Monday, April 19, 2004
Ah, the joys of a relaxing weekend… I’ve been completely occupied with work this year – having worked pretty much every weekend since the beginning of February (except the party weekend, which was fantastic fun, but what with the preparation and clearing up (oh, and copious amounts of Vodka) was exhausting!) – so this weekend I really enjoyed just chilling. I spent Friday night in just relxain, watching TV and playing online. Had my first lie in on Saturday and then a friend’s birthday on Saturday evening. Oh, and had a lovely swim. I do like swimming. It’s good exercise, you get that lovely feeling of water flowing over you (you know that feeling of the water going down the back of your neck? Ah, I love it. Really love it. Mind you, love being stroked there to…. :)
Think I’m going to go to Paris in a few weeks for 3 days to visit the family. I called my grandparents over Easter and got lots of stick for not having gone over in ages – which is my bad because I love them so much, and ya’ know, my grandmother’s 89 years old, so I shouldn’t take them for granted…
I’ve been telling my friends that I’m feeling fantastic these days (especially now that I’ve had a weekend to catch up on sleep – I was tired before, I was going to bed at 2 a.m and getting up 7:30, which is a bit of a drain really – still, having lots of clients is a good thing! So I’m not complaining :-) But overall this whole year I’ve been in a buzzy happy mood.
The sad news is that a super super good friend is leaving the county in 2 weeks which is 3 months earlier than planned :-( We spent the whole of Sunday together just lying around chatting, so that was really cool. I worked with him a couple years back before we became friends. We’ve connected on so many levels that I’m going to really miss him once he’s moved to Germany. The plus side is that he’s as techno-friendly as me, so he’ll get a web cam for some long MSN messenger chats, and international phone calls are dirt cheap….. still, for all the pluses, the fact remains that he’s following an established trend of my friends leaving the country. Wish a few more of them would stick around….
The other big new thing this week is that I’ve gone wireless* (and slightly webcam mad too). I felt like I had suddenly fallen out of touch with everything technological. I remember the days when I was on top of what was happening online, working for a dotcom etc… but now new things come in and I don’t even notice. I was delighted to find out how well the whole 802.11G wireless stuff works. Now got a wireless laptop in the sitting room and another in the bedroom – which is sooooo lasy. I can now check my e-mail from bed (instead of getting up to do so, which means I get a bonus 5 minutes lying down in the mornings) or from the sofa during the ads in the middle of Friends. The cams are fun too. I’ve found that a few friends are checking them before calling me to see if I’m in and …. Which is weird, but pretty funky. I’ve always said I live my life like an open book and have nothing to hide, but this experimental web cam stuff is really expanding my limits. Still, I like trying out new stuff, so this fits in just fine.
* wouldn’t mind if power went wireless! What’s the point in going wireless when you need a power cord? Honestly!
Posted by ThatP @ 09:15 PM GMT [Link] [17 comments]
Friday, April 9, 2004
It’s official: P throws fantastic parties. 
What a great party! I love parties, and I love my parties; they always turn out so well – it’s all because of the guests though…. And I have such lovely friends! Gosh, I sound as if I’m drunk – yet this is now the morning after (although, I suppose I was drinking Vodka till 4am and it’s only 10:23 now, so perhaps I am still drunk!)
I always have a theme, and this one was had a chocolate-vodka Easter theme. (can I just say: I chose such a good way plan a party: take two of my favourite things, and base an entire party around them. And as I found out, it’s amazing how many uses you can find for Vodka.
And I always try to invite a slightly different selection of people, which gives every party a really different vibe. I invited my mother to this one, with her best friend (who’s totally fab and practically family), and of course her boyfriend. It was a particularly friendly & interesting crowd – there were lots of great conversations and yet the abundance of Vodka (8 litres of the stuff for 20 people), kept things very merry. We had lots of dancing and in what has become a tradition at my parties, everyone ended up in the bedroom chatting on the bed for the last 3 hours. I love the way people lie down with legs, heads and arms all over the place. There’s a growing number of people at my parties who know each other, and so they are ever more relaxed with each other, and it makes all the new people feel welcome and comfortable on the bed. I actually did some cunning things to ensure it’d end up in the bedroom by telling everyone when they arrived to put their coats and bags “next to the bed, so that if people want to sit down later* then they won’t crush you coats!”… everyone agreed and of course it reminded them where they were going to end up…
Menu: P's first Lasagne Mini-jacket potatoes with brie, garlic, fresh black pepper and goats cheese Coriander, pin-nuts & palm-hearts salad with a raspberry vinegar dressing Rocket & walnut salad with balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard dressing P’s devil-tomatoes: baby tomatoes soaked in Vodka for 24 hours - Vodka-Chocolate moose (thanks hon!) Chocolate cake (thanks the other hon!) Dark chocolate fondue*
Milk chocolate fondue*
*fresh pineapple, strawberries, banana & marshmallows for dipping - Absolut Vodka-orange
Absolut Vodka-red-bull
Absolut Vodka-coke
Absolut Vodka-tonic
Absolut Citron
Absolut on the rocks |
What was so cool about this one, was that it felt as if I had three parties in one. First it was the interesting “chatting with the fantastic food” (I’m just quoting other people here, I wouldn’t dream of boasting :-), then the dancing and then the bed chilled chatting. Each part of the evening felt like a party in its own right.
