Friday 8th December 2006

Another of my Friday meetings with Forty Eight today which has become the stable and most enjoyable part of the week. They probably think it’s a routine two hour meeting for me, but it isn’t, they don’t know how I spend the rest of my time. I’m really pleased that these meetings are scheduled for the last few hours of the working week because it means that no matter what has gone on in the six days since the last one, I can end on a high note and feel confident about the future.

I was leaving their offices with a spring in my step when Trevor rung and said he was in town if I fancied meeting up for a pint? That’s the thing about the British though… we ask if some fancies going for “a� drink, or “a� pint, suggesting the singular. I don’t think anyone from these Isles has ever gone out for “a� pint in their lives. The only time we’d go out for “a� pint is if we bought one and someone then shot us dead. We are a nation of bingers, too much is never enough.

I drink far less now than I used to, I believe, and I think it’s a symptom of getting older rather than any conscious effort to cut back. The consequences of a binge now are hard hitting physically, often meaning a day or two of festering, when once I could spring out of bed with four hours sleep as if nothing had ever happened and do it all again. The small bonus of this ‘development’ is that I tend to spend the next couple of days holed up indoors getting things done rather than going on a repeat rampage, so in some strange way a hangover is productive. In a very strange way.

So I met Trevor and we went to The Lion. He had the car parked nearby and so could only have one, but as we’ve just established, this is impossible for anyone and not being the sort of person silly enough to drive under the influence, he was soon draining his glass and playing with the possibility of leaving the car here overnight, getting an inevitable parking ticket, and enjoying a few more refreshers. It’s a no-brainer, as I believe the modern lingo states. Within a couple of hours we were finishing off the fifth pint and putting our coats on to go for cocktails.

That is just the way things always tend to work.

Already, once I’d walked through the door of The Lion, someone had mentioned the naked antics of last night at The First National. How they knew about this I wasn’t sure, seeing as there were so few in the audience. “I heard it off one of the bar staff here� said stranger. But he’s only one person out of a million in this city so… no need to worry yet.

Walked into Room for cocktails. “Hey-Hey! Heard about the gig last night!� said one of the barmen.

“How?�

“Just heard about it!� he laughed.

I don’t regret last night for an instant, it was the ‘correct’ or whatever the word is thing to do at the time, but I’m surprised at how quickly this is getting about. I do seem to remember a few camera phones being waved about during the last few moments of that gig and so no doubt the whole thing will appear as a video on YouTube soon. Then an attractive girl and her friend approached Trevor and I.

“Hi. I just wanted to say I was in the audience last night and I really enjoyed the show.�

Ye Gads! One of the most poorly attended gigs I’ve ever done and already it seems to be the talk of the town and I’m the most recognisable face (and I hope it’s the face) in it.

Well, the only way to deal with this sort of notoriety is to go on an all night bender, don’t you think? Not done one of those in a while. Trevor bumped into some familiar faces and a group of us went back to his flat for a late one. I used to live in the same building and remember plenty of nights like this. Trevor stopped living there and rented it out just to avoid too many nights like this. He physically had to get away from the building. I sold the place for pretty much the same reason. And now the tenant had moved out of Trevor’s, so it was empty for a week or so, and it only took one night for it’s curse to reattach itself! The building is the Devil! You can’t go near it without loosing your mind. And so the night continued to morning…

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