mother earth

I have been advised by my new backgammon buddy to think positively. Generally, I only need telling the once, so I am going to try my best to relax and really enjoy having the week off work. I was slightly worried about filling the time now that I won’t be moving into my flat just yet but as luck would have it my friend N is off work too and she has invited me on a 2 night trip to see Meeshy Moo in the countryside.

Cor, now I haven’t seen MM for a few years. She’s my original MF buddy. Hand picked by Mr Ed Smith, I was slightly nervous that she was chosen for her looks rather than her ability. But for a hair and make-up artist who couldn’t type, she learnt quick and had a great attitude. Somehow, out of nowhere, we immediately became the best of friends and she ended up staying at my flat on the nights when she didn’t go back to hubby in the country.

MM was always a Mother Earth figure and very into her alternative medicine methods. She even diagnosed a previous kidney ailment from the blown up eye of our MF curator, which featured on the promotional material. This freaked him out no end. It was from her that I learnt to play hard, as well as work hard and we were pretty damn wild while doing a brilliant job. Working that festival is hard work but if you party just as hard as you work it can be the most amazing time ever. Cough, playing was restricted to out of office hours. Somewhere, no doubt in one of her massive alt-therapy textbooks, MM had read that in order to relax adequately, one must play for every hour that one had worked. So, every night we relaxed until approx 4 or 5am, somehow managing to rise again at 8am and do it over and over again.

Our favourite story was the time we were ‘relaxing’ after a very demanding gig. We had an unusually late start the next day: 1pm and it was a beautiful hot summer night. Somehow we ended up in the park with colouring in books and pencils at 8am. The next day at work was torture, but luckily the pain only had to be endured for a few hours. Since I last saw her, MM has had not 1 but 2 children and by all accounts really is mother earth now.

life is sweet

It’s not all bad though. I always said that it would be my friends who would get me through this difficult period, so you’re gonna have to forgive me for getting a bit sentimental here….. Cheers to anyone who invited me round (especially these last few nail-biting weeks) while I’ve been living with my lovely, but teetotal, bro (special tip of the hat to Shark & TH for having me for over a week). Cheers to Catster, Shark, Mafling et al who understood how I felt when I lost my book collection and who clubbed together to replace my entire! reading list from last year. Cheers to anyone that’s been through their stuff and given me their duplicates. Cheers to anyone who has trawled round the shops with me. Cheers to the Vixen for becoming a private dick with me. Cheers to Catster for going to the park again to take more lovely pictures for me. Cheers to those at work who all clubbed together for loads of Habitat vouchers. People really have rallied around and I really have been rather spoilt.

And of course I have been helping too. Thanks to my interim payment, I have been practising a Keynesian method: buying my way out of depression. I have the best excuse ever for buying anything “mine got burnt in a fire”. I can barely get into my bedroom for boxes and after Thursday night’s second trip to IKEA I have actually spilled out into the hallway. There are stacks at my parents, a bag and couch at Perry’s and tonnes of new pots and a huge lantern at Papa Nicole’s. I have so much stuff now I will have to hire a van to move.

It’s been my routine every weekend this year to trawl around the shops at the weekend. Shopping, reading and being rather spoilt have kept my spirits up, especially the shopping. Take today. I bought myself a lovely old school Bush radio, a disco rope light, a par can (to go with my disco glitter ball), 2 second hand books, some fairy lights and some bits for my (soon to be) over equipped kitchen. I mean how could that lot not raise a smile?

I PROMISE THAT MY SENSE OF HUMOUR WILL RETURN WITH THE POSTCODE SE24