One disappointing turn of events was with Nelson. I saw him on a couple of dates a couple of months back and had invited him to the party. He was friendly and nice looking and we’d had enjoyable sex. He seemed keener than me – I like taking my time over these things and getting to know someone slowly over time. He seemed to want a decision within the first two meetings – which was flattering but not a time scale I operate on. He tried really hard to make a good impression – which inevitably kept him fairly tense & awkward during conversation. It was a shame, because I really wanted him to relax and chill out and simply not try so hard…. Anyway he asked me to call, but I didn’t. I did want to see him, but some how I got caught up with work and other things so I figured I’d invite him to the party to see him in a less intense setting. Thought it’d be cool to see how he mixed with my friends etc etc.
He was the first to arrive at the party, which wase nice. Everything was pretty much ready, so we just chatted, had a drink and then one fantastic snog. Got me really horny, and we decided to have that long-overdue date #3. Anyway, it turns out he’s a complete flirt. I was just about to tell an ex of mine that I was going to go on date 3 with Nelson, when the ex told me he thought Nelson had just made a pass at him. A bit later in the evening someone else asked me if Nelson and someone else (i.e. not my ex) were going out because… and then much later on Andy asked me to ask the people who were having sex in the bathroom to leave because there was an enormous queue for the bathroom and people had been waiting for half an hour… and who should be come out? Nelson & bisexual-Jack*!! I was so surprised. Was this the same Nelson who I’d arranged to go on a date with earlier that very same party? Oh yes, it was! Needless to say that date has been cancelled… I’m actually quite proud of the effective way I dealt with situation: Bi-sexual Jack didn’t know I had a date lined up, so I wasn’t cross with him, and welcomed him back into the chilled bed-chatting group with open arms (where he promptly started flirting with Andy (again)) – and Nelson? Well I was miffed that he should be such a tart in my bathroom at my party when he’d arranged a date with me – so I made a point of avoiding any eye contact… he got the hint and left. But once he’d gone I realised I wasn’t actually angry – I was disappointed because a date I’d been looking forward to had been cancelled – but a the same time, we’d only seen each other a couple of times, so I wasn’t emotionally invested – and so it was probably just as well that I found out he wasn’t suitable sooner rather than later!
We’ve texted and spoken since – and I’m cool with the idea of staying friends, and at the same time made it clear that he’s not eligible for a second chance on the dating front…. It’s a funny situation, because I can be a right old flirt myself, so I’m not really judging him in the conventional sense. I mean, if he’d gone to another party without me, and he’d snogged someone there, I wouldn’t have been in a position to complain because quite simply we weren’t going out: we had 2 dates over a month ago….. but I think it was the fact that he did it so blatantly at my party so soon after arranging our next date that has made him unsuitable….
ManlyB wrote a sweet gaydar message the following day saying he’d really enjoyed the lovely party and that he hoped the Nelson incident didn’t spoil my nite… but the thing is, it really didn’t. I had a fabulous nite and found out not to bother with Nelson – as I said at the time, I’d rather find out now, than in 20 dates time!
Overall though, I think it was my most successful party thus far: two difference people sent in cards saying thank you – people never write cards to thank you for a party, so I was really pleased. And I had a great time myself! All I need to do now, is start thinking about the theme for the next one!
* I only have 3 chairs in my flat, and one of those is made of cardboard. The sofa sits 3 max, and I have one muji cube to sit on. So since there were over 20 people, by the end there are always quite a few who are eager to sit down…
apparently things had not in reality progressed as far as “full sex” in that half an hour. I am informed that most clothes stayed on…. Don’t you hate these Clinton-style descriptions?
* formely “straight-Jack, who was never really straight, but was described as such due to a misunderstanding.
Posted by ThatP @ 10:32 AM GMT [Link] [36 comments]
