It feels as though I’ve been on the go every day for the past few weeks * (well, since H and I returned from Yalta at any rate, which was at the start of October) but today Phil and I had set aside for a mammoth vid & veg session. The extra hour from the clocks changing was an unexpected bonus, and meant that we could have a lie in and still watch all of the accumulated episodes of The Sopranos series 1 (from More Four), and a couple of The West Wing series 5 (playing catch up on a whole series there….), and the repeat of this week’s episode of Lost on E4.

Bliss.

* Here’s my diary for the month to date:
Sat 01 Oct – Yalta last day and flight back to Stansted
Sun 02 Oct – Tea’s 2nd birthday party, Harrods Terrace Bar, Harrods, London
Mon 03 Oct – Ways into Anthropology, The City Lit, nr Holborn, London
Tues 04 Oct – [Worked late]
Weds 05 Oct – [Worked late]
Thurs 06 Oct – HTML for Beginners
Fri 07 Oct – Stewart Lee at the Soho Theatre, Soho, London
Sat 08 Oct –
Sun 09 Oct – Paul and Kamjit’s Sunday Brunch Bunch, The Design Museum caf

Phil and I headed over to Witham this evening for Janet‘s book launch. Whilst we’ve got a complimentary copy of A History of Witham sitting on the to-be-read shelf at home, it was the official launch this evening, and we saw lots of people carrying copies – a very good sign!

The party was in a lovely old barn behind the Spread Eagle pub on Witham High Street, and Phil, the tee-totaller, was in charge of the first free drink vouchers and welcoming people into the barn. I arrived about half way through the gathering, but in the remaining hour I was introduced to many of Family Gyford’s friends and neighbours, aquaintances and contributors. No one was willing to divulge any embarrassing stories about Phil though. Apart from the one about losing at Scrabble…..

… starting off with drinks in The Bishop’s Finger with Matt on Friday evening after one of his visits to St George’s hospital in Tooting. He assured us (Cat, Hazel and I) that he wasn’t looking at avian flu…. phew.

Next stop was Pho on St John Street for a tasty bowl of noodle soup, with summer and spring rolls for starters, and Beer Lao to wash everything down.

Saturday morning was a lazy affair with newspapers, coffee and croissants before we got our act together for a stroll through Smithfield and St Pauls, over the wobbly bridge to the Tate Modern for a quick look at Rachel Whiteread’s Embankment, aka Dougal’s sugar cubes, then along the south side of the Thames through Borough Market and on past London Bridge to More London where we paused for a bagel and a coffee before heading back to the Barbican via a typically deserted weekend City.

We took the bus down to Clapham Junction where Cat got to see Hazel’s revamped flat and to meet Luke, and after a cup of tea we moved on to a couple of glasses of wine with crisps and The X Factor, which was subsequently (inevitably?) followed by pizza home delivery and another couple of bottles of wine and the Top 100 Horror Films.

Surprisingly, Sunday didn’t see us suffering, especially after a tasty fry up rustled up by Luke as we girls vegged out in front of the box – trying to catch up on a year’s worth of Hollyoaks plot. After clothes shopping on Northcote Road drew a blank, Cat and I headed north to Kings Cross, where Cat boarded the 14:53 to Leeds, and I the number 214 bus to Chiswell Street.

For the rest of the afternoon Phil and I indulged in a marathon session catching up on the episodes we’ve missed of The West Wing (the whole of series 5….2 down, 19 to go), accompanied by tea and cake.

Phew! Our one-year overdue flatwarming feels like it has been a great success today. We had lots of guests – family and friends from all parts of Phil and my various worlds – who came bearing lots of bottles and edibles, and the odd small person. No injuries or lost infants and 8 hours of host[ess]ing!

Just don’t mention the pizza to Phil….. well, Saturday’s pizza practice at any rate 😉