plans for the holidays

saturday was quiet, for the most part. we were booked in for drinks and nibbles at Lisa's place and as happened the last time we headed down to Brockley, it was raining and the place was full of pretty gay boys. they're a fairly charming lot, and their parties seem to be high on the "fabulous". we sat, we chatted, we drank, we went home. a mixture of beer and vodka sat with me none-so-well and i spent most of the trip staring out the window or into the puddles in the gutter in with a bit of a cloud over my head... that is, apart from the clouds that were happily raining down on me. an email received when i got home brightened my spirits somewhat, but my mood rebounded off the vodka-haze and i didn't reply until this morning when the smile came back.

on tuesday i have another job interview, finally. i'm not allowing myself to get too excited about it all, but even getting an interview at the moment is a great sign. hopefully there'll be word from a couple of other roles i've been put down for tomorrow, so maybe the week won't be a total wash-out.

next weekend i think i'll try to organise something with Adnan's Facebook group. he's away at the moment, and i know that Jess is away, but Laura and Jeff should be around so we'll see if we can get something going. as the days march closer to Xmas the need to socialise grows. the holidays are just days like any other, but i still feel the need to have something resembling a party and people around.

amusingly, it makes me cast my mind back to one of my favourite xmas-days. Matt and i had the RPM house to ourselves. amanda had left me a couple of months prior and had moved out, Benzio was up in Berry with his folks and April (i think she was still in the house at this point) was in Perth, so there was no one else around. we had a quiet xmas-day planned with some movies and video games, right up until we both got a stomach-bug which left is dehydrated and unable to take food or drink, with the summer heat and the squirts ensuring that we were dehydrated and wrecked for days. we were both sick as sick, lying around and feeling sorry for ourselves, vaguely wondering whether we'd survive but... well, we had each other there to share our torment. i remember that we managed to get ourselves on our feet and in the car so that we could head to the O'Connor Pharmacy and get some rehydration salts. getting there and back took just about all the strength we had left and the drink the salts made tasted terrible but we got them down, one sip at a time. still, through depression and dehydration we got through the days that followed and despite it all, whenever i think back on that week i smile a little. maybe just because it's one xmas i'll never forget, maybe because we kept each other going and got each other through.

xmas just seems to be a time to spend with people. this year i'm spending it with a bunch of Lisa's vegan and animal-lib friends which should be entertaining. new year's eve, on the other hand, that's something i still need to stitch up. i should get onto that... it's ok - i've got some ideas...