Second Hand News

Kate and I met for beers in Pi. Unfortunately, those beers were 7.5% ciders, and we were both quite drunk quite quickly. Not a bad thing, despite it being a Wednesday night. We talked about Ventenac, and about murder, and – as the cider flowed – about matters of the heart. Of my heart, in fact.

I’ve had a soft spot for Kate’s friend Nicola for a while. She’s a fellow Belle and Sebastian fan, and she’s very attractive. Kate speaks very highly of her, and I trust Kate's judgement very much. We'd talked about how I felt a couple of times, but never in much detail. I saw Nicola’s housemate on the bus this morning, and I‘d seen her the day before too, in the evening. Unusual, I thought, so I texted Kate about it.

Kate and Nicola had been talking, said Kate, and I’d come up in the conversation. A bit about Ventenac, a bit about murder, a bit about my bus rides. Whilst nothing had been said directly, Nicola might be, Kate thought, interested in me. How exciting!

We carried on drinking until Dunk joined us, grumpy about the football. He didn’t really fancy a beer, but Kate and I were very much in the mood to carry on. We poured two large gins, and put on Rumours loud. It was late by now. 1am?

Matt came downstairs and asked us to turn the music down. I felt sheepish, and drank some more gin.

Coincidence

Lindsey from work is going out with Dave Shmoo! Nuts!

Kate, Paulina, Ryan and I went to Blowout with Matt and Chaw to watch She Keeps Bees, who are going to be at the Green Man Festival this year. As we were chatting, Kate pointed out Dave Shmoo. As he came over, Lindsey said "Hello!" to me. We know Dave Shmoo from Sol's and Fuel. Tiny world.

I was half-pissed when they walked in, and ended up ranting about Moss Side to Lindsey. I'm sure she was baffled by my ramblings.

Let’s go for a green, star performer… again.

We had a little party for Dunk’s birthday. Kate and I made a cake, and iced it red. Gethin and Cara came round, and Al and Ander followed. We lit the barbecue, hooked up Spotify and sat around in the garden chatting. Ander was really impressed with the hairdryer on the barbecue trick. I wish I had the video he took of its fiery glory, sadly I don’t. Matt and Chaw arrived later with booze and meat reinforcements.

- insert cake picture here -

I blame myself, but I wasn’t alone. I started it all, but it was the others who made it get out of hand. I’d cued up some Wu-Tang, remembering how much I’d enjoyed it last night. An eyebrow rose here, a foot tapped there; it was going down quite well. Then Dunk disappeared into the kitchen, and here our troubles began. We had an urban interlude.

Regulate – Warren G
Summertime – DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
Millionaire – Andre 3000 (feat. Kelis)
Concrete Schoolyard – Jurassic 5
No Digitty – Blackstreet

There was a much better collective mood than the last time we played Cranium. I was with Dunk, Al was with Gethin, leaving Kate, Cara and Ander to make up the third team. Dunk, as birthday boy and king of the day, took responsibility for choosing what colour card should be drawn when a team rolled a purple. And the answer was, invariably, Green.

Green – humdinger
Green – cameo
Green – copycat

It’s the most entertaining card to watch, Dunk reasoned, and he was right. The Al and Geth show was the pick of them. What a brilliant night.

Kudos to Blackwell’s at Manchester University, who ordered and took delivery of Dunk’s birthday gift – Maus – in less than 24 hours. I got a copy for me too, and read it into the night.

Signed, sealed, delivered…

…well, signed at least. I went to Sherlock Homes (OMG I love a cheesy pun!) to sort out the contract for my new house. They weren’t as competent as JP Brimelow, but they made Ben look like the fool he really is. I handed over copies of various documents, signed contracts and paid for my background checks. Fingers crossed!

Kate and I went to Electrik for a couple of drinks. She’s very excited about her new job at Oddest, and was talking about the different possibilities that it held for her. “So this place is the competition?” I asked. “No,” she replied, “this place is part of the community.” I’m sure she’ll do very well.

We picked up mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and more mushrooms, and went back to Great Stone to make Simon Rimmer’s Oriental Pie. It was very tasty. Chaw and Matt arrived later on, and we sat around the table chatting as they ate. Kate whipped out an apple pie. With cinnamon cream. Yum! We plotted my arrival, and what to do with my dining table. One word kept on coming up… BANQUET!