Beers with Peers

08 Dec 2006

Great, so I don't feel THAT bad now, just dazed. Everyone warned me it would be CARNAGE on the streets of Bournemouth, sort of like War of The Worlds, but without the alien tripods. So I meditated for the last week to psychologically prepare myself for holding my beer in front of my peers.

One thing that doesn't help right now though, is one of my mates having found a new way to issue lots of nudges at once on msn. The screen was shaking loads and now I feel quite sick. Tosser.

Mild hangover aside, no doubt I'll manage to lethargically moan my way through this weekend. So I've taken the day off and completely wasted it. Woke up at 7.30 like I do when I'm going to work. And can I go back to sleep? Can I bollocks.

Anyway, back to last night. Off to the pub I go, nearly an hour late, following two texts messages from 'someone who shall remain nameless'. "Where are you???"

Said nameless person says a brief hello then announces to the room that he's noticed that the Tescos over the road has a grand total of 44 Nintendo Wiis, and there's only 30 people in the queue. So off he trots, with 'someone who works on the mag with him' and stands in the cold for 4 hours to get a Wii. I can understand doing this for work reasons, but still...

Was quite a cool night. I've never really spent much time in the company of other PRs but imagined that en masse there would be much hissing. Quite the opposite in fact.

Rachael, my lovely future wife says that you don't actually notice you're full or not when you're eating and you need to wait 30 mins to see if you're still hungry. Whilst I generally appreciate her welcome pearls of wisdom, this statement usually comes when I've got my hands in the freezer ready to pluck out a chocolate lolly. Damnit.

Anyway, maybe it's the same for alcohol. I really need to get out of the habit though of drinking for the sake of it when I'm clearly approaching a vegetative state. When I get reasonably "monged" and I've had enough I tend to stand away from the bar and just talk to people. The problem is that when it's on someone else's tab, everyone just brings beer over, which is nice, but it turns me into McRedEye the next day. It really is everyone else's fault I feel like this. Really it is. To make matters worse I get called a skinflint when I'm out with my mates and I stop buying rounds when I'm pissed as a defense mechanism against "Alcohol-Induced-Memory-Blackouts."

Oh well, it's goodbye to Hannah, the blue roan cocker spaniel we've been looking after for the past three weeks. Her 'parents' (who are also Rachael's parents, but in the real sense) are back from Australia tomorrow and Rachael is getting up at 6am to drive MY car to the airport.

When I say looking after the dog, what I really mean is watching her sleep on the throw on the sofa. It's been cool having her around, but she's too noisy! I can't count the number of times she's woken me up simply by walking around on the laminate wood flooring.

TAP TAP TAP. Grrr. A noise like bouncing marbles. She's actually doing it right now.

Good for cuddles though. Cheaper than a stress toy and much more effective. I think I'll miss her. The old lady next door won't miss her barking during the day though...

Oh well, have to go, I'm being nagged at to feed her.

And I quote:

"So what exactly have you being doing all day? Have you just been sat there doing sod all today?" She looks around at the messy room...

"No, I've changed sofas."