Weekend

My brother drainboy is up for the weekend, so I was out drinking with him, trashcanglam, in_thy_bounty, tisme and redshira on Friday night (by drinking I mean lemonade, my life being largely teetotal).  Twas fun, especially repeatedly persuading trashcanglam to phone his wife and get permission to leave her with the kids just a _little_ bit longer.

Saturday, myself drainboy, stenchpuppy (the other brother), spaj, dapperscavenger and George WINOLJ all gathered to play poker (with stenchpuppy's wife providing snackage and kibbitzing.  £5 was deposited in the pot by each of us, and needless to say I ended up £5 less well off at the end of the day. 

I then dashed home in time to meet original_aj and give him the two mattresses from our futons - now surplus to requirements due to the new sofas.  I now have to get rid of two futon bases, which will require a call to the council I suspect.

Then Susan WIANOLJ turned up, and we watched Family Guy episodes until 11pm then headed into town, met up with drainboy, wandered to The Mission and met up with tisme - stenchpuppy and Meredith were supposed to join us, but singularly failed to do so, begging off with excuses about 'headaches' and 'explosive diarrorhea'.

There was then much dancing and German Expressionist Cinema (FW Murnau's Faust was projected onto a handy wall) and I got to dance to Cubanate's Oxyacetylene, whih is pretty much enough to keep me happy.

Exhausted at 2:30 I dragged Susan back home, helped her unroll her bedroll and collapsed into unconsciousness.

Soon I will rouse myself and see if there are any plans for today...

Etymology fun

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me", you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare.

If you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare.

If you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare.

Even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I were dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

(Bernard Levin. From The Story of English. Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil. Viking: 1986).