Previously
Meanwhile...
Running out of water now.. bloody everywhere, the stuff.. saw a boat yesterday, but it turned out to be a horse, trotting away... might be starting to hallucinate...
So last night I went straight from work up to Belsize Park to meet my girlfriend (who I am not allowed to node about), her sister and their mum. She's over from NY for a while, you see. Well, when you get the three of them together some sort of political legacy gets drawn in. You can feel it sitting there with you, looking over your shoulder and just waiting to pounce. So we made it through the meal, but for some reason my girlfriend and me had to cover the bill. That's cool, but it was 140 quid. Normally that'd cover us for about two weeks. Anyway, what I wanted to put down here is that it's crazy the way people make an issue out of paying for the bill after a meal. There seems to be some sense in it being considered polite and even kind to offer to pay the bill and treat your companion to a free meal. There even seems to be politeness in saying, "Oh no, let me", but to then spend five minutes arguing over who gets to pay is ludicrous. What started off as a nice gesture soon ends up looking like a political manouevre or worse still, one-up-manship (spell that).
I prefer it with my friends... say at the weekend when I went to Brum to see old mates, they got the beer in and cooked and stuff ready for me to arrive. I offered them some money and they declined. Cool. No bargaining, nobody worrying about whether that means there's a debt involved. Someone pays and next time someone else might. It's not a case of taking turns, just paying now and then and having it feel like it's fair. Ah well.
So this morning I got up, bathed, dropped the kids off at the pool and caught the tube. I sat among a bunch of jewish schoolkids and caught the eye of a young lady as she yawned like a braying donkey. Realising she had not covered her mouth, she blushed and I chuckled at her. The dirty freak.
Work, work, work.
I am happy today, though, because my girlfriend (who I am not allowed to node about) and me have agreed that tonight we are not going to go out or even do the shopping. We're going to eat and then slob out in front of the TV... maybe we'll watch a movie or have a beer. She'll have a nice long soak in the bath and I'll offload a few albums to CD.
Rest.