Why am I not still in bed? Why? Why? I got to sleep at 1am last night, and this morning it's pouring with rain, the trains were late, and so far there's not much happening here as half the team are away. Dullity dullesville.

The reason for the lateness last night was seeing Simply Red at the 02. It was good, but I felt a little young to be in the audience. Well, free tix are free tix! And whatever you think about Mick Hucknell, he can sing. On the way home in the taxi (I'm glad someone negotiated a fee before the day with the cabbie, it's very scarey seeing the meter click into triple figures) one of the other concert-goers tried to sell a job at her company to me - Client Services (ie account management) for an American bank who lends to technology companies. Yeah. How many alarm bells can you have attached to one sentence??

The social whirl had kicked in again and this week and next week are pretty solid. What will I do without my CSI and NCIS fixes?? And why do we all insist on waiting until xmas to catch up with friends for drinks? All it means is that on xmas day, you just fall asleep exhausted on the sofa. Hey ho.

So anyway. On Monday, I took The Man to see Tinselworm, Bill Bailey's current standup tour. Apart from having the Second Worst Restaurant Meal I've Ever Had* beforehand (do not go to the Scotch Steak House on Shaftesbury Ave under any cirumstances), the evening was redeemed as the show was fantastic, hilarious, erudite, and various other superlatives. Bill, apart from anything else, is a great musician, and played two guitars, three keyboards, an oud and his theremin. I love the way his hair is part of his act. And how just making some noises along the lines off 'ooooh...hmmmmm....haaahhhh!..... eerrrrrhmmm...' can have the audience in stitches, before he's even said a word. We did laugh solidly for the entire show, crying with laughter for some of it. If you can get tickets, go see it.

(*The worse meal was at the now closed down Paul 'Elvis' Chan's Gracelands chinese restaurant in Tunbridge Wells. As well as cheese flavoured sesame prawn toast and some sort of greyish congealed beansprout dish, Paul was clearly so bored and jaded by his 'Elvis' show that at one point he walked off the stage, still singing, and sprayed his armpits with deodorant.)

Tuesday night I was out in T Wells with Clare and PaulV. We were all at school together and therefore have limitless capacity to be silly together. I expect the wine helped... By the way, the new specials on the Pizza Express menu are *delicious*. And I don't even really like pizza all that much. We discussed Clare's most unsecret secret at length (can I disclose yet Clare?), coming up with various outrageous suggestions, and were updated on Paul's love-life (join a running club).

By some fluke and chance I managed to avoid a hangover yesterday, although the brain was a little sluggish because I managed to decide to wear a red dress, failing to realise we were going to see Simply Red in the evening, and therefore people would think I was either a mad fan or trying to be post-ironic.... And I had two Chris de Burgh comments as it was.

The next few days / couple of weeks run thus:
Dinner with The Man and his mum tonight
Drinks with The Man's boss at his house (Dress code: party. What does that mean exactly for a do at the boss' house???) on Friday
Shooting on Saturday (xmas shoot, which is have a long morning session then come inside for proper hot food and port, rather than cold sandwiches and port in the barn followed by another afternoon session)
Viewing a house
Knitting group xmas gathering
Drinks with a friend
Mum's birthday dinner
Team xmas lunch / karaoke (messy)
Something with the pole girls
Drinks with another friend
Company black tie xmas do

In between I have to fit in xmas shopping, sorting out the flat, coping with a petulant car, sending xmas cards, and knitting. I have finished one sock, using a lot of new ideas (for me), and now am slightly dreading the second one, but I am trying to convince myself the first one took so long because I was working it out as I went. I just have to copy it on the second. How hard can it be??