Tag: nights out

318: here come the girls

Friday night was girls’ night over at Miriam’s house, which is something we don’t do often enough for a variety of reasons – children, life, work, the ton of stuff that just sort of happens when you’re a grown up person with responsibilities. Dinner getting out of hand, the fact that you’re in your pyjamas and your bra is off and you really don’t want to put it back on again, you’re tired after a week at work and you don’t have the headspace to people any more that day. This one has been in the offing for a while, and Jill forgot that she was at Cub camp all weekend, a couple of others were doing family things and so on. See what I mean?

Anyway, six of us made it, plus M’s two daughters, and the plan was simple: pizzas, prosecco and inappropriate board games. Board games are always involved somewhere in the planning if not in the actual execution… S brought an excellent chocolate cake, there were savoury snacks and dips, and a variety of drinks. Conversation ranged from Mr Handsome the geography teacher; a person most of us knew separately for an interesting range of reasons; weird celebrity crushes; why eyelash curlers are a bad idea after the age of 50; kids; the menopause (the 26 year old has all this to look forward to… sorry Edith) and all its associated joys; pole dancing and more. All this before 11pm! M’s husband is an honorary woman and takes everything in his stride, bless him, but their lodger made a hasty escape when they came back at 10.

It was exactly what I needed, as it turned out – as I have mentioned a few times, life is challenging at the moment for many reasons and I left feeling a whole lot better about everything.

I’ve been very lucky with my girlfriends over the years – the family of choice when you become an adult and have to manage a lot of the time without the blood ones (who are always there when you need them but some of them sometimes need a bit more notice due to living plane rides away).

I had a hard core of friends at school, most of whom I am still in touch with although we’re quite scattered these days. On my first day in Preston I met Amanda and we’ve been friends ever since – early morning coffees whenever we can, the odd dinner and evening out, and a lot of cemeteries, museums, exhibitions and life moments have been explored together.

In Bethnal Green there was Kersti and Nicky, who I was able to catch up with over the last couple of weeks in London. When the relationship that brought me to Epping went down in flames, I was adopted by an amazing bunch of women (the Pink Ladies, but not the racist ones – just because of the sheer quantity of pink wine we were able to down in those days. Yes, even me, though I am a cheap date these days.) Spa weekends, nights when the staff at the Peking Garden (RIP) gathered round the table dropping hints that we should all go home – we refined our menu to the hors d’oeuvres, duck and pudding as we never managed to eat all the main courses, Christmas visits to the theatre. Without them I would not have made it through 2003.

When I moved to North Weald, the kids had made friends with the twins two doors away and as it turned out the mum and I had a mutual friend. I got roped into the local mums’s group raising money for a new play-park round the corner. We used to hold meetings (with an agenda!) in the pub and quite often we’d even manage to make decisions. We organised events in village halls and on the Common – Easter egg hunts, Halloween and Christmas parties where Jill got to indulge her am-dram panto ambitions, and memorably a carols and mince pies evening in a marquee pitched in what was essentially a swamp in the pouring rain. The play-park is well loved and as a result I have a gang of friends with whom I hurl myself in freezing water, fail to play games, go for lots of walks with dogs and each other, have annual traditions and between us we have a bunch of kids who we’ve watched grow up into excellent young adults.

I’m also very lucky to be part of a hard core gang of girl cousins, to have gig buddies like Jen (who I get to see unexpectedly next month!) and museum friends too like Cath and Rhiannon. All bases are covered..

I wouldn’t be without a single one of them – there’s nothing like a girlfriend for cheering you up when you’re down, for promising to provide an alibi and a spade if it all gets too much, for cracking open the prosecco/cider/Baileys at the slightest excuse, and for generally being the folded beer mats under the table leg of life. I love them all.

Things making me happy this week

  • A helpful chat on Thursday afternoon which went a long way to sorting out my brain
  • Baby Cow season!
  • Coffee last Sunday with Miriam and Edith
  • Seeing Nicky and Alan again before they headed back to NZ (don’t leave it 20 years again!)
  • A walk in the sunshine on Saturday morning, following squirrels through the forest and making friends with lots of bouncy dogs as I had a coffee at Julie’s Cafe in Stonards.
  • The very beautiful rainbow on Monday even if it meant I had to shelter in a stable for half an hour to get out of the torrential downpour
  • Unexpected time with the twins on Saturday, and they have developed excellent baby giggles
  • Simple sewing projects in the shape of some strappy dresses that came together very quickly
  • Working to the sound of 6 Music on Friday
  • Sharing playlists on Spotify

That’s it from me – looking forward to a swim in the morning with Rachel and to the tumble dryer repairer actually turning up….

