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Jul. 25th, 2006 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71At the office yesterday morning a few people spotted that I was out of sorts. I didn't go into details but did confess that I was down because of 'some heavy personal stuff'. Brad's advice was to 'go for escapism - put an episode of The Prisoner on'. An excellent plan; just a shame that all the time I was home in the early evening, so was my father, so no chance of using the DVD player :(
My last interview overran so I hung around the office for a while and got a cup of coffee with Pam and Judie, then went out to the stop to catch the 3.40 bus. Stood in the blazing sun for nearly half an hour, with no sign of the bloody bus. Then at 4 pm a couple came out of the office and said to me "You know there's no buses from here this week." For the first time, I noticed a sign next to the bus timetables saying "This Stop Is Closed" for this week and next. There'd been no problem with the buses in the morning; as the lady observed, her bus driver had told her about the closure but the man's hadn't. He must have got the same bus as me.
I followed the couple through the trees and a housing estate, onto Barnes Wallis Road, where they said the temporary stop was. We didn't see a temporary stop anywhere, so just stood on the grass verge by the roadside hoping to flag a bus down. A few workers from other nearby offices/factories soon came to join us. For ten minutes or so, though it seemed much longer, we all stood out there in the scorching heat wondering if any buses were indeed going to come along this road. Finally, to all round relief, one finally showed up. Just after I'd got on, through the back window I saw the direct bus to Gosport pull up right behind. Alas, in that very moment the Fareham bus I was on started to move. And the two buses' routes soon diverged, putting an end to any hopes I'd had of hopping off one to the other at the next stop.
So I was stuck with changing at Fareham. Having finished work at 2.45, I finally arrived home at 5 pm, hot, sweating and comprehensively fed up. Because I was pissed off with everything and everyone, I decided to scab the best drink in the house, the pineau from Royan, to take round to Katherine's. Alas, sliding it into the fridge I got discovered by my mother, who was not amused. She regarded the pineau as her exclusive property and told me to put it back. That just about put the cherry on the fucking cake.
I set off for Katherine's early and took a detour to Thresher's in the village where they were doing a promotion on French wines. I went for a refrigerated bottle of their Wine of the Month, a Sancerre white. Alas, it cost the full price of £9.99 as all the discounts only applied if you bought two or more bottles; while two bottles of the Sancerre would have been £11.98, I only had a tenner on me. I maybe shouldn't even have been spending that, but I honestly didn't care any more, and I never like to turn up at a friend's without a bottle.
When I rang the doorbell, Katherine appeared through the gate to the garden, and invited me to join her and Mike sitting out there. When we'd said hello, Katherine asked how I was and I said "Don't ask." We sat down and I apologised in advance for burdening her with my troubles, but she was absolutely fine. I produced the wine, Katherine went off to open it and poured us a glass each, and I began by telling her about the calendar bitch. Katherine was fantastic. She reckoned the woman had a Nazi complex, and we spent a very enjoyable quarter-hour slating her together.
It was lovely sitting out in Katherine's garden in the cooler evening sun, drinking France's finest and eating dry roasted nuts that she'd thoughtfully laid on, as we went on to talk about anything and everything. Katherine and Mike are going on holiday on Sunday for a fortnight, to her beloved Greece of course. After we'd discussed that at length, Katherine surprised me by asking if I was following BB7. I'd never known she was a fan. She wasn't too keen on Aisleyne so I did my best to win her over to her, then we had a good laugh remembering the funniest bits of Pete and Spiral.
We soon finished the wine, but Katherine had some cider at the ready - and got Mike to fix me my old favourite from student days, cider and black. Katherine said she'd been to the Village Home, our favourite watering hole back in our young days, and that it was totally changed now. She mused on how she hardly ever gets the urge to go to the pub now, I reflected that I too have the urge to go out on the razz a lot less often, and we put it down to that pernicious ailment, growing up :( Mike, having heard about my role as mayoral consort, told me about his gran, who was once Mayoress of Leamington Spa.
I told Katherine about the troubles I'd been having with my mother. She was really surprised as that sounded out of character for me ma. I confirmed that it was indeed out of character but that it was really bringing me down now. Katherine suggested I look forward to Hardcore Sue's impending wedding and the start of the football, then asked whether there was any possibility of my moving out. Not for quite a while, alas; with my duties as mayoral consort I can't even look for a full time job till next May. But Katherine was a real life saver, offering the sympathetic ear and helpful advice I needed - and just spending a pleasant evening having a drink and a chat with her was a pretty good tonic in itself.
