Birmingham bound

The bank holiday has landed! I'm about to leave the office, hop and a train and head straight up to Birmingham to see my dearest girls. Spring Bank Holiday weekend is a time long tradition of attending Gay Pride, drinking too much and dancing until our feet can no longer hold us up.

I will also be seeing my closest friend E tonight, fresh back from her four months in Kenya. This has been the longest time, since we met during the first week at university, that we have been apart. I am bringing the DVD's (classic period dramas to feed our addiction to good old fashioned romance), and she is supplying the feast.

This trip will be strange, as it will be my first journey home since I found out I had a new job in London. I had always promised myself, and my friends, that my time in London would be short and that my next job would bring me home. I can't help but feel I've gone back on my word in a small way, but the right reasons I hope.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, what ever you get up to!

High-speed fitness

In our never ending quest to find fun ways to stay fit the girls and I decided to try roller-blading in the park this weekend.

Blading is not as easy as it looks although we were slightly cocky in our ability at first. While picking up our hire skates from a shop over the road from the Hyde Park we piffed at the offer of a £15 hours beginners lesson - I mean how hard can it be? I used to go to rollerworld in derby every week, and I was, like, really good - I could go backwards and EVERYTHING! Wrist guards? No thanks - they are for geeks.

However, our arrival at the park told a different story. We strapped ourselves into our roller-blades and found it not to be quite as easy as I remembered. Que lots of squealing, wobbling around and curses that we had not got the wrist guards. After a few minutes though we managed to find our feet, secured our balance and set off along the path. It was a quite a crisp Sunday afternoon but there were still plenty of people out and about, including cyclists, joggers with prams and religious fanatics all of whom we managed to wobble past without mishap.

Soon enough we were whizzing along the open path and starting to quite enjoy ourselves even to the point of confidence, especially me and S who started picking up quite a bit of speed... which was all well and good until we saw the path ahead drop down a hill. And then realised we'd missed out the small factor of practicing how to stop before setting off.

I knew this could be bad. We were getting faster and the slope downwards was getting steeper. The path led down towards a road that ran through the park leading onto the busy main roads that circle Hype Park, and was separated by bollards and a curb. If there was a hazard perception test for roller-bladers this would involve a LOT of clicking right now.

I started squeeling and manged to skate onto a grass verge, which didn't actually stop me but send me whizzing back the other way only to crash straight into a lampost - which luckily stopped me. Meanwhile S went screaming and whizzing past me, straight down the hill and round a bend at the bottom towards the main road. Luckily she fell over before she got there. Meanwhile along came F in a flurry of frantic arm waving screaming her head off unable to stop. She too went arse over tits.

EVERYONE was staring at us and laughing. Frank Spencer move over. I was hanging onto the lampost for dear life, laughing harder than I have laughed in a long time just happy to be alive and unbroken. F and S were laughing too, trying to pick themselves up off the floor which, dear reader, is not the easiest of things to do with wheels strapped to your feet.

Luckily one of the regular skaters witnessed the commotion, came and rescued me from clinging on to the lampost at the top of the hill and gave us a lesson into how to stop, and then hung out with us for a while to make sure we were ok. I also managed to fall into the sandpit that runs next the path for the horses to ride on as I tried to turn round to talk to someone behind me.

More practice is definitely needed, but once we had mastered the basics we had an amazing afternoon skating up and down the (hill free) road. Blading is fantastic exercise for the thighs and bottom, and I could really feel it the next day. I had no idea that an afternoon of physical activity could be so much fun, or that such a lovely community existed there. Apparently each weekend a regular crowd gathers in the park to blade, skate and hang out - on sunny days there is even music courtesy of a DJ powered with a car battery. And these are not your stereotypical crusty (sorry) skater types, but a real mix of people from all walks of life who just like to skate.

We have planned our next outing, and S is even considering buying her own blades to save on the hire charge. I wonder if this will become a new hobby for me, or just another of my fads? Either way, it was the best Sunday afternoon I've had in London in a long time.

A long time distant

I realised the other day that I have an addictive personality but a short attention span. I dive into new things with glee and enthusiasm believing I have discovered a new way of life. Take writing my blog - on starting I truly believed I would be writing if not every day then every other day. And for a short while that was true. I was obsessed - checking to see if anyone had commented, checking how many people had looked at my page and sitting on the tube planning what I was going to post about.

And it's not just blogging; budgeting, saving, making soup to take to work, exercising, dieting, being more friendly to people when I'm out, eBaying.... they are all things I have taken up only to forget about within weeks.

Anyone would think I was an Aries!

So quick life update (if anyone is interested):

• Got a new job! Doing communications for a very large organisation - very excited. Who said anything about a recession.
  
• Moving to Angel - Fulham has had it's day.
• Frenchman - Nothing really happening aside from him ringing me when he gets drunk and trying to talk to me, I totally lost interest in him a long time ago - but like him as a friend.
  

So life is about to change in a big way really. Since I moved to London nearly two years ago now I have worked in the same job and lived west - which has been great but a change is as good as a rest.

I keep getting that nervous feeling that things could get stressful. Moving house is never simple, and this will be no exception. We are spliting the house basically - Me and the two girls moving to Angel and the boys staying put in Fulham. Which is sad, but we can't put our lives on hold if everyone isn't on the same page. Which leads to the question, live as a three or find two new boys to omve in with us?

I think the consensus is to find two new male housemates to live in a five bedroomed house, but I am apprehenisve and quite fancy living in a girlie flat now. Boys are great and all that, but they are secretive and never do any cleaning. And finding two new housemates at the same time as finding a house will jsut add to the stress, combined with the fact I am starting a new job. all this change does not a happy me make.

Well for better or worse, Angel here we come.