Gilgamesh

We dined with Ping, John & Rich tonight at Gilgamesh, a themed restaurant in Camden Town. It’s a bit overwhelming visually but I didn’t dislike the endless carved-wood frescos and ornate inlaid furniture as much as I’d expected; it should be an assault on the senses, but isn’t. The food and drink was all good – although I think somewhat overpriced for the portion sizes. That said, the portion sizes were just about right and I came away feeling full but not stuffed. A good variety of cocktails and a superb wine list complemented the simple menu. I’d go there again – but probably only for special occasions.

Early Morning Confessional

Okay, I’ve been a bad blogger. I haven’t published in weeks. It’s not that I’ve not had the energy, more that I’ve been so busy, that there have been so many demands on my time that, when I’ve had time, I’ve not wanted to give part of me away.

Work is busy and stressful at the moment for lots of reasons I won’t bore you with. It probably won’t calm down until towards the end of April. On the up-side Rob S, a close colleague from my previous job, has accepted the role of my deputy so I’m looking forward to working with him again. On top of all that I think the new role I find myself in is forcing me to grow as a person, which is a good (if somewhat hard) thing. It’s only when I look back now I realise that I’ve been in something of a rut for a while at work. So here’s looking forward to a Brave New World!

Socially I think I have been even more out-of-touch than usual. Several times lately I’ve dropped out of events at the last minute because I am so drained when I (eventually) get out of the office. My birthday (a week past already!) was enjoyable precisely because we didn’t “do” anything for it; we stayed home, wandered around the village and indulged ourselves a bit. Brett wrote me the most lovely, touching message in my birthday card. I love him so much.

And now it’s almost time to get up and start in on another week. I ate rather too much at dinner late last night. Consequently I woke up around 4:30am and haven’t been able to get back to sleep; not a propitious start for the week ahead, but at least I do feel ready for the challenges it will no doubt bring.

Rejuvenation

Well Friday turned out to be quite productive; all the problems had either solved or been worked around so I was able to get on with being productive again and boy did it feel good!

The weekend has been fairly photographically orientated. I spent a fair amount of Saturday processing the pictures I took last weekend on the Out Photographers’ walk around The City – actually none of them were much good. Brett and I headed out around town in the afternoon and ended up watching Hot Fuzz – excellent fun; imagine an all-action Hollywood blockbuster shoot-em-up movie set in a quaint, slightly caricatured English village… I’m surprised they didn’t nuke the vicarage before they were done!

We had a bit of a cosy evening afterwards though.

Today was more mucking about with the camera – actually more time was spent trying to make the dining room function as a studio than was spent with the camera, but what can you do? – as I followed up my recent photography course with some practice.

Life is a Cabaret, Old Chum

How long has it been? I don’t know; I’ve lost track.

It’s been a crazy week at work following work at the weekend following a busy week at work; I’ve been interviewing, I’ve been budgeting, I’ve been doing open heart surgery on the network (well, okay, replacing the central firewall!) Am just back from the second session of a photography course I’d booked myself onto, which was well worth the £90 it cost. Was out for the day on Sunday with a group of guys from Out who are forming a photography club (not as cheesy as it sounds, honestly!)

When I got back tonight, Rosie was in a lather; she’d been talking to one of her friends who’s just thrown her husband out of the house for allegedly having an affair. However, while the husband is certainly hot enough to be prime affair-having material, he’s actually always struck me as far too devoted a husband to do that kind of thing and too honest to deny it if he were and was confronted about it. But then, what do I know!? People are surprised about the depths of depravity that go on in my mind because outwardly I’m such a straight-forward guy, so I guess you can’t always judge by appearances. Either way, the evidence in this case sounds highly circumstantial so I hope they can work it out.

Brett is out at a Chorus meeting tonight but has hopefully spent the day finishing off a ‘code test’ he had to perform as part of his application for a job. I hope he gets it, if for no other reason than I think the cabin fever is really getting to him and these last few weeks we’ve hardly seen each other.

We went out to see Cabaret last night; Brett had been in town for lunch with Ping and had stopped by the half-price booth in Leicester Square afterwards. It’s been on our list since it opened but after the first half I was rather indifferent. The second half though was much stronger and the ending struck deep. I was pensive all the way home and just wanted to keep Brett close to me.

More interviews tomorrow. And more budgetting.