Easter Weekend

'You see in the old days when people used to care about Easter...' Archie Proudfoot, 2009.

Easter weekend was a lot more action packed and fun filled than it has been for a long time. Bar a completely hanging Saturday which culminated in Match of the Day, everyday was pretty fun.

On the friday, we had a really good game of footy, played in the light drizzle, so the ball was playing along the ground perfectly and beautiful football ensued. That evening I went out for dinner with the fams for my tia (auntie) Anna's birthday, at the same restaurant we went to the week before with the guest we had last week but Tia wasn't to know... Ali and Sherene met me outside the restaurant as they were walking down to Finsbury Park, and we went to Angel to meet the others at the Spoons who were having pre-ish drinks for Grace's b'day. On the journey i made the supposed faux pas of telling Ali about Hannah's potential beau, which he obviously can't be bothered about anymore. After a few beers and shots at the Spoons we tried to go to this congolese club where electroworks used to be. As we got to the door the bouncer was like 'Are all of you together?' too which i replied yeh, so he goes 'Sorry we cant do that' ok then. With no1 really up for the soon-ending Big Chill or the long-queued Egg, we decided to head to Archies where his little sister was also having a little gathering. Tempers flared when Archie found out that, on Sherene telling him she was about to be sick, Danny led her into Archie's downstairs (the parents) living room. To cheer Archie up, me and Danny had a rap battle of sorts, which involved me Joe on the piano and me a Danny having what can only be described as a argument you would find in a musical. Later on there I thought it would be funny to text, TO HER 'MUMMY', Hi Sorry. I'm quite drunk and about to have sex with some random guy. I hope you still love me. I did write it but couldnt send it, Danny did, a minute later the phone starts ringing. MUMMY. We didnt know what to do so we moved it to another table.

Sunday was a 12 hour shoreditch bonanza. After lunch with the fams where my Dad thought i had a burst capillary in my face, you know the thinks alcoholics have, i couldnt believe it. After lunch Dad announced that he, Mum and Tia were going to the river, so I asked for a lift to brick lane as i was meeting my friends who had supposedly been there since 3. I got there at 4 (via the Brick lane sunday bric-a-brac market which was so cool) only to find that no1 was there yet. I then went to get some cash by Spitafields, so decided to have a look around. Boy has it changed, it seems so regimented and clean, gone are the overflowing stalls of pretty but pretty useless stuff, replaced by stalls selling CDs of world music and organic clothing. No more are the 5-a-side pitches i used top play on when i was 10 in their place stand branches of Wagamama, Giraffe and the Gourmet Burger Co. I texted Grace if she was down yet, and she replied saying everyone was coming down after 5.30 so she was gonna come down then. It was 4.30 so i went to the pub and watched Fulham batter Man City. Grace arrived at the end of the game, she had left earlier to aid my cause, and walking to the offie we bumped into Tom who had also come down on a whim but at a more suitable time. After a few farcical attempts to get into the alleyway by 1001 we finally got in, Tom with a beer in each of his inside pockets, grace with her gin in her bag and me with 2 in my jacket, one in Graces, and one down the front of my Jeans. The next 5 or so hours went by quite quickly actually it was about 2 hours before other ex-latymerians got there and the other couple of hours were spent windin and skankin inside 1001 with the 100% Dynamite DJs. A few people went on to Cargo, but Danny persuaded me to go to Big Chill with him, Archie, Joe, Fraser and Laurence, for some party classics. We ended off the night with some Disco boogie at Cargo, eventually anyway, after the bouncers wouldnt let us in, for no reason, until their bosses told them off anyway. haha. Grace now thinks i'm the most dedicated friend ever now.

