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August 24th, 2003
10:44 pm - Day out
At EasyInternetCafe in London Victoria which is closing in 15 minutes so don't have time to change to a different PC which doesn't have a knackered space bar. Apologies for any inadvertent WikiSmushedTogetherWords. Credit expires in a week - number 9491 1052 6270, London Victoria only, password jp. On me.
Went to bed c. 3am last night, up 5:40, went to coach station, arrived by 6:10 for 6:15 coach. 6:15 coach already there and boarding. 6:15 coach fills and leaves. Second coach arrives at 6:40; I board and leave. Big double-decker, not TOO busy, I get 3-4 hours sleep on coach. Coach arrives 5 minutes earlier than scheduled 11:15 arrival despite late start. Traffic very easy.
Go for food in Victoria Place food court; my favoured Singapore Sam's Chinese place has been shut down by the health and safety inspectorate due to cockroach infestation, so I get a spudulike baked potato with chicken tikka, a titchy salad (!) and a not-that-big big drink for 4.99. (!) Shave and shower at Victoria train station (3 quid), catch train to Wimbledon (changing at Clapham Junction). Take taxi to synagogue as advised - "easy five-minute ride" costs GBP 6.80. (GBP 2.40 per mile at weekend daytime.) Unimpressed, I give 20p tip.
Jewish wedding service very nice. Meet up with lots of nice gamers, some of which I saw in March-ish, others last August, others years back. Get lift to Hampton Court where the reception is. Served lots of gorgeous canapés. Seating arrangements: very happily, am next to  ealuscerwen on one side all meal. Hooray! On other side are gamers - Tom Reusch and Adam Shapiro for first half of meal, Dan Lester and his lovely g/f Sinead on other side. Excellent meal: fishcake starter (not normally a fan, but this very good), chicken main, sticky toffee pud and great vanilla ice-cream for dessert. Very good speeches. Bride Becky gives untraditional bride's speech before main course, possibly best of night. Includes really good poem. All speeches pleasantly good-naturedly rude, despite very clean language.
Leave early, catch train back - old-fashioned separate compartments on rolling stock, v. nice. Am at EasyInternet to fill a spare 15 minutes. Catching coach at 11:30, hoping to get to sleep c. midnight. Back at Manchester c. 4-ish, back to room, 3-4 more hours sleep, final day at MSO. (So much more sleep tomorrow night!) Rather worried about MSO day I missed and lots of very negative thoughts in general which I don't like. A stressful and difficult but very thoroughly worthwhile day, all told.
Lots of EasyInternet credit left, but cafe closes in 2 mins. Bye. :-)
Current Mood:  satisfied
Current Music: background muzak, unknown
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You were a most cordial dinner companion. However, I was very disappointed that you ran away before I could pull you onto the dance floor. If I didn't succeed, Jon intended to try...
Eal. Did he leave a crystal slipper behind ? It's always worth checking...
Alas not. However, I did have to leave early only because if I had taken the next train, the Left Luggage office would've turned into a pumpkin by the time I got back. Dancing and me...
I was certainly kicking myself for missing out on that first dance - that sort of impromptu whirling thing for which the lyrics were "shalom, shalom, shalom", which looked tremendously good fun; didn't realise until what I thought was too late that the general public really could join in. (Also didn't realise just quite how long it would go on, so what I thought was "too late" really wasn't.) Had you seen that sort of thing take place at a wedding beforehand, or did you realise that it was completely improvised on the spot?
As for the main dancing... well, I don't dance to rock'n'roll, pretty much full stop. If there had been a waltz, or indeed anything in waltz-time, I would certainly have offered you the first dance. (Or, failing you, Sinead, or even the esteemed Mr. Hunt.) Can't remember whether you'd ever said you'd waltzed in the past or not, but I'd certainly have thought it would've been worth asking. Given that I knew I had to go fairly soon, I didn't ask the band for a request - plus it might well have been a slightly out-of-place request at an event like that.
The difference is that I'm happy to dance when I feel I have a decent idea of what I should be doing - so I'm really happy to do a waltz, a ceilidh dance where they'll teach you how to do it or a famous choreographed dance (like, I dunno, the Birdie Song or YMCA - or, with only a bit of studying, the Macarena). When it's completely freeform, I panic a bit and remain firmly glued to seat. Not good, but true.
You were a most cordial dinner companion.
A hint on the tart side, needs diluting to taste with a lot of liquid and just ever so slightly fruity? ;-) Hard to believe that you could mention all those dances we did, and yet not even a mention of That Song. If there was a blight on my otherwise perfect wedding day, it was that you had departed before John Kettley Is A Weatherman came on and - amazingly - did NOT empty the dance floor. Perhaps I could have got My Boomerang Won't Come Back on as well.
Israeli dancing before the meal - completely Becky's idea, I was dead against it and was also completely WRONG in being so. Great fun.
Mildly offended that you thought Becky's speech was funnier than mine, mind. Everyone knows women can't make speeches! Poor form, Mr. Cyg. I admit that I'm not sure where you'd have got a sufficient number of other fanboy nipples from and that my manb00b is sufficiently well-known not to be a particularly good distractor, but it's the thought that counts.
Nice owl. Why is he/she/it called "Plop"? ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/5537227/899098) | | From: | imc |
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| Date: | August 27th, 2003 07:06 am (UTC) |
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