I’m still alive, honest

Obsessed with: “What’s new, Lucy Fox? Woah-ah-woah-woaaaaah-oh” and “Wagon Wheel” by Bodega

Hello!

I know, it’s been, like, a year. I’m so terribly sorry. I have several people to blame for this:

John
Tom
Greg
Toby
John
Tom

So, Towersey. I’ve already put some quotes up, the most significant of which was “What happens at Towersey stays at Towersey” (or, “What happens at Towersey, happens at Towersey” haha). Therefore, debauchery shall not be discussed.

Photos are on Facebook.

However, I did learn three amazing folk tunes, thanks to Hannah and John. I’ve decided I like folk music a lot. We went along to a workshop where they were doing tunes, and it ended up with us having to give a performance on the Monday afternoon. It was unexpected, but lovely. Towersey is a music festival that is not like Reading & Leeds. They have got music (which, by the way, is way better than boring mainstream stuff. “Up to the rigs! Down to the jigs! Up to the rigs of London town!”), as well as side-shows, a craft fair, sideshow acts (“Lord Long-Lens!”), and generally some amazing people. I met the wonderful Beth, who I love (“Corrie, the second Tom goes away you turn into a lesbian!”), got to be with Tom, Toby and John, in one place for a whole nearly-week, and lost my voice after five days of screaming, shouting, laughing and generally being my loud self. It was heaven. Best week of the summer.

After arriving home on Tuesday, an impromptu nap was followed by cleaning up the old house ready for the handing over of the keys on Thursday. We did well; when we first moved in, it was disgusting. There was not a single layer of dust on anything when we finished – well done us! By the time we went home I was so tired I felt like I could literally fall asleep on my feet. I almost did.

You can’t imagine how shocked I was when I logged into my Gmail to discover a message from Greg of “you never check your email anymore”, “I’m arriving on Wednesday” and “I need somewhere to stay!” I felt awful (my phone ran out of battery at Towersey and there was no power, so I couldn’t check anything. It was lovely). I sent him an email with our home phone number and went to bed. 

He rang at 9 am from Gloucester Road on Wednesday morning, having been in a cafe for the last two hours, passing time. I gave him instructions, doing a passable impression of someone who hadn’t just been woken up by his phonecall, and tried to wake up.

When he got to our flat, Tom had gone out to work and I’d only just managed to haul myself out of bed. The Johnplosion that is normally our flat had been replaced by a Towerseyplosion (“I’m not used to seeing your flat so messy with stuff that isn’t mine, Corrie!”) and I was feeling very much worse for wear. Greg hadn’t had any sleep, fortunately, so while he was napping it off in the spare room, I hurricaned around the flat and cleaned up. When he woke up it was looking much more human, and I was feeling more alive also. We made sandwiches, then headed off to Hyde Park for Ben’s Cookies and a wander. It was lovely, we chatted, I walked barefoot, and the mark of how good the conversation was is that I can’t remember what we talked about. I must have enjoyed it!

Greg spent the night with Matt, while Tom and I had takeaway with the ex-housemates. They gave me my birthday present – some circular knitting needles made of laminated wood. The layers are all dyed in different colours, so the needles look like little rainbows. They are so cool. Seriously, I’m in love. They also gave me a spice rack thing which spins about and has lots of space for all my spice. Yay for not having a student kitchen!!

Thursday consisted of handing over the keys, letting Gav into our house, packing for Devon, and tea with the local vicar. The new church opens on the 19th of September, and he came around to see where we live and what we do. He remembered an awful lot about us, which is quite impressive given that the last time we saw him was at the beginning of June. Anyway, it was nice. When he left, I drove the leopardile to Matt’s place and he made us roast pork. It was soooo yummy! They drank a lot of wine, and Tom and I learned about what to do in a nuclear attack. Useful.

This weekend was spent at home with the family. We left late on Friday, owing to Tomfaff, after a hurried goodbye to Greg and Gav. We got caught in a lot of traffic, got to Modbury late, and were fed braai by the parents. We discussed a variety of subjects sitting on a sofa in the garden (Best. Idea. Ever.) and I fell asleep numerous times.