Then it was 10 pm, so we refilled our glasses with cider and headed indoors to watch BB.
My last interview overran so I hung around the office for a while and got a cup of coffee with Pam and Judie, then went out to the stop to catch the 3.40 bus. Stood in the blazing sun for nearly half an hour, with no sign of the bloody bus. Then at 4 pm a couple came out of the office and said to me "You know there's no buses from here this week." For the first time, I noticed a sign next to the bus timetables saying "This Stop Is Closed" for this week and next. There'd been no problem with the buses in the morning; as the lady observed, her bus driver had told her about the closure but the man's hadn't. He must have got the same bus as me.
I followed the couple through the trees and a housing estate, onto Barnes Wallis Road, where they said the temporary stop was. We didn't see a temporary stop anywhere, so just stood on the grass verge by the roadside hoping to flag a bus down. A few workers from other nearby offices/factories soon came to join us. For ten minutes or so, though it seemed much longer, we all stood out there in the scorching heat wondering if any buses were indeed going to come along this road. Finally, to all round relief, one finally showed up. Just after I'd got on, through the back window I saw the direct bus to Gosport pull up right behind. Alas, in that very moment the Fareham bus I was on started to move. And the two buses' routes soon diverged, putting an end to any hopes I'd had of hopping off one to the other at the next stop.
So I was stuck with changing at Fareham. Having finished work at 2.45, I finally arrived home at 5 pm, hot, sweating and comprehensively fed up. Because I was pissed off with everything and everyone, I decided to scab the best drink in the house, the pineau from Royan, to take round to Katherine's. Alas, sliding it into the fridge I got discovered by my mother, who was not amused. She regarded the pineau as her exclusive property and told me to put it back. That just about put the cherry on the fucking cake.
I set off for Katherine's early and took a detour to Thresher's in the village where they were doing a promotion on French wines. I went for a refrigerated bottle of their Wine of the Month, a Sancerre white. Alas, it cost the full price of £9.99 as all the discounts only applied if you bought two or more bottles; while two bottles of the Sancerre would have been £11.98, I only had a tenner on me. I maybe shouldn't even have been spending that, but I honestly didn't care any more, and I never like to turn up at a friend's without a bottle.
When I rang the doorbell, Katherine appeared through the gate to the garden, and invited me to join her and Mike sitting out there. When we'd said hello, Katherine asked how I was and I said "Don't ask." We sat down and I apologised in advance for burdening her with my troubles, but she was absolutely fine. I produced the wine, Katherine went off to open it and poured us a glass each, and I began by telling her about the calendar bitch. Katherine was fantastic. She reckoned the woman had a Nazi complex, and we spent a very enjoyable quarter-hour slating her together.
It was lovely sitting out in Katherine's garden in the cooler evening sun, drinking France's finest and eating dry roasted nuts that she'd thoughtfully laid on, as we went on to talk about anything and everything. Katherine and Mike are going on holiday on Sunday for a fortnight, to her beloved Greece of course. After we'd discussed that at length, Katherine surprised me by asking if I was following BB7. I'd never known she was a fan. She wasn't too keen on Aisleyne so I did my best to win her over to her, then we had a good laugh remembering the funniest bits of Pete and Spiral.
We soon finished the wine, but Katherine had some cider at the ready - and got Mike to fix me my old favourite from student days, cider and black. Katherine said she'd been to the Village Home, our favourite watering hole back in our young days, and that it was totally changed now. She mused on how she hardly ever gets the urge to go to the pub now, I reflected that I too have the urge to go out on the razz a lot less often, and we put it down to that pernicious ailment, growing up :( Mike, having heard about my role as mayoral consort, told me about his gran, who was once Mayoress of Leamington Spa.
I told Katherine about the troubles I'd been having with my mother. She was really surprised as that sounded out of character for me ma. I confirmed that it was indeed out of character but that it was really bringing me down now. Katherine suggested I look forward to Hardcore Sue's impending wedding and the start of the football, then asked whether there was any possibility of my moving out. Not for quite a while, alas; with my duties as mayoral consort I can't even look for a full time job till next May. But Katherine was a real life saver, offering the sympathetic ear and helpful advice I needed - and just spending a pleasant evening having a drink and a chat with her was a pretty good tonic in itself.
Then it was 10 pm, so we refilled our glasses with cider and headed indoors to watch BB.
