One Lounge, Many Jerks

I didn’t want another crummy day for Liz, so at lunchtime I went to Venus around the corner and ordered her some flowers. I left them in the reception of her office with a note: "I hope you have a better day today."

In the evening, we went to One Lounge for Gemma’s 21st birthday. Gemma looked very glamorous, as did all of her friends.

As the evening drew to a close, Liz asked me, “Do you know first aid?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Why?”
“Look.”

A girl had collapsed on the floor behind us. Oh shit! I scooted over, and went through normal checks. She wasn’t obviously injured, and was definitely breathing, and had more or less fallen into the recovery position anyway, so not too serious. Drunk? Yes, her and me. We found her phone and tried to call her friends. She was unconscious, but not really at risk. We couldn’t wake her up, and we couldn’t get through to her friends, so Liz rang for an ambulance. “Tell them that the casualty is breathing,” I remembered to say to her. I was glad that the paramedic was on the way – I think I was too pissed to do CPR. I waited outside, he arrived, and I showed him in.

Weird, and wrong, was that almost all of the jerks in One Lounge were just getting on with partying on down as if the poor girl on the floor wasn’t even there. Boozy boys were almost stepping on her as the paramedic tended to her. It made me quite angry, and I was glad to be given something to do – go and wait outside for the ambulance, please – to keep my fury at bay. They came and she went. Surreal.

Back at my house, Liz and I smooched to the Longpigs then went to bed.

Two pints takes the edge off things

Today was a bad day for Liz, so we met for a quick pair of pints on the way home and a chat. There’s a stupid phrase that I never really understood, “Things will get worse before they get better,” which – stupid or not – seems to apply at the moment.

I watched Maestro on my own. Goldie was brilliant again, chatting back to the ballsier of the female judges. Lesbian Sue’s Simpsons theme was the real winner on the night though, excellent to watch. I want Goldie to win. I think it will be Sue though.

Alex

After I’d scrubbed the Green Man out of my skin, Liz came round. I’d been thinking about her and Alex all weekend. Alex is Liz’s ex-boyfriend from Uni. They met on the first day of Freshers’ week and spent more or less every single day together for the next eight years. Things ended under difficult circumstances. Alex had been in India since before Liz and I met, and came home the day I left to go to the Green Man. I don’t understand all of the details, but Liz has explained that Alex is a fragile soul. Liz feared she might demolish him by explaining that she is seeing me now. Happiness isn’t a zero sum game – one person’s happiness shouldn’t mean someone else has to be unhappy – but Liz knows Alex, and was scared that the news was going to really hurt.

I was both eager to find out how everything had gone, and nervous because I was scared it had gone badly. And it had gone badly. Very badly. Liz was visibly upset. Quieter. Slower. Somehow far away and still by my side all at once. I felt bad because I wished that I could do more. But it isn’t about me. My sadness at not being able to help is tiny compared to how sad Liz is at hurting somebody that she has loved, and loves. No amount of my embraces, my kisses will make Liz feel better about the pain Alex is in. I want to be the one, “that looks on tempests and is never shaken.” I want to help. I don’t know if I can.

I’m worried.

Green Man photodiary

Rick's birthday

Colin's shed

We helped Colin clean out his shed tonight.

"Do you have the capacity to help put up another shed?" he asked. I hope I can say, "Yes!" to him.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Another monster hangover was soothed in part by Paul’s hilarious guitar playing and in part by Liz going out and bringing back muffins and coffee. And then we were summoned. Lu put out the bat-signal: “Lime tree?”

I’d never eaten at the Lime Tree in West Didsbury, and so could be forgiven for thinking it was a camo cargo shorts kind of place! (Cheers Fashion Phil!) Oh no! Time for a quick change! The food was brilliant, although our waitress was a right grumpy moo! We had a wonderful time, going over tales of the night before with ABBA whilst Liz shamefully smiled back, trying to work out what we’d sell on Wigan Market (thanks Laura!) and gasping at the ever-growing list of films that we couldn’t believe that Lucinda hadn’t seen.

Afterwards we went to the Met – Paul (Macbook) met Pervy (Thinkpad) - and they had a geek-off! Gemma loves Liz and vice versa. Liz was very funny, massively charismatic in fact, so much so that she charmed a TV presenter in the bogs, with whom she ended up swapping make-up tips and phone numbers. It's easy to see why I love Liz.

Meet and greet

Liz met and impressed 57, Steve and Sean this evening. I hadn’t spoken to Keck about his recent hook-up with Zoe, nor with Steve about his recent hook-up with Chubb, nor with Woody about his recent hook-up with Clare. What a long-missed pleasure: gossip! Liz and Milney got on particularly well, which warmed my heart. It’s that Aquarian spirit, right?

Liz really impressed everybody, especially me. We were hammered, but she kept up being funny, charming, and intelligent. That’s just her being normal though.

Falling out of a taxi happened too…

Bearemy

L - R: Lucinda, Bearemy, Big Milk

Are these marketed at the right people?