Easy Like Monday Morning

I had such an amazing weekend that I'm not sure if I can accurately capture my enthusiasm in words. It was one of those perfect weekends where everything just falls beautifully into place. There was no excessive planning but rather plenty of spontaneous occurrences, and since I happen to have the coolest, most up for it group of friends in the world, X + Y = an explosion of fun. The one thing about living so far from home is that your friends really do become your family. In the absence of blood relatives on which to depend, you become abnormally close to the only other people you have in your life, and they become like family in every sense. We bicker more than we ever did with our friends back home, but we also are there for each other in a way that we haven't been before, and when we have fun, we embrace it with every ounce of enthusiasm and energy. I love them to death at the moment, and am very grateful to be sharing my overseas experience with them.

The weekend started fairly tamely. We've always done our grocery shopping on Friday nights, but since we moved into our new place and we have both Sainsbury's and Virgin Active less than 30 seconds from our house, we no longer have to stick to a routine when it comes to the mundane things in life. I went to gym instead, and picked up a bottle of wine from M&S on my way home. OJ and Neutrino came over, and we basically just spent the evening hanging out and chatting over a couple of glasses.

On Saturday we had a great surprise: two of our friends from CT rocked up on our doorstep out of the blue! They had been planning on coming over here in August, but decided a few months ago that they would come earlier and surprise everyone. HippieChick and Peet managed to arrange everything with the help of HippieChick's brother, Jem; right down to getting directions to our house so we wouldn't suspect anything. We already had a few people over as we always do at the weekend, so when they popped up everyone immediately went into celebration mode and we threw them an impromptu Welcome To London party. There are now so many of us over this side that going back to CT now would be a little bleak! We just need Schmokkle & Man-Bok, JR & Candz and Fish & Carebear to come over this side, and all my closest friends would be in London. And of course, my little sister and G. Watch out guys, the lure of London is coming to get you!

On Sunday I went to the pub for lunch with the Queen of Melodrama and Herman the German. Herman was in town for the weekend, having just recently moved to Germany, and had decided to come and visit his best mate QOM. I suspect I will be seeing a lot more of him in the near future. It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.... we sat on the terrace of a pub in Wimbledon and whiled away the hours reminscing about old times (the three of us were fast friends in high school for a while) and catching up on the latest in each other's lives. We bid each other farewell at around 4pm, and a scant four hours later I was on my way to the station to fetch QOM to bring him back to ours for pre-party drinks. Yes, finally the night had arrived: Astrix, Infected Mushroom and Eskimo at Briston Academy. I'd invited QOM a few weeks previously, and to say he was excited was an understatement.

My group of friends is quite cliquey, but not in the sense that we don't like new people. It's more because we have a rather unique way of interacting with one another that comes from being friends for so long. It goes beyond just inside jokes and shared experiences. We've developed certain words that are like everyday English to us, but unintelligible to outsiders. Even Schmokkle, who has known everyone for years, says that everytime we come down to Cape Town on holiday and she hangs out with us, there are new words and codes that go straight over her head. It's not a conscious thing, but it can make newcomers feel a bit left out. So as excited as I was about QOM meeting all my friends, including Shoes, for the first time, there was the slight worry that he'd feel a bit out of sorts.

Turns out I needn't have worried. He is just about the biggest instant hit I have ever seen with my group. By the end of the night, Shoes and Eyes were asking if they could keep him, and everyone was coming up to me in turns to tell me how cool they thought he was. I actually barely got to spend any time with him, as Shoes kept spiriting him away to chat and the others were commanding his remaining time. He has since been invited to our housewarming next weekend, our trip to Portugal and Spain in August, and basically anything else that we happen to be doing between now and Christmas - and none of the invites were issued by me!

The party itself was off the hook. We got there at 11pm and left at 4am, and Scarf and I danced non-stop the whole time. We haven't just let go and danced in ages, and it felt so good to move! The music was great despite the 3 power surges in Infected's set that had the crowd chanting into the sudden silence, and I've rarely seen a more excitable group of clubbers. Excellent vibe, excellent outfits, excellent music, excellent venue - the four pillars of the perfect party!

QOM stayed over, as did HippieChick and Peet, and we all woke up refreshed sometime on Monday afternoon. We made some coffee, packed a hubbly and spent the afternoon talking and chilling on our balcony. Neutrino and OJ joined us later and we ended the weekend by watching a movie called Weirdsville. It's a dark, heavily satirical comedy that suited our mood perfectly.

All of us were really sad to to see the weekend end, and if I could have rewound it and done it all over again, I would in a second. But summer has finally arrived, including blue skies and sunshine, and I know there will be many more perfect weekends to come.