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Ah, the monthly money cycle continues. Two weeks before pay day and I’m down to £21 plus a few coins in me wallet. But I do have a good reason; my mate Quick’s stag do at the weekend, in Cardiff. I went to Bristol on Friday to stay round my sister’s tiny flat. Getting there was a bit of a headache, the underground was grinding to a halt cus of signal failure, the buses were slow as ever, got to Paddington only to find that my Annual Railcard 30% off thing doesn’t cover Bristol/Cardiff and so I would have to pay £60 for the journey. Fuck that. I thought about going down to Guildford and seeing if I could cadge a lift off of John Twin on Saturday and miss out on seeing me sis. Then I remembered the couch station at Victoria so I leapt back on the Circle line (which was very late and slow) and cursed myself for not thinking about it sooner cus I could have bought a mega-bus ticket for next to nowt online. Ah well, £16.50 on the more comfy National Express is ok – and they have lavees onboard. Got there at 4 and bought a ticket for the 5.30 couch so I bought a standard and a few pints in the pub opposite the station.

The 5.30 couch came and the 5.30 couch left with me not on it. They said that there were two 5.30 couches – ours was a few minutes later. 50 minutes later it turned up after the 6.00 one had already left (we weren’t allowed to board that one for boring, target-related issues. So I didn’t get to Bristol till after 9.00 pm. Bah.

My sister’s place is pretty small, especially seeing as it’s both her and her boyfriend’s place. It’s a flat built above a single car sized garage but I think that it eats into the actual house by another 4 or 5 feet. It also seems smaller because of the large amount of Nintendo related crap that they fill it with. I counted over 12 models of Link from Zelda… still it’s a nice modern flat and cheap too, for Bristol.

I left the next day, after tea, bacon sarnies and a wash, to discover that I would be late if I caught the next train to Cardiff because of a black hole in the timetable that meant that trains run every half hour except between 9.50 and 10.50 on a Saturday morning for some reason. I called up John & Paul Twin and caught them while they were on the M4 and they thankfully made a detour to come pick me up from Temple Meads – thanks J&P! We got to Paintball (near Cowbridge) just before the rest of em.

Paintball is awesome sweet. I’ve never been before and I really enjoyed it even though I was out after 20 seconds in two of the games. I used to be a pacifist but I’ve totally seen how much fun it is being in the army. OK, so if this was real life we would all have been dead after 5 minutes of combat but no-one mentions that – it’s like the computer games were you never really die – great adverts for signing up and giving your life for Queen & Country. Yes please. Anyway, Quick got covered in bruises, as is the custom for the stag and looks like he may give birth to a clan of Gremlins any minute now such is the frequency of the round bumps all over his back.

I forgot to bring smart shoes with me so I quickly picked some up from NEXT in Cardiff before tidying meself up at the Hotel before a curry at Spice Quarter – very expensive but very nice. Quick was dressed in a pink shirt and WPC pink hat cus he’s becoming a CPO soon – his brothers and made various references questioning his sexuality across the back of the shirt… After that it was on to the pub then a strip club and then to Creation, a kind of cool club that wasn’t too big, had a good selection of rooms, gave us free drinks vouchers, and was packed with beautiful Cardiff girls. Not bad. I’ve not been to a club for bloody years (except indie nights out in Camden) probly since I was 21 and went to the Opera House in Bournemouth – but it was great fun, possibly because of the large amount of booze consumed. Quick was putting them away and we had to keep an eye on him as he has a penchant for throwing drinks over people; friends or strangers alike. Best tune of the night was an awesome-o D’nB remix of Voodoo People that had me and Fox dancing land jumping like eejits.

Back to the hotel and then drinking till 5.30 am at the bar. Bed for 4 hours and awake to discover that I’d avoided any kind of hangover! Can’t say the same for the rest… Managed a couple of lunchtime pints with Delyth, who hadn’t seen in 4/5 years – had to remember her mobile number of the top of my head and hit it on the nail first go – really good to see her again and we chatted about approaching 30 (argh!) boring jobs (check) and leaving the country as soon as funds allow (i.e. never).

Fox drove back to London – good work because he got 5 hours kip and before was up for 48 hours straight while coming back from holiday – cheers matey! Back home, hot bath, and sleep sleep sleep. And then check the old bank balance to discover I am brassic again. Ho hum.

Oh – and I now have a mobile phone. Finally. Hooray!