socialising is exhausting.

on the body, and also on the bank balance. especially if there are birthday drinks and dinners in gastropubs and then more drinks and things in seedy dives. okay okay, there was just one expensive birthday do, but it was expensive enough to have swallowed up my grocery budget for next week, so guess who’s embarking on an austerity drive? it’s chickpeas and butterbeans and tuna from a can for now.

but, apart from making my wallet twitch and cower in fear, the food at the fox was hearty and full-flavoured and absolutely delicious. and the food alone was pretty reasonably priced, it was the copious amounts of alcohol ordered that did us in. after dinner, some of us headed to Uncle Sam’s for bluesyjazzyreggae, where they had a great big cheeseplant in a corner and served drinks on a cash-only basis. so, after all that dancing and drinking, i got home and dropped into bed, woke up with a hangover and then got ready to go out and sit in tooting common for another birthday celebration.

this time it was much much much cheaper, extremely relaxed and very appropriately sunny. we brought our own picnic and booze, and there was guava jelly which is like guava fudge, surprisingly delicious and very good with cheese. a tiny fair was set up nearby broadcasting michael jackson’s entire back catalogue and enticing children and adults to partake in its juddering gyrating orbiting rides. then the sun went down and the evening insects threatened to invade the cider, and so it was off to an old-man’s pub for the rest of the night.

today is for the papers and laziness. even gardening is looking like too much hard work. although, perhaps, i should at least do some watering before everything dies in this april heatwave we seem to be labouring under. and tomorrow, well, tomorrow is a drafting exam somewhere in westminster. but it’s just drafting, right? i’ll revise tonight.