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After last night’s late night (bed at 3am), a late morning, followed by toast and hot cross buns left over from Easter weekend. We were just wondering what we should do with the day when the phone rang. It was Mark, returning a voicemail I’d left him yesterday. Ja wanted to come into Chelmsford to look at the Mercedes garage, so he suggested they pop in for a cup of tea on their way back home. I’ve not seen them since the end of January, so suggested four o’clock, then headed out with Paul in search of new pillows.

Someone said Matalan was good for bedding. I can’t remember who it was, but they clearly hadn’t been to the one in Chelmsford. It has plenty of duvet covers and pillow cases, but a very tatty selection of pillows. I’m glad we sneaked past the membership desk on our way in and avoided paying to sign up.

That, and a quick trawl around Staples was all we had time for before heading back, so I could run out to the shops to buy tea, cakes and toothpaste. I did a zippy clean of the flat (it’s surprising how much dust can settle when you’re away for a week) and then they arrived. On time. The sink was still full of washing up.

Still, I shuushed them into the lounge and sat them down in front of the Xbox while we waited for Paul to arrive. Neither of them was particularly keen on doing anything other than watching and asked me to drive around and around the track on Project Gotham in the car Ja had just been looking at in the garage.

After a few circuits I swapped it for Munch’s Oddysee and handed the controls to Mark. As I was when I first played, I think he was pretty much hooked from that moment on, so I feel a little better about being so easily sucked in.

Paul arrived then, so I boiled the kettle and cut the cake and we got talking about videos. I reminded Mark that months ago - a year at least I should imagine - we had said we would watch American Beauty, but had never got around to it. I suggested we put it on and watch the beginning, but we got hooked and sat there until it was done.

Mark guessed who did it from quite early on. I’m impressed - that person wasn’t even on my list of suspects first time around.

They left and seven, and while I did the waching up Paul went home to sort out his washing. When I’d done, I drove around to pick him up and we went to the gym, nearly squashing his neighbour’s kid’s bike under the back wheels of my car. Fortunately the kid was nowhere near.

I’m glad I dug out my minidisc player to listen to. The gym really hasn’t been at all fun since my car was broken into at the station back in February and my MP3 player (and deodorant and gel) was stolen. It’s amazing how less motivated you feel when you haven’t got good music to listen to.

Today, though, with a loud music and headphones just a little too snug for comfort, I ran a fairly zippy 3.5km and cycled another 7. A quick splash around in the pool and it would have been a triathlon.

(Un)fortunately there wasn’t time for that, though, as the gym was shutting. I met my neighbour in the changing room, though. He’s been away for a few months so it was nice to see him back. I still haven’t dared tell him I forgot his name as soon as he introduced himself three years ago. He can still remember mine. Fortunately we rarely have a long conversation, and I’ve never had to introduce him to anyone, but if he ever invited me to a birthday party and I have to write him a card… I’m in trouble.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 7th, 2002 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.