Saturday, 12th July

‘Here I Go Again’

I like, totally forgot, to tell you - High School Musical wasn’t as awful as I thought it was going to be. However, the number of grown-ups who’d forgotten to borrow a child, to validate their attendance, was staggering. We were right at the back of the circle for the first half, but noticed several empty seats further forward. So for the second half we sat right at the front of the circle. There were a few tuts, but if the seats are empty, what the hell?

Last night the girl posse went to see Mamma Mia. This was the second night in a row that I had gone out with low expectations. How wrong could I have been. This was the best film I have seen in ages. We cried with laughter, we cried with, um, crying. Even Alison would have cried if her tear ducts hadn’t healed up years ago. We are definitely going to see it again. And sing along. In costumes. It’s set on a Greek island, which just brought home how soon we will be in Crete.

Then back to The Castle, and then here’s the mistake – we asked everyone back for a drink. Anita went to get her two pointers, and the miniature Yorkie who is staying with her. We very explicitly said, ‘Just one or maybe two,’ as I had to be up at a reasonable time to get Xanthe to Peter Jones for her uniform appointment. Coco the Yorkie was so cute, I had to wake Xanthe up, so she joined the party. All of a sudden it was 2.00am, and Alison and CJ rocked up. Lester followed, and tried to buy us a wedding present. And failed. He brought Barney, so there were now six dogs going ballistic. CJ and Ali left around 4.00am, leaving Troy and I to shoot the breeze, and finish the open bottle of wine. We went to sleep around the time the alarm goes off.

Three hours later and it’s uniform time! Back to the house for an hour’s kip. Then off to PC World to buy Fluff a laptop. I find the coolest gadget in the world, a portable mini printer, that you Bluetooth images to from your phone! Joined by Max and Harry, and the five of us head off to see ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth.’ IN 3-D! The 3-D is amazing, and clearly the producers thought that they didn’t need to bother with a decent script. Or character development. Or competent direction. Pizza Express for supper, then over to the pub, where Lauren and Steve were ‘evolving’ a cocktail. Yeugh! Home for a thoroughly good night’s sleep, after the excesses of the night, or rather morning, before.


Sunday, 13th July

'Journey To The Centre Of Peckham'

Up at sparrow’s fart, or at least what passes for, on a Sunday. 9.30am. Worked until we went out for Dim Sum, a good starchy lunch for Troy before the football this evening. Then we went on something of an adventure. A trip to Peckham… After reading Troy’s copy of Stuff the other evening, I was determined to score a – specific - new camcorder. The only problem was, the only shop that had it was, you guessed it… in Peckham. The sun got lower in the sky, and the temperature dropped, as we left London. I asked if he’d remembered the passports. As I reversed the wrong way up a one way street, I thought how very ‘Bonfire of the Vanities,’ it all was. We parked, made our purchases, and scuttled out of Currys.digital. Xanthe asked where we were going, ‘Back to the car, if it’s still there.’ I quipped. Strangely, the traffic leaving Peckham was far worse, than the queue of people waiting to get in. Figures.