Audience of One

New Malden and after

I went to visit friends in New Malden (south London) this week, specifically people from Ashburnham. During the two days I was with them I met the older sister of a friend who is studying medicine at my future university, I played frisbee, I met the deer of Richmond Park and I watched Anchorman (which has good bits, but probably not enough to make it worth watching). I also had a chat to Nicole about why she isn’t on Google any more. (I don’t post surnames here if I can help it.)

I got very little sleep the night I stayed there. The second day of my visit we walked for about ten miles round Richmond Park and back home. When I came home my train was cancelled and the next one delayed. I then had to cycle the four miles home and have something to eat. In the morning, I had an appointment in town so I couldn’t sleep in and had to cycle for another eight miles. I then went shopping and had to carry all the shopping home two miles, including quite a lot of heavy stuff. In the afternoon, I was reasonably tired and decided to watch a film, and probably fall asleep doing so.

I then had this conversation with my brother:

David: You’re so lazy!

Matthew: Excuse me? Did I tell you what I did yesterday? I’ve had no sleep, I need to relax!

David: You didn’t do much yesterday.

Matthew: Didn’t do much? I walked all around Richmond Park, got lost in the woods there and played a lot of frisbee. We then couldn’t be bothered to take the bus home and so walked for fourty minutes!

David: See? You couldn’t be bothered to take the bus! Told you you were lazy!

Anyway, New Malden was great. A shout out to Benji, Nathan, Laura, Matt, Suzy, Jenny, Paul and Nicole who may or may not be reading this. Normal service resumes after I have my “hi mum!” moment in peace.

Incidently, Nathan’s mum cooks a fantastic saugage casserole. I liked it so much, I’m inviting people over tomorrow and attempting to emulate it. Reports of my cooking so far have consisted of:

• “Needs salt.”
• “Good attempt.”
• “Was that a Chicken Tonight sauce?”
• “Don’t worry, the burnt bits add character.”
• “No, seriously, I know you didn’t make it yourself, I can see the dirty jar from here.”
• “Don’t worry, I like my meat rare.”
• and “Did that take long to heat up?”

We shall see how tomorrow goes. Tonight’s meal was excellent preparation. Step 1: pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Step 2: Stick in pie, having removed foil. Step 3: wait. Step 4: eat. And talking of step 4, the beeper’s just gone. Don’t worry – if any of my friends die of food poisoning tomorrow I will be sure to tell you before ever offering to cook for you.

Matthew @ 19:37, September 1, 2005 to Diary | Comments (11)