On monday I went for lunch in Highgate with the rents and the tia, followed by footie in Highgate woods, played a lot worse this time, probably due to the pub lunch, and the dry uncut grass, yeah that was it, it was the grass... At night it was gussy's party where i was welcomed by possibly the most sexual nice-to-meet-you kiss on the cheek ever from Gussy and Emma's uni mate Lucy. seriously was ridiculous, like actually memorable enough for me to write about it now. The thing i told Ali about on Friday night about Hannah came to the fore when Laurence arrived, I was upstairs at the time having some sentimental and nostalgic moments with Emma, but apparently things got deep and old skool, looks like there are still skeletons in that closet. I ended up drinking 5 cans and a bottle of wine, but was the most sober (least drunk) i had been all weekend, maybe the comment made my Dad has some relevance...

Oceana

To be honest, i was underwhelmed. It was a bigger version of what i am used to from b'town, specifically lava, and i dont know why I expected anything else. Maybe it was the fact that i didn't pull, and with the amount of females that were present but (excuses, excuses) I did go out with 2 girls and as any lad would say pulling in the company of girl mates is a lot harder than pulling in the company of guy mates. Maybe it was the sickening taste of alcopop that was left in my mouth from the moment i got to Claudias due to the fact that, because this place gets so busy, so early on, that I didnt have enough time to get the beers in, so was left with a smirnoff ice substitute. Maybe its because I had become increasingly tired over this Holiday as I have been getting less, rather than more, sleep and therefore was tired before i got in. Maybe it was the fact that the Toilet Man had no originality keeping it simply to 'No Spray, No Lay' rather than expanding to 'No Splash, No Gash' or the even rarer 'No Armani, No Punani'. Maybe its the fact that in the process of getting to Claudias and back, getting back to Claudias from Oceana, drink in the Lloyd's outside and in Oceana and Entry, I spent in the region of £40. Or Maybe its all of these factors, on top of the feeling that I wasn't going there directly from my Halls, nor was near as pissed or near as up for it as I would have been if it was during term time.

The fact is when i'm back home i go to a different type of club, and there's something about London that puts me in a different mindset. Was good to see Claudia and Kim though :D

A Despondent Start to Easter

It may be weird to have the second post of a summer blog devoted to the start of the Easter holidays, but it does make sense, at least to me anyway.

As it has been, the first couple of days of my Easter have been pretty hopeless as of yet. The first night was promising met up with Danny, Ali and Allon, shared a few stories about the 2nd semester, some funny, some awful (Danny) but in the course of the next couple of days these fine men left to go on one of those 'little Easter holiday trips', to what I have, over the last couple of days, become increasingly jealous of.

With Ali, Mesh, Hannah, and Rachel - the pioneer of it all - going on their fancy, money raising tour to morocco, Danny and Pierre on the respective Manchester and Brizzle ski trips and various others going on tour, to Germany, Marseille, the Algarve, why can't i go on one? why?

There was me boasting about how my summer was gonna be SO good cos i was gonna have SO much money, and to be fair, it probably will be, but you know what they say, the grass is always greener... (is that the right phrase?), and right now the other side says long weekend in Barcelona. That's what i should be doing right now, getting pissed off San Miguel, Estrella Damm and Sangria, whilst trying to buy hashish of Indian and Algerian men then going to clubs and getting rejected by Spanish women because they think I'm an Arab.

In the meantime I'm briefly having a few drinks here and there, you know those sort of drinks that are fun, but if it were a proper night out they would be better cos you know in the back of your mind your going out afterwards. Today me Joel and Archie had another one, on top of the one we had 2 nights before, which was nice but that's only cos we mixed up the Cinema times. Sur le moment i think its just me, Bruno, Joel, Archie, Allon - back from his weekend in Germany, bastard - and Harry. Now I have already seen all of these people at least once since I've come back, so we've had our catch up chats - mine and Harry's being particularly notable as we hadn't seen each other in a year and a half - and yet none of us have been clubbing. The last time i went clubbing was LAVA, last WEDNESDAY, in BOURNEMOUTH. 6 nights without clubbing is not good, that normally only happens over Christmas, or on family holidays.

Come on lads, lets get our acts together, and go out!