Well, what an exciting weekend! Let me rewind to Friday and fill in the little details as we go.......
Friday was an exciting day, winding down at work and realising that I'm probably not going to be doing any more lab work this year. Hence a good deal of winding down and the rest of it, Friday's always being a bit of a lax day at work. There was also the excitement of everyone getting ready for the work xmas party, taking place on Friday evening (to which I did not go, more later) and the burgeoning sack of goodies left by secret santa. Since I was not going, I opened mine early.....and was given a rather nice selection of different coffees, perfect present for me I guess - thanks very much secret santa - but pop goes my cutting down on the caffeine! Mandy received some very appreciated slate tiles and would not let it rest until she had found the guilty party....kinda missing the point of the 'secret' part, huh, miss Bolt?.....I shall have to find out what everyone else recieved tomorrow at work.
Now comes the 'Ta-dah' bit.....It was P's birthday on Sunday, and as a present I got him a night at the theatre to go see Phantom, something I thought he might appreciate since he often warbles about parts of the theme tunes and hasnt seen it. Only problem, I wanted it to be a surprise, it was on the Monday night and so I had to keep shtm about it for the past few months, and not blog about it all over the place on here (since he reads this!). But now I can spill the deep-laid plot.....the upshot being that I've had 2 extra days off work, in London (:-)....but I've had to keep very quiet about it over the weekend and pray that something else didnt have to happen!
Saturday was a very relaxed day, I cant even remember what we did to be honest - though I've been spotting moments to blog about all weekend, and promptly have forgotten them all - but I do know I spent a lot of time on
World of Warcraft whilst P played with his self-bought birthday Wii (if you dont know, dont bother to ask). But not much to tell there.
Sunday was P's birthday itself, after having been badgered all day Saturday to give him his birthday present early, I finally relented and handed over the tickets. To much shock, I think! Still, I think he was pleased and enjoyed it - the story continues below - and we went to a nice place to eat for birthday lunch (since requested birthday breakfast was not required), and then home again. It's been a very snuggly weekend, and one thought I did have is that I think one of the things I miss most about P is just hugging him. Bless you for it, tiger, for all the humping!
Monday was late rising, nice change in fact since I hadnt had to rush home late from Bton on the train (I really hate the journey, seems to take ages longer than the trip
to) and it's nice to doze every once in a while. P had to go across to get some stuff from the health clinic, and now the icky part of the story begins.....for some reason I feel the need to blog this quite embarrassing event (and I have to OK from P here!) and draw a pedagogical lesson for you all.
Well, to cut a long story short, P tested positive for chlamydia, nasty nasty STI, which blatantly means I've got it too. Noice. I shall be having the full works check-up next week since it's only sensible, but what has likely happened is that I've been asymptomatically carrying it for the past god-knows-how-long, since I've not been tested before. Yes, I'm well aware that this is a silly thing for me, but I've always been careful and like I say, have no symptoms of anything nasty (though the little-c is often asymptomatic). Thank goodness P and I are completely honest and frank and blah blah blah, because I can imagine it would put a strain on other people.
Still, the lesson of the day, people, is
go get yourself regular sexual health check-ups. it may be embarrassing (hell, I'm blushing even now as I write this), but anyone can get it and you owe it to both your health and the community at large. Even nice people (i.e. me,
pace all those people who are now snorting their drinks down their noses, but I'm as vanilla as you care to go) get it, and it's not just from designated 'high-risk' activities. So think of me as I'm getting a swab shoved up my urethra - I wince as I think about it - and then go and get it done for yourself. I'm hardly one to preach, never having been for a test myself, but now I know better I dont want friends of mine to have a little surprise of their own.
End of sermon.
Well, that could have put a damper on the rest of the day, but somehow it seamlessly integrated itself into the tone of the weekend. No endless showers for me
a la Lady Macbeth, just a train ride to London and a rather stressful tube journey during rush hour to get to hotel, where we discover that the bed is on wheels and with the slightest movement you could send it gliding across the room to back into the opposite wall. So there was going to be absolutely no vigourous shagging at all, that night. (;-) Actually, I felt a little bit odd checking in, since I've never had to really stand up in front of a stranger and go 'yes this is me and my man and we are going to be sharing a bed, thankyou', but it felt honest, and good in its way. Yay, civil liberties.