Saturday found me replacing a tyre on the car. “Why is this worth mentioning?” I hear you ask. (Never mind that most of the stuff I say isn’t worth a mention. Meh.) Some idiot decided on Friday night that it would be an amazing idea to leave a broomstick on the motorway. Imagine driving behind someone, watching them hit it, watch it catapult towards you knowing there is literally no way to avoid it, and feel the rush of adrenaline as it misses the windscreen and hits the side of the car instead. My relief was quickly replaced by dismay when we stopped at the next service station to inspect the damage. One new tyre and a lovely black stripe down the side of my car. At least it goes with the leopard print…

After that, we headed to Plymouth to see the Budden’s, stopping at a wool-shop along the way to accessorise my new needles with some amazingly soft wool and some stitch markers. We had dinner at a Spanish tapas bar with Tom’s parents, followed by a rather entertaining Saturday night at Tom’s grandparents house. There were old photos.

On Sunday, we gave Tom his birthday present, a Nintendo Wii. We drove back to London after picking up Toby, playing a rather amusing license-plate game along the way (“Rawr, yawr, 24-hour Long John!”). It took a long time (traffic was really bad) and when we got back to London, had an hour to try tidy up before all our good work was negated by the arrival of another Johnplosion.

Tom made a yummy dinner, we played Wii Sports for a while, and went to bed about 10 minutes after Tomkin was old.

Monday heralded the arrival of the BIRTHDAY, celebrated with cupcakes, quartets (the Cupcake Quartet, in fact), and the first successful surprise party I’ve ever managed to pull off. It was amazing. While Tom was at work I discovered that John can sleep through someone whisking up three batches of cupcakes in the same room as him, and fought the urge to tidy up his stuff into a little corner. We played some music when the quartet was assembled, but mainly ate more inspired sandwiches and decorated my cupcakes. The surprise dinner was at La Tasca, hastily rearranged after Tom told me he had the day off work last week, messing up my plans to have everyone at home by the time he arrived. They all came round afterwards, we played on the Wii for a bit, and went to bed quite late. I hope Tom had a good day – I know I certainly did!

Yesterday found me back at work, unhappily hauling myself out of bed at 6 am and having to rush about after realising the tubes are all out (Stupid strikes. Stupid TFL). I almost missed my train due to a rather amusing incident with a honey-bran muffin. Getting back from work proved to be easier, although fairly pressured as Adrian told me off for not having done any knitting while on leave, and I just didn’t feel like doing any knitting! We had a very sophisticated dinner (fishcakes), messed about with the Wii, and I amused Toby and Tom with my ass-wiggle as I tried to play Wii Sports baseball. There is room for improvement.

Incidentally, if anyone is wondering where John went, so am I. Apparently he was never staying the night with us. Could have said goodbye! (Rude!)

This morning I missed the early train by 30 seconds and got into work an hour late, which was wonderful. It’s good to be back, although after realising this is my second-last week we are all feeling a bit more sombre and less chatty. (“The office has been so quiet without you, Corrie!”) There is a new student here, so I’m not the official newbie anymore, though I am still being called student. I have a lot to do, and not much time to do it, which is great. My list of things to do is enormous.

My plans for my leave, which I so carefully wrote out on Google Calendars last time I sat down with my computer for a substantial amount of time, were all rejected in favour of more interesting stuff. Even the one about finishing my report for the 8th of October so that I have no coursework to worry about while I’m in Portugal. I can only apologise for not blogging, but when you all get back to London (as I’m assuming the only people who read this are the Dwarves) you will understand why life has gotten manic for me. Incidentally, I’ve signed up to do another year of IC blog this year, so it’s not going to get any easier. I love it.

It’s good to be blogging again!

CORRIE

PS I will try to get photos up soon, but the computer with Adobe Photoshop on it is currently sitting in the middle of a Tobyplosion. Lovely.