18th - 19th March 2006

I seemed to have a hectic week, not getting home at a normal time much but that's just part and parcel of working for a big company. We seem to have a lot of functions as well as the usual work stresses and strains. On Tuesday night I was at a farewell party in a Jamaican restaurant called 'Mr Jerk' , which was like an old cafe (not unlike Rose's tea lounge for the ex-Brakpannites). The food was great and really cheap and I had a drink that would probably result in 20 Hail Mary's if I were an Irish Catholic...it was called Guiness punch and comprised Guinness (there's a surprise) and condensed milk with a shot of nutmeg and something else.

On Wednesday night, Graham had some of his friends around from the traders' conference that he attended that weekend we spent in London near the Barbican. They all sat downstairs talking in tongues (to my ear) whilst I worked upstairs. Graham fixed some great snacks and I could just smell all these interesting things wafting up to the study so I sat drooling into my keyboard.

Then on Thursday night I met up with some ex colleauges and we went to a Cuban restaurant near Moorgate (north of the river sort of near Liverpool str) for Happy hour, which turned out to be 3 hours long and I have no idea what we poisoned ourselves with but at least I didn't feel cold when I ventured outside and had the giggles until I got on the train and my peace was disturbed by some smartly dressed young guy trying to puke into the rubbish bin behind my seat. He then gave up trying to control the projectile ratatouille and lay down on the carpet and let it flow from his mouth like the Orange River in flood! Yugh!! Needless to say, I changed carriages.

On Friday, Graham popped into London for a seminar in the afternoon so we decided to go out on the town that night and sleep over. I had the name and place of this blues bar just off Soho where we were going to listen to da muzak! However poor G decided to walk back from his seminar, which was near the Tower. It is a beautiful walk but rather far when you aren't wearing your running shoes and a little more tedious when you have to clench buttocks and teeth to keep out that bitter wind howling along the Thames! By the time he got to me (near the Eye / Westminster), he was feeling a bit tired and then I dragged him upriver to a place near the old Tate (around the corner from the Morpeth Arms which used to be a pub run by Jay and his dad a few years ago.) Along the way my work boots started hurting me and my eyes were streaming from the cold! My hat kept threatening to blow off, so eventually I took it off and immediately got frost bite on my ears.

We got to the hotel which had this 'Spring promo' on so our rate included dinner, bed & breakfast so we had dinner there. After Graham's surprise that a 'rack of ribs; in London was equal to 3 weenie lamb chops, we were too tired to go out, so went upstairs and flipped through about 20 channels of TV until we fell asleep....so much for a night on the town!

Got to rush now. Off to the Hague tonight but at least this time G is coming to join me from Wed so it should be fun and perhaps I will see more of the city besides work, restaurants and gyms..