Another night with my brother
Apr. 5th, 2002 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chrisvenusNote: this post was written between 4AM and 5AM last night. I can't be bothered to go back and re-read it so you get it as it is. :)
Tonight has been another night with my brother and some of his friends. This time in Reigate. Today started with me waking up far too early (about 9:00) but in time to get ready to leave the house to go home at 10AM.
I was really quite knackered since last night I had been up quite late talking to some people and, I must confess, playing a new computer game (Big thanks going out to the person who gave this to me, its a fantastic game and it is wasting too much of my time at the moment but I am getting a big star wars hit which is good). So after a bit over five hours sleep and an hours getting ready, most of which involved me sitting there trying to get the effort to get out of bed and do stuff I head out the house.
I was heading to a nice little town called Byfield first were I was picking up a couple of friends (Mike and Miranda) who are over here from canada. They are friends of my brothers who suggested they stay down here with us for tonight and since they weren't far from me and I was coming home today anyway I gave them a lift.
So, to fast forward slightly and skip the slightly boring trip to the park, short trip to a pub (the cage) and me heading home for dinner we get to me returning nicely fed up on my mum's lovely lasagne. I met people in the castle where there was Rob, Mike, Miranda (I should mention she is quite cute as well since it is my duty as a man to mention these things when relevant - Mike would kill me if I tried anything (to paraphrase)), Ross and a few other people I didn't know including a couple of girls from hungary who were called (and this spelling is based on the phonetics of how I *think* their names are spelt) Juditca and Aggy. I assume aggy is an abbreviation but I am not sure. *shrug* :)
I'll say a bit about these two while I am here. The first thing that is actually quite amusing when I think about it put together is that Juditca was the louder of the two of them. In fact at most times she was louder than everybody else in the pub. put together. She really did have some volume on her occasionally. Not that she talked loud, she just enjoyed shouting things it seems. The totally wicked irony comes in that her english wasn't that good and I found myself employing the "nod and smile" technique many times. Her friend it turned out after a while (since she didn't talk that much or maybe just not as loudly) was in fact damned good at english. The only times she really got stuck was on the accents I think. And on the difference between a jumper and a pullover which to be fair stumped me too. :)
THe other thing to say about aggy (the quite one) is that she really reminded me of another friend of mine. To the extent that I had thought this so many times that at one point much later in the evening my mind was going as I was tired and I actually thought it was her (my other friend) for a minute. :)
Anyway after a while we whittled away various people we didn't know. Met up with Becca again who I had met up in oxford and I was most surprised to note she looked quite fit. I guess that its cos when we met up in oxford she had a bit of a funny eye due to an infection and had been up all night the night before. NEver going to look your best like that are you? :) It was kind of odd actually, Becca's mum is a friend of Rob's and his crew(TM) so she was at the pub drinking and it was kinda funny in some ways.
Some pizza was done in the midst of pubbing (as we left the castle and before the Firkin). It was in here that the loud Juditca decided I was the crow and so insisted on calling me that (often at a shout) for the rest of the evening. That having been said I can think of a lot worse things she could have described me as so I'm not going to complain. :)
After the pub chucked us out at 11:20 we headed for Reigate park. And I've just realised that a big aside might be necessary here to explain some stuff.
My brother used to go out with a girl called Erin. I don't know when they started going out but I know that she was around christmas before last and that they were going out then. She used to almost live at our house and since she was from Canada she become almost adopted family since hers were so far away.
She was a really nice girl and although I was up in oxford for a lot of the time I saw her when I was home and got on with her and she had a great affect on my brother which is always good.
Sometime about a year ago she was taken ill and diagnosed as having leukemia (sp?). She was taken into hospital and treated as appropriate. My brother was an absolute darling apparently demonstrating that contrary to appearance he could be responsible and think of others and so on. Erin's parents came over and my brother helped them find places to stay and gave them lifts around and stuff.
Things were very up and down with her health and last september she sadly passed away. I came home when I heard the news and attended the funeral and so on. After the funeral we held a sort of wake at our house. Everybody was invited back and my family had all spent the previous evening making up sandwiches and all this sort of thing for people. There were loads of people there including Erin's family from Canada, her best friend, Carol, and loads of Rob's and Erin's friends.
Erin had always been somebody who was able to make friends really easily. Apparently she turned up in the firkin (the then local to Rob and co) and basically despite not really knowing anybody she introduced everybody to everybody else. She had loads of friends and it was during this wake that the idea was mooted to plant a tree in Erin's memory. And this brings us back to the main plot.
After the pub chucked us out at 11:20 we headed for Reigate park to see Erin's tree. Mike had been one of Erin's friends in Canada and I hadn't been to this tree yet either. So, the party of seven stomped through the parks to where the tree is and all sat down around the tree and talked a bit.
My brother was a bit overcome by emotions and was a bit tearful (I won't say he cried because that doesn't sound manly *g*). Ross had snuck into where he worked (A pizza restaurant) and had half-inched a bottle of wine that we sat around and drinking and there was a small hipflask of brandy that had been buried at the base of the tree for visitors in the know to take a small swig of and raise a toast to Erin.
