Enter Steve, exit Dave

Steve came to the house to look at the spare room. I'd met him before - I looked at a house he lived in on Albemarle Rd back in November - so I knew he was an actor, and a pleasant enough chap. He seemed to like the house, but thought the bed might be too tall for him. He sat downstairs and chatted to us for a bit.

"I get quite bad asthma, is there any damp in the house?"

I couldn't lie to a potential housemate. Ryan's morals forbade him similarly. We told him the truth. Steve explained that he couldn't live there, said his goodbyes, and left.

I texted our landlord, explaining what had happened. He replied almost immediately.

"But there's no damp in that room. Can you call him back and set him right please?"

Bullshit. I said so.

"It looks like damp to me. I'm not prepared to tell a potential housemate something that turns out not to be true, because if I'm going to live with them they need to trust me. Come and have a look?"

What a tool. Chatting with Becky, it turned out that the landlord had failed to keep all sorts of promises that he had made to the previous tenants. The shower. The living room. The damp. A death of a thousand cuts.

Even after four beers with Ryan, I felt enraged. Why am I giving my money to such a dickhead?

My birthday, the evening

Liz and I went for a couple of pints in Dulcimer, then swung past the curry house on the way to my house. She gave me an Obama stencil, great stuff! We set out the table, and got ready to welcome the guests for the evening. Cranium kicks ass for group fun. The teams were: Me, Pippa, and Bruce; Liz, Steve and Milner; and, Chubb, Kate, Becky and Ryan.

We ate a curry and played Cranium. Ryan's performance of "Bowl a Maiden Over" will be the talk of the town for years, I think. His team won. My team didn't. But I won. It was my birthday, after all, so I controlled the stereo. At one point I was smoking, and from down the corridor, I heard my friends singing along to Meat Loaf. Have I ever been happier? No.

Ryan

Ryan came to look at the spare room. He's a vegan, and works in law that's related to immigration. Liz popped over around the same sort of time, and we were quick to knock up some joke about her being a spy because of her work. He liked the room, Becky liked him, and I liked him too, so I texted him from the pub later on to tell him that we'd love it if he moved in. He texted the weirdlord. So it's all go, fingers crossed!

Liz and I bumped into her friend Maria at Pi. We waited longer than we expected to for our food and ended up with a free beer with the meal. So much for a quiet couple of beers, eh?

Objects in the rear view mirror

Becky had some bad news about the flat she was going to buy which means that the deal might fall through. It’s complicated, but she might end up staying in the house. Would I have chosen the house if I’d known that was the case? Probably. And I was told she was moving out in good faith, not as a trick! I listened to Becky explain her worries, and tried to offer what support I could. Later on, Kate came round for dinner. We had a mushroom stir-fry, a pear tart, and four bottles of wine. Her photos from Budapest are amazing - the memorial to the Jews killed on the side of the Danube especially touched me: cast iron shoes stretching along the bank. It was overwhelmingly sad. We compared the differences in artwork between the Meat Loaf albums Bat Out Of Hell and Bat Out Of Hell II, Back Into Hell. When Becky came back from capoeira, she joined us for a slice of pear tart and a glass of wine. Becky has really thawed out lately – I suppose we know each other much better now.

Obama’s Coronation

I left work early to get home in time for the inauguration of the next President of the United States of America. Barack Obama is so cool! He strolled to the platform, looking relaxed and at ease. He was sworn in, without any major problems, and then he gave his address. The speech was ace. I hung on every word. Becky seemed quite beat when she came back from work, so I made her a cup of tea and offered out some biscuits. We chatted for a while about how excited we both were about Obama, and what he could mean for the world.

Later on Liz came round for tea, and we watched the world change over tortilla chips and chicken fajitas. The parade was slow, but thrilling at the same time. Twice along the way, the new President and his beautiful wife got out of their car and waved to the crowd. They even wave in cool way! I felt very optimistic.