To Lancaster. Sitting around with Kirsty and our girls makes me miss the companionable ease of family life, whilst I remember how suffocating I found it when it was there all the time.
I saw Kitty and Wendy for an hour or so, before Kitty got back to her coursework and Wendy had to return to The Little Dictator. The nostalgic memory of our open-ended drunken, druggie evenings, and everyone's restricted timetable, made it feel a bit forced. Too upbeat, making the most of it.
It was the girls' birthday on Christmas Eve, and Melanie, my youngest, had arranged a gig with her band, upstairs at The Job and House Price. She came down in her boho gig gear, reached to remove a lump from her breast pocket, and produced a die-sized nugget of dope. "Oh gosh," she said, amusing everyone with the quaintness of her phrase. Her band was tight; well-rehearsed sudden endings. I danced uneasily, not wishing to appear aloof.
On 27th we all decamped to Middlesbrough. My Mum's house was stiflingly hot, and getting even one window open took considerable negotiation. One or two of my rellies look de haut en bas on our side, but the nieces and nephews are intelligent and interesting.
I excused my self and went outside to ring Kim. We had planned an evening together. I left a message. "Get that's man's cock out of your fucking gob and ring me back about tomorrow." Kim turned up in her Bridget Riley dress: her curves, and Riley's.
When I got back, my well-meaning, kind, irritatingly unserious brother, whose relentless self-deprecation is actually a form of egotism, said "what? You've been to the Rocket? That's a bit rough isn't it?", because a teetotal Christian Bible literalist knows more about my former local than I do.
I was pleased to see Eric, puffing away in the doorway. He's an ex-Royal Engineer who when I was briefly homeless last year gave me advice about how to dig a sheltering trench for oneself in the nature reserve.
The ex-landlord shook me firmly by the hand, searching for my name. We all cheered when the barmaid smashed two glasses. I had a game of pool with Nora, who's got this severe haircut and lovely tits. Reading my mind, Eric advised "I'd fucking steer clear of her if I were you." The men were flummoxed by Kim's sexiness and her confidence, the women envied her, and I got the kudos of the assumed boyfriend; three types of error.
New Year's Eve, I went to Trina's. After the airlessness of my mum's, I could breathe, in her restfully plain little house in a neighbourly suburb. The butcher, who fancies her, once minced any chance he might have had by saying, as they were alone in the shop one afternoon, "let's go out for a drink. Start as friends, and see what happens."
Later, I tried a more direct approach, prompted by some combination of drinks that one only has at Christmas. We found ourselves standing up, close to each other. "I don't suppose you fancy sex do you?" "No, I don't see you in that way any more."
I thought that was it, but in a similar state of inebriation the following evening, she revisited the topic without any prompting from me. "Yesterday you asked me if I wanted sex with you." "Yes I did." "I'll have to think about it."
"No Trina, if you have to think about it it's not going to work. I was a bit pissed and just wondered if you fancied sex, there and then, that's all." She insisted on having to think about it. As we said goodnight, we started snogging, an open-mouthed, cock-hardening kiss, before repairing to our respective bedchambers.
I had a date on Friday. I described it to Wendy thus.
It was OK. We're going dancing next Friday but she said she'll probably get off around midnight, which might work ok because then I can have two hours without having to worry about her. Chatty, easy to talk to, got an MA, middle class. Pleasant enough, but the search for a dirty, clever druggie will continue methinks. But possible friend material, and I could do with more than Hayley down here.
I sent my date a closed-mouth text, saying that it was nice to have meet her and that I was looking forward to seeing her on Friday.
I've now decided to tell her that I've invited someone else along, having previously mentioned it to Hayley.