Out to Picadilly Circus and a quick snack before theatre. Now, you may (or may not) know about the Eros statue in the centre of Picadilly circus, but it is there and surrounded by what is possibly the most minging fountain in the world. I swear it's not actually a fountain since its source dried up years ago and it's actually fuelled by the piss of drunk persons staggering about Soho in an attempt to be amusing. There's a perfectly nice fountain just across the way - the one with horses in it, which P helpfully pointed out have rather overly detailed lady genitalia on the - that manages to stay far cleaner in comparison.
Trotting down Haymarket to get to Her Maj's theatre, we pass a large party of Japanese schoolchildren, all in uniform (at 7pm) some of whom are wearing freaky surgeon's masks for whatever reason. Bizarre. It's only later that we find out that they are on a school trip to Phantom too, and we're sat in the Stalls slap bang in the middle of all of them. Noice. Except for the avid old-lady fans of the show to our other side, coming to see it for the umpteenth time.
Well, show was much better than I remember it from before, but in all honesty I didnt really see it so much the first time round as merely listen to it. I'll leave out the theatre crit part here, may fill it in during another posting later, for general delectation. Those of you who know me well can probably second-guess what I will say. I have however more interesting things (and gripes) to fill in about the japanese schoolchildren, who first wouldnt shut up, then one next to us decided to listen to his iPod at ridiculous volumes so that we could hear it
over the amplified orchestra sat barely 10m in front of us, and then they all promptly fell asleep. I understand the merits of school trips, and school trips abroad, and culutral exchange blah blah blah, but bringing a whole school-load to an evening performance in which they clearly arent interested, cannot understand very well (you try deciphering
coloratura in whatever language you choose) seems to me like a stonking waste of someone's money. An added extra for those who want to, perhaps, but this was the whole caboodle. Some of whom then proceeded to put back on their surgeon's masks, and fall asleep. Totally fucking weird.
After the show we went and bought ice-cream and wandered through Chinatown before heading back to hotel for the night. Ice-cream and city wandering is a habit I could get into, albeit an expensive one. Ice-cream is just nice food, though the trip through Chinatown was probably a mistake since I just felt like chowing down on a second dinner! And it wasnt raining or anything, so was quite pleasant. Tube journey home was even smooth and devoid of drunks and tramps (and gypsies, and thieves....or at least in our carriage). And then a night of quite good sleep (for me) and cooked breakfast in the morning, always bonus.
Tuesday, today, has been lovely. A nice crisp day, a bit windy, but nice. After breakfast we hit the streets and did a lot of walking, going first to the British Museum, always a bargain since it's free, though they are getting more pushy in asking for donations....that's a whole can of worms I'll deal with in some other post......and took a quick scoot around some of it. The BM is a place I could happily spend all day in, looking at stuff, there's so much stuff (or 'tat' for a better description) that has been bought/borrowed/shamelessly nicked from all over the world. P was suitably unimpressed by the Parthenon friezes - must admit I'm always totally underwhelmed by them too - and we had a wander around some of the Asian galleries and a quick scoot around the Egyptian stuff. Like I say, I'd quite happily spend hours and hours in there reading all the little plaques and looking at every single bloody item (getting my money's worth, you might say), but it was P's birthday thing, so we didn't stay forever and instead headed over to Oxford St for a little wander in the shops and a look at the Xmas-sy windows, then lunch and a trip through Leicester Sq to find out that nothing was on at the cinema convenient for the train times, so then wandered up the Strand quite a way. A lot of walking, in fact; and one of these days I'm going to have to walk the length of the Strand and Fleet St, and look at all the churches that are just stuck in the middle of the road!
We ended up at Somerset House, where they've installed the skating rink and had a bit of a watch for people falling on their arses, always good for a laugh in vein of
Schadenfreude, I can recommend it. And then I went to put P on the train back to his home, and then came home myself. Travelling up is boring, only relieved by the chance to perve at some nice policemen whilst waiting for the connection at Leeds this time. Get home, bike OK *phew* and then into home and take my blast of macrolide anitbiotcs to get rid of the dreaded little-c and soon to bed, after this mammoth blogging of nearly an hour!
Hope you all made it to the end, bloggardes, and that you remember the take-home message. Teasing may now commence, since it doesnt look like it's serious, but more will be revealed after my own full MOT next week and results in the new year......
