbia. Ok, yes, I was drunk. Very drunk. All that was followed buy getting lost while tecnically just down the road from home. And then Tam and Cails got the Ghetto treatment from two chicks because some other chick was upchucking red nastiness on the bus. It's all a comfusing blurrr really.

On Friday I managed to get the evening off and headed out for a 'few quiet pints at the Puzzle Pub' with a Alex. After 2 pints of 1664 things started to head downhill quite rapidly. The slide began with a pint of 'Turbo Shandy' (Be wary. Very.). That pint quickly became about 6, after which we started interjecting them with shots of Sambuca or Tequila. At about this stage the pub closed, but we were invited to the staff lock-in. Lekker ek se. The assistant manager then handed me a magnum of Smirnoff red vodka and a jug of Coke and told me to help myself. No worries there China. I completely blame the vodka for what happened when I got home, but that's still to come. I spent a large part of the rest of the evening dancing in a table... but remember very little of it really. In hindsight I probably embarrased myself quite badly. Oh well.

I ended up leaving the pub sometime around 01:30, I think, and caught the dodgiest taxi home. It was like a Pick 'n Pay No Name Brand taxi. No taxi light, no meter, no licence at all really. Of course I only noticed all this when I was getting out at home. I was like, "Dude, how much do I owe you?" At which point I noticed... no taxi meter. Hmmmm, strange. So he was completely cool and tuned, "Well how much do you want to pay?" WTF? So I reckoned, "How's about a fiver?" He retorted, "Let's make that eight quid." And that was that. I think it was a deal considering the time it was. I remember absolutely nothing from this point on besides spending a lot of time retching in the toilet. Damien assures me that I was well behaved, but that I repeatedly fell asleep with my head on the toilet bowl. Hey, these things happen!Eventually he steered me past a sleeping Tam on the floor and onto my bed, which is where I woke up at 9am, still fully clothed and honing quite badly (with a bucket - empty - positioned next to my bed). I owe you man!

And that was that. I haven't been brave enough to go out again since then.

Work is alright at the moment. I gave them my salary pitch, they then filled out my contract with an amount greater than I asked for. I signed it quickly. Ha!

The other big news at the moment: I land in Cape Town on the 16th of February. Booked. Payed for. Organized. This time around I'm hoping to do things a little differently though. I think it's going to be a quiet few weeks spent at home with my folks (much of which will be spent in the pub with my dad), and catching up with Natalie. The last time around I seemed to be jetting off constantly and when I finally left I didn't feel like I'd spent enough time with family.

Updates will become more frequent. Cross my heart...