Things I have been doing lately...

I spent last weekend in Hampshire. It was the first weekend I'd spent outside London since April and I intended to make the most of it. Saturday night was spent at a friend from uni's birthday barbeque. It was a much smaller gathering than the birthday/housewarming celebrations my friend and her partner hosted this time last year. In fact four of the guests were my friend and her partner's parents. With this in mind it was a very good job that I didn't repeat last year's disgraceful behaviour and managed to get through the evening without offending half the guests and throwing up on the sofa! I contributed 18 home made fairy cakes to the food offer. This was greatly appreciated by all present. I love making cakes, they always go down well. Once the parents had gone home we played on the hosts' Wii for a few hours. I hadn't played on a Wii before and I enjoyed it lots. We started off with doubles tennis. I found it a bit difficult to remember not to run before hitting the ball (the programme does the running bit automatically). However, the hostess managed to clout someone very hard with her Wii remote so it wasn't only me having spacial awareness problems. After tennis we had a go at playing Warioware Smooth Moves. What a strange game that is. You have to hold the Wii remote in all sorts of different ways and complete challenges. It's a bit difficult to explain but take it from me, it was very odd and fiendishly difficult. We had fun though. Yes, I would like a Wii but I can survive without one for now. I guess it would be quite amusing hooking one up to my TV and then playing with the blinds on my balcony doors open. The people at the station (who can see right into my flat) would wonder what on earth I was doing!

On Sunday we decided to make the most of the good weather and go on an excursion. The unanimous decision was to go down to Southsea and play on the Crazy Golf. We started by having a look around the little market town in which my friend lives whilst she went to her parents' house to say goodbye to her sister who was driving back up to Liverpool that day. It is such a lovely little town and they were so lucky to find it when they were looking for somewhere conveniently located for both their places of work. I'm a real townie and the country normally makes me nervous, however I really liked the little town. It was nice and quiet but there were still all the amenities I could ever want and a farmers market selling local produce. We all decided it would be a good place to bring up children.

In the afternoon we set out for Southsea. Despite having been on a family holiday to a British seaside location every year for the first 17 years of my life and having been forced to endure many day trips to locations on the south coast (Bognor, Littlehampton and most miserable of all Worthing) at the whim of my parents I had never been to Southsea before. Southsea is an area of Portsmouth which is as tacky and seasidey as Blackpool but about a tenth of the size. It was absolutely packed with Londoners as there is a direct train there from London Waterloo. The crazy golf course was brilliant. One of the best I'd ever played on. It had been built with a pirate theme and there was a rock and a cave and pirate ship to climb up. I was third out of five and good fun was had by all. The birthday girl was fifth but cheered herself up by winning a free game by hitting her ball into the special hole at the end and 'firing the cannon'. This was rather a shock to me as I was standing next to the speaker through which the cannon firing noise was made. I jumped out of my skin.

After crazy golf we each indulged in an ice cream (I went for a traditional seaside 99 - my first for many years) and went for a walk down the promenade. The beach isn't that great (very stony) but plenty of people were sunbathing and brave few were swimming. The others went for a paddle but I was wearing skinny jeans which wouldn't roll up so I stayed on dry land. I was quite glad as there seemed to be quite a lot of seaweed being churned up and I really don't like seaweed. This may be a good time to mention my attire for the day. I didn't think we'd be going to the seaside. After last years debacle after which everyone was feeling fragile and wasn't able to do anything the next day I was thinking I'd get the train home in the early afternoon. The only clothes I had were skinny jeans, my favourite silver 'Office' shoes and my skull and crossbones t-shirt. I looked ridiculous compared to everyone else in Southsea who were wearing beach clothes.

We finally caught the train home at 6pm. I somehow managed to get caught up in engineering works and had to take an absurdly long route home. I arrived home just after 8pm. All in all it was a very good weekend. I love my friends so much. It is great to be friends with people who enjoy doing crazy things like playing crazy golf in tacky seaside resorts and playing Wii in the middle of night. I am truly priviledged to have such fabulous people in my life. All thanks to Cardiff Rag too. I never wanted to join in the first place, I only went along to keep my friend company. Now the people I met through Rag are my dearest friends.

The only bad thing about the weekend was that I am now sunburnt. I never get sunburnt. My friend kept telling me to put suncream on but I was defiant. Now I have a very sore neck and it serves me right.

I am taking a much coveted day of annual leave on Thursday as my flat is being inspected for snagging. Much more excitingly I've also planned to have my new TV delivered on the same day. Yay! I've been waiting to get the TV since Christmas but I didn't have time, then I couldn't find one I wanted. I'm so looking forward to having freeview again. Five channels just aren't enough when you live alone.

Tomorrow I will be popping down to mum and dad's to check that everything is OK whilst they're on their hols. It's raining as I type so there is a strong chance that their plants will still be alive which is a good thing.

I re-watched Dirty Dancing for the first time in years over the weekend. What a wonderful film that is. I used to watch it regularly when I was a teenager (we recorded it from the TV and I can remember where all the commercial breaks were!) but these days I tend to go for Bring it On if need a feel good movie fix. On re-watching I realise how well made Dirty Dancing is. Not a moment of that movie is slack, every moment of every scene contributes to the plot. Additionally, it evoked feelings which I'd long since forgotten. I could almost remember how it felt to be a teenager in love. I can't help thinking, however, that Dirty Dancing mania may have created a generation of disappointed girls. I guess I saw the movie for the first time when I was 9 or 10 years old (I remember where it was I saw it too - at my friend Clare's house) and it must have created a very false impression of what first time love/sex would be like. My first love was great but he was no Patrick Swayze!

Oh dear. This evening's rain has thrown me into disarray. I'm now going to have to go and revise my clothing plans for tomorrow.