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Common Murder Val McDermid
The Bone Hacker Kathy Reichs

306: north and south

I may have mentioned once or twice how much I love London, and part of that is the sheer variety of things to do when you’re in it. Recently, thanks to an excellent organisation called Tickets for Good (I work for a charity) and being part of various arts networks, I have been trying to do a few more of those things – Amanda and I went to see the excellent production of Othello just before Christmas, for example. There’s been two nights out this week!

Wednesday

The first evening out was also with Amanda, to a venue called Lafayette London near Kings Cross – a basement venue styled as a saloon with a lot of wood and extremely expensive drinks. The show was Sabrage, which is when you open a wine bottle with a sabre and this did indeed happen at the begining and end. Everything in between was…unexpected.

The venue was pretty full, and our wobbly table and bentwood chairs were surrounded by a whole variety of people – from a pair of elderly couples in front of us to two lone gentlemen behind us, one of whom left before the interval and the other of whom was having an absolute whale of a time and who recommended a similar event to us. Several people left before the interval, in fact – perhaps the unexpected was a little too unexpected. It’s for over-18s only for a reason.

The show is described as “a decadent world where high-octane spectacle and intoxicating allure meets titillating humour” which pretty much nails it. The comperes, who amp up the energy from the moment they take the stage with comedy and audience participation (which continues throughout) are highly entertaining and have their own spots in the show as well. I haven’t laughed so much in a while, which is much needed.

There are slinky singers in sequins, one of whom sat of the lap of the elderly gentleman in front while singing – prior to this he hadn’t looked as if he was enjoying himself, and his wife was highly amused. There’s cheeky burlesque, perfectly timed and occasionally outrageous physical comedy, amazing aerial work, rollerskates, bubbles, people flying around and climbing walls, and Amanda was still emptying gold foil out of her handbag the following day.

We had dinner at Caravan in Granary Square beforehand – sharing plates including pizza, smashed cucumber, kale and croquettes, and entertainment was provided initially by the adjacent table where an ex-couple were picking over the bones of their relationship. Well, he was – she couldn’t get a word in between him mansplaining her feelings to her. He was drinking heavily and she was trying not to, and after two hours of him we were somewhat concerned for her welfare as he was not taking hints. She had her coat on and was trying to gather her things – at which point her phone mysteriously disappeared and reappeared where he’d been sitting – and he was trying to convince her to go to the bar and keep drinking which she’d agreed to. As they got up we nabbed her and checked she was OK, and she was very much done but too nice to abandon him. We suggested she went to the ladies and snuck out by the back door, and before we left we asked the waitress who’d been covering our tables to keep an eye on her. We do hope she got home OK, and without him in tow. Trying to be active bystanders is a good thing, and both of us have benefited from these in our younger days. I hope if any of my Horde find themselves in similar situations someone would look out for their welfare too.

The evening was somewhat marred by the Central Line being suspended between Liverpool Street and Leytonstone, which meant I had to get a mainline train to Harlow and then a cab back to the village, but there we are. I thought I’d try Uber, as Thing 1 seems to use them a lot successfully, but thanks to the Central Line and their surge pricing policy they wanted £85 for a 7.5 mile journey. Luckily the local taxi firm were more reasonable!

Friday

Friday night’s outing was with Rhiannon and we went to see Gerry and Sewell at the Aldwych Theatre. Based on Jonathan Tulloch’s sadly out of print (and not available on Kindle) novel The Season Ticket, which was also made into the brilliant film Purely Belter, this was a free ticket offer from the Participatory Arts London network. A five o’clock performance is also a very civilised time for those of us who live outside the TfL network.

I loved the film, so was looking forward to the play, and we weren’t disappointed – funny, poignant and at times shocking, with Geordie actors in the main roles and a good supporting cast including some puppetry. AC/DC and a lot of Sam Fender feature in the soundtrack with some dance sequences including the explosive opening moment involving a lot of flags in the audience. The set was bleak, as was a lot of the action – the north east after the closure of the shipyards was not a happy place – but the overarching message of the story is hope which does come through. Highly recommended if the production tours. If not, go and find the film.

Things making me happy this week

  • The social media algorithm showing me a lot of Pallas’s Cats
  • Finishing the second Lego bouquet
  • Meeting nearly 100 people wanting to work at our Centre at one of our information evenings
  • interviewing several excellent candidates for our Community Gardener role
  • Breakfast and a mooch round the charity shops with Miriam on Saturday morning
  • A really interesting meeting in Kentish Town (though the mansplaining that followed my sharing of the picture below was tiresome)
  • Haggis

And that’s it from me. I don’t know what this week has in store but am fairly confident it won’t involve flying men on rollerskates and audience participation….or if it does I’ll be very surprised!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Orchid Hunting – Naomi Kuttner

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe/Life, The Universe and Everything/So Long and Thanks For All The Fish/Mostly Harmless – Douglas Adams (Audible)

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love – India Holton

The Enchanted Greenhouse – Sarah Beth Durst

Direct Descendant – Tanya Huff

An Inheritance of Magic – Benedict Jacka