I don't really like brandy and don't touch alcohol when driving but I had a sip of brandy in erin's memory and said a small prayer kind of thing to her (I'm not religious but I like to send out my thoughts to anybody able to pick them up with my best wishes and so on, I like to think that in one way or another my private thoughts and prayer to erin got to her). I also took a swig of wine in Erin's memory later. I was also fairly touched when my brother said "Pour some of the brandy on the tree". I just handed him the flask to do it himself. It seemed much more right for him to do it than me.
A bit more time passed and we found ourselves having followed Ross through thick undergrowth to the top of reigate hill. Deciding it was cold and that my car was only ten minutes away we did the sensible thing and spent 15 minutes getting a fire going. :)
The fire was actually fantastic. I must confess to being skeptical at first but we got it going and rob and mike collected enough wood to keep the fire going for plenty long enough. One roaring inferno later and we are all maxed out around the fire. People decide that we need more drink so rob and ross take a 20 minute (actually an hour) trip to get more booze. By the time they left Miranda was asleep, by the time they got back everybody was basically asleep save me and that was only because long thoughts were keeping me awake.
We had a few more beers (ie they did and I didn't) and then since miranda seemed to be turning into an icicle as did most other people I started us on the exodus home. Before that though came the putting out of the fire which was done in top comedy style using the traditional technique of pissing on it. There were still some remnants but not much. Hopefully the few embers we left won't have burnt down reigate. :)
Came home and had my only real annoyance of the evening as I remembered how much of an annoying prick my brother could be. In the car with my music on the stereo. ROb boosted the sound up high for a while which was pretty cool but then decided he wanted something else. I didn't mind too much since although I liked the CD I am happy with a lot of shit. Unfortunately the thing he found was worse than shit in my opinion. I said to him a few times that I didn't like it and could he find something else and after he continously ignored me I hit the button to change back from radio to CD. At this point he starts bitching that he was enjoying the tune. I was very good and didn't eppy at him or anything but merely pointed out in subtle terms that he had turned off the music I liked to put on something I had repeatedly told him I objected to. Grrr... he does piss me off sometimes...
Anyway that then found me at home. I needed to listen to a few tunes before bed to cheer me up again and I thought that since I was turning on laptoppy thing to do so I would write a text entry that I could later use to update my LJ (hopefully tomorrow when I get up).
So, that has been my day. There are a lot of other thoughts but the time is now 4:43 so I really can't be bothered with the other thoughts. I think I will go to bed. To sleep, perchance to get a good nights rest and feel refreshed in the morning.
Tonight has been another night with my brother and some of his friends. This time in Reigate. Today started with me waking up far too early (about 9:00) but in time to get ready to leave the house to go home at 10AM.
I was really quite knackered since last night I had been up quite late talking to some people and, I must confess, playing a new computer game (Big thanks going out to the person who gave this to me, its a fantastic game and it is wasting too much of my time at the moment but I am getting a big star wars hit which is good
I was heading to a nice little town called Byfield first were I was picking up a couple of friends (Mike and Miranda) who are over here from canada. They are friends of my brothers who suggested they stay down here with us for tonight and since they weren't far from me and I was coming home today anyway I gave them a lift.
So, to fast forward slightly and skip the slightly boring trip to the park, short trip to a pub (the cage) and me heading home for dinner we get to me returning nicely fed up on my mum's lovely lasagne. I met people in the castle where there was Rob, Mike, Miranda (I should mention she is quite cute as well since it is my duty as a man to mention these things when relevant - Mike would kill me if I tried anything (to paraphrase)), Ross and a few other people I didn't know including a couple of girls from hungary who were called (and this spelling is based on the phonetics of how I *think* their names are spelt) Juditca and Aggy. I assume aggy is an abbreviation but I am not sure. *shrug* :)
I'll say a bit about these two while I am here. The first thing that is actually quite amusing when I think about it put together is that Juditca was the louder of the two of them. In fact at most times she was louder than everybody else in the pub. put together. She really did have some volume on her occasionally. Not that she talked loud, she just enjoyed shouting things it seems. The totally wicked irony comes in that her english wasn't that good and I found myself employing the "nod and smile" technique many times. Her friend it turned out after a while (since she didn't talk that much or maybe just not as loudly) was in fact damned good at english. The only times she really got stuck was on the accents I think. And on the difference between a jumper and a pullover which to be fair stumped me too. :)
THe other thing to say about aggy (the quite one) is that she really reminded me of another friend of mine. To the extent that I had thought this so many times that at one point much later in the evening my mind was going as I was tired and I actually thought it was her (my other friend) for a minute. :)
Anyway after a while we whittled away various people we didn't know. Met up with Becca again who I had met up in oxford and I was most surprised to note she looked quite fit. I guess that its cos when we met up in oxford she had a bit of a funny eye due to an infection and had been up all night the night before. NEver going to look your best like that are you? :) It was kind of odd actually, Becca's mum is a friend of Rob's and his crew(TM) so she was at the pub drinking and it was kinda funny in some ways.
