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Another year older...
May. 11th, 2009 01:19 pmAnd so, I'm 34 and my birthday weekend is behind me...
I had a really good time, some of it planned, some of it impromptu, but all good...
It all began on Friday evening, with one of my favourite bands (The Airborne Toxic Event), playing live at Koko in Camden. Despite my best efforts I did not have a gang of people along for the ride, but I did have company, Cathy came along with me. I'd never been to Koko before, and I have to say it's a great venue, in fact pretty perfect for a mid-size gig. There was lots of atmosphere and the band were great (I am a little biased, but even though they are not inside Cathy's core taste she said that she enjoyed them and was impressed, particularly by the second half of the show), and Just like the last time I saw them there were moments when it really felt as though they were playing just for me. It was also really cool to see a venue of that size packed out; the band do seem to be gaining the momentum here in the UK that I have always predicted for them...
Saturday was going to be just a photoshoot and the end of my project to write a piece of short-form fiction (called a Ficlet) every day for a year, and yet it ended up being so much more... I made it to the home of the model I was photographing on time, and then suddenly it was 2 hours later, and I had some pictures on the camera. She was lovely to work with, and I had a great time; I've still not looked at the pictures properly, let alone worked on them, so more to follow on that, peut-être... Once I had left her place, I made a few phonecalls, trying to reach various people that I know and love in and around London that I rarely see for one reason or another, in order to see if anyone wanted to spend the afternoon together. To cut a long story short I made contact with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ingenue_the and before I knew it I was meeting up with her, harold_chasen, kathbad, feistyredhead,s0b,jul1et, Nick and Paul (I don't know their LJ Names if they even have them) for her birthday outing to the Tunnel 228 exhibition under Waterloo Station. I'm not going to wax lyrical about how amazing it was as an experience, on the basis that it's a very short-lived installation which while free to visit is now fully booked. Suffice it to say I was blown away by the experience and I cannot encourage you all enough to make the time to see anything else that is created by the same partners in the future.
After the exhibit / performance we wandered back to the pub (The Windmill on The Cut) and thence to Bangalore Express on Waterloo Road, for some top Southern Indian cuisine and more chattage etc. We rounded the evening off with more banter over beers and Benedictine at the Kings Arms, a nifty 'proper pub' down a backstreet off Waterloo Road that Paul led us to. As we all said our goodbyes as the party got smaller and smaller in transit through Waterloo Station, I reflected that this had been one of the better 'afternoons unplanned' that I'd had for a while, so to all involved many thanks :-)
Sunday was dominated by the need to wait in for the plumber. He duly came, within the appointed window of time and I now have a functioning hot tap in my bathroom once more.
I took a quick shower and was dressed and decent when Charlotte (sans LJ) appeared with pink champagne - thankyou Dahling! - and we sat and chatted, looked at pictures, quaffed fizzy pink and generally caught up. When she had to leave, no one else had yet turned up, so I played a little CoD4 (on my iMac!) and then the arrival of Cathy, Neil and Jann, followed soon after by Di and Tiaan, set me up for a very pleasant evening of chatting with friends, quaffing more wine and port and generally having a social time of it.
All in all, a lovely weekend, a lovely birthday, and so thanks to all who emailed, rang, sent cards, facebooked, texted, tweeted or turned up - you are all fab!
T'ra!
.
EOT
I had a really good time, some of it planned, some of it impromptu, but all good...
It all began on Friday evening, with one of my favourite bands (The Airborne Toxic Event), playing live at Koko in Camden. Despite my best efforts I did not have a gang of people along for the ride, but I did have company, Cathy came along with me. I'd never been to Koko before, and I have to say it's a great venue, in fact pretty perfect for a mid-size gig. There was lots of atmosphere and the band were great (I am a little biased, but even though they are not inside Cathy's core taste she said that she enjoyed them and was impressed, particularly by the second half of the show), and Just like the last time I saw them there were moments when it really felt as though they were playing just for me. It was also really cool to see a venue of that size packed out; the band do seem to be gaining the momentum here in the UK that I have always predicted for them...
Saturday was going to be just a photoshoot and the end of my project to write a piece of short-form fiction (called a Ficlet) every day for a year, and yet it ended up being so much more... I made it to the home of the model I was photographing on time, and then suddenly it was 2 hours later, and I had some pictures on the camera. She was lovely to work with, and I had a great time; I've still not looked at the pictures properly, let alone worked on them, so more to follow on that, peut-être... Once I had left her place, I made a few phonecalls, trying to reach various people that I know and love in and around London that I rarely see for one reason or another, in order to see if anyone wanted to spend the afternoon together. To cut a long story short I made contact with
ingenue_the and before I knew it I was meeting up with her, harold_chasen, kathbad, feistyredhead,s0b,jul1et, Nick and Paul (I don't know their LJ Names if they even have them) for her birthday outing to the Tunnel 228 exhibition under Waterloo Station. I'm not going to wax lyrical about how amazing it was as an experience, on the basis that it's a very short-lived installation which while free to visit is now fully booked. Suffice it to say I was blown away by the experience and I cannot encourage you all enough to make the time to see anything else that is created by the same partners in the future.After the exhibit / performance we wandered back to the pub (The Windmill on The Cut) and thence to Bangalore Express on Waterloo Road, for some top Southern Indian cuisine and more chattage etc. We rounded the evening off with more banter over beers and Benedictine at the Kings Arms, a nifty 'proper pub' down a backstreet off Waterloo Road that Paul led us to. As we all said our goodbyes as the party got smaller and smaller in transit through Waterloo Station, I reflected that this had been one of the better 'afternoons unplanned' that I'd had for a while, so to all involved many thanks :-)
Sunday was dominated by the need to wait in for the plumber. He duly came, within the appointed window of time and I now have a functioning hot tap in my bathroom once more.
I took a quick shower and was dressed and decent when Charlotte (sans LJ) appeared with pink champagne - thankyou Dahling! - and we sat and chatted, looked at pictures, quaffed fizzy pink and generally caught up. When she had to leave, no one else had yet turned up, so I played a little CoD4 (on my iMac!) and then the arrival of Cathy, Neil and Jann, followed soon after by Di and Tiaan, set me up for a very pleasant evening of chatting with friends, quaffing more wine and port and generally having a social time of it.
All in all, a lovely weekend, a lovely birthday, and so thanks to all who emailed, rang, sent cards, facebooked, texted, tweeted or turned up - you are all fab!
T'ra!
.
EOT