Some pizza was done in the midst of pubbing (as we left the castle and before the Firkin). It was in here that the loud Juditca decided I was the crow and so insisted on calling me that (often at a shout) for the rest of the evening. That having been said I can think of a lot worse things she could have described me as so I'm not going to complain. :)
After the pub chucked us out at 11:20 we headed for Reigate park. And I've just realised that a big aside might be necessary here to explain some stuff.
My brother used to go out with a girl called Erin. I don't know when they started going out but I know that she was around christmas before last and that they were going out then. She used to almost live at our house and since she was from Canada she become almost adopted family since hers were so far away.
She was a really nice girl and although I was up in oxford for a lot of the time I saw her when I was home and got on with her and she had a great affect on my brother which is always good.
Sometime about a year ago she was taken ill and diagnosed as having leukemia (sp?). She was taken into hospital and treated as appropriate. My brother was an absolute darling apparently demonstrating that contrary to appearance he could be responsible and think of others and so on. Erin's parents came over and my brother helped them find places to stay and gave them lifts around and stuff.
Things were very up and down with her health and last september she sadly passed away. I came home when I heard the news and attended the funeral and so on. After the funeral we held a sort of wake at our house. Everybody was invited back and my family had all spent the previous evening making up sandwiches and all this sort of thing for people. There were loads of people there including Erin's family from Canada, her best friend, Carol, and loads of Rob's and Erin's friends.
Erin had always been somebody who was able to make friends really easily. Apparently she turned up in the firkin (the then local to Rob and co) and basically despite not really knowing anybody she introduced everybody to everybody else. She had loads of friends and it was during this wake that the idea was mooted to plant a tree in Erin's memory. And this brings us back to the main plot.
After the pub chucked us out at 11:20 we headed for Reigate park to see Erin's tree. Mike had been one of Erin's friends in Canada and I hadn't been to this tree yet either. So, the party of seven stomped through the parks to where the tree is and all sat down around the tree and talked a bit.
My brother was a bit overcome by emotions and was a bit tearful (I won't say he cried because that doesn't sound manly *g*). Ross had snuck into where he worked (A pizza restaurant) and had half-inched a bottle of wine that we sat around and drinking and there was a small hipflask of brandy that had been buried at the base of the tree for visitors in the know to take a small swig of and raise a toast to Erin.
I don't really like brandy and don't touch alcohol when driving but I had a sip of brandy in erin's memory and said a small prayer kind of thing to her (I'm not religious but I like to send out my thoughts to anybody able to pick them up with my best wishes and so on, I like to think that in one way or another my private thoughts and prayer to erin got to her). I also took a swig of wine in Erin's memory later. I was also fairly touched when my brother said "Pour some of the brandy on the tree". I just handed him the flask to do it himself. It seemed much more right for him to do it than me.
A bit more time passed and we found ourselves having followed Ross through thick undergrowth to the top of reigate hill. Deciding it was cold and that my car was only ten minutes away we did the sensible thing and spent 15 minutes getting a fire going. :)
The fire was actually fantastic. I must confess to being skeptical at first but we got it going and rob and mike collected enough wood to keep the fire going for plenty long enough. One roaring inferno later and we are all maxed out around the fire. People decide that we need more drink so rob and ross take a 20 minute (actually an hour) trip to get more booze. By the time they left Miranda was asleep, by the time they got back everybody was basically asleep save me and that was only because long thoughts were keeping me awake.
We had a few more beers (ie they did and I didn't) and then since miranda seemed to be turning into an icicle as did most other people I started us on the exodus home. Before that though came the putting out of the fire which was done in top comedy style using the traditional technique of pissing on it. There were still some remnants but not much. Hopefully the few embers we left won't have burnt down reigate. :)
Came home and had my only real annoyance of the evening as I remembered how much of an annoying prick my brother could be. In the car with my music on the stereo. ROb boosted the sound up high for a while which was pretty cool but then decided he wanted something else. I didn't mind too much since although I liked the CD I am happy with a lot of shit. Unfortunately the thing he found was worse than shit in my opinion. I said to him a few times that I didn't like it and could he find something else and after he continously ignored me I hit the button to change back from radio to CD. At this point he starts bitching that he was enjoying the tune. I was very good and didn't eppy at him or anything but merely pointed out in subtle terms that he had turned off the music I liked to put on something I had repeatedly told him I objected to. Grrr... he does piss me off sometimes...
Anyway that then found me at home. I needed to listen to a few tunes before bed to cheer me up again and I thought that since I was turning on laptoppy thing to do so I would write a text entry that I could later use to update my LJ (hopefully tomorrow when I get up).
So, that has been my day. There are a lot of other thoughts but the time is now 4:43 so I really can't be bothered with the other thoughts. I think I will go to bed. To sleep, perchance to get a good nights rest and feel refreshed in the morning.