one more time

omg, i totally forgot i had a blog!
anyway, farewell 2006, roll on the oh-7.

whatever songs i favourited at the start of the year, i pretty much retained throughout the year because i'm such a keeper....

these are a few of my favourite things:

the gossip standing in the way of control
booka shade in white rooms
mary j blige mjb da mvp (from an old album, i know)
justin sexyback
fuckpony ride the pony
nypc ice cream
css ALBUM
e&a ALBUM: my #1 favourite thing of the year
the long blondes ALBUM especially once&never again & only lovers & giddy stratospheres
amy winehouse REHAB
the knife ALBUM
dead disco city place/the treatment/automatic
klaxons: REMIXES of gravity & atlantis & magick. originals are ropey shit, hell yeah
nightmare of you my name is trouble: emo disco
young love discotech more emo disco
the sounds TONY THE BEAT + rex the dog rmx AMAZING

nights out

• tdk was weird this year - no cohesion of 'scene' or direction and mess-up/dropping of various acts meant it was a drunken & confusing night spent wandering from club to club, mostly waiting for ellen allien to come on. still stayed up for 48 hours tho. yeh yeh.
• acid on sea - everything u could want from a boat party: pirates, parrots and classic rave tuuuunes.
• we love space/ibiza in september: let me go back, please?
• ellen allien & apparat @ benicassim & fabric: i've basically dedicated all my resources to obsessing over these techno-god-geniuses. i just have to remember not to talk to strangers in future *blush*
• trash one last time 27/12/06: please don't go?
  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FABRIC: 7 YEARS YOUNG THIS WEEKEND.

a-m n lee,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

i first went to fabric in december 1999. fat boy slim was headlining at the monthly friday bugged out meets boutique party. it was insane. i haven't seen room 2 as rammed since. it was like, you couldnt wave your hands in the air like you just didnt care cos your hands were stuck to your sides. so now everyone's hating on fabric, but there's a reason it keeps getting the best lineups and neverending qs each week...
some favourite fabric memories:
1. roger sanchez room 2: 7-hour set may 2001: another chance.
2. miss kittin room 1: may 2004 green lazers and an early airing of that summer's anthem - rocker. my 30-something irish cousin and her yummy mummy chums from east dulwich were so chuffed to be in fabric & ON THE GLIST that i think we made their year.
3. one night in DTPM: polysexual eclecticism in june 2001. raveraverave.
4. vitalic & soulwax nites: september 2005 - just before we got really really sick of them. EVERYone was there.

THIS FRIDAY

wired women featuring, um ME djing for the lovely lektro ladies!,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

do join us at the long-awaited return of Wired Women! what DID you do without it...

summer is over and all we are is apart. the nights are so cold now without you in my heart

i watched magic tv's 20 steps to madonna (i know that doesn't make sense) chez laura, with the lovely net, sof, liz and hannah among the esteemed dinner guests. conversation inevitably turned to a-level results day, as anet and i recalled a magnificent, if somewhat intimate evening in 1999 that serves as a kind of mini-prophecy of our future selves...

i got a new pink pod machine last week and haven't had much time to update the darned thing. however, although this means that i've only got about 20 songs on the wee fellow (it's the size of a lipstick - or a lighter! cuuute), they're all really corny and fabulous and make me wanna do bad indie dancing on the tube.

these are my hott ones:

mariah carey - always be my baby
peter, bjorn & john - young folks
le tigre - l'eau de bedroom dancing
similou - all this love
we are scientists - this scene is dead
long blondes - weekend without make-up
texas - halo
razorlight - in the morning

ok, so in between these i'm listening to tigarah (as recommened by annabel) and spank rock. a sublime contrast...

TIME OUT SHOWS SOME RESPECT HELL YEAH

TIME OUT SHOWS SOME RESPECT HELL YEAH,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

WOO
it's about bloody time.
it took madonna to get lovelife into time out again, but who cares? it's in there!
i can't wait till monday - should be such a treat!

DO DIRT 14TH SEPTEMBER

NEW DO DIRT FLYER!,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

more delicious popaction from do dirt crew at ditch bar next month!
flyer gorgeousness mmmmmm!!

STRIKE A POSE

Miss B

my feet are filthy. my hair is dried and dyed into sunburnt wisps. in my notebook the words 'german electro conveyorbelt' are scrawled in lopsided biro: it was that kind of weekend.
we might have sweltered in tent-saunas, dying for more than 3 hours sleep to recover our danced-out legs and banging-ed-out minds before the sun rose higher than ever in the clear azul sky, but you kind of learn to get by on cerveza y musica after the first night.
benicassim is the ultimate indie-rock festival: everybody here loves those shouty/melodic bands and couldn't give a flick of their trendy hair whether it's 'cool' or not. we might have sweated the vodka out of our bodies, but somehow it's all so refreshing - dancing in the sizzling sunrise to an indie dj who follows bloc party ('is this mansun??') with the stone roses with arctic monkeys requires a suspension of any sneering london pretentions you might still be harbouring.
that's right - indie discos that play out every day until 8am, the mythical litre cups of beer, 40 degree heat, minimal house, perched on the white podium steps while cold damp air blasts from fans in four directions...
my best benicassim bits:
1. ellen & apparat play a mesmerising set which melds the highlights of their respective ouevres with their unstoppable collaborative album. my favourite moment arrives as apparat squeezes ellen's shoulders, strokes her back and lifts her silky hair up to cool her immaculate skin. it was so romantic - if only they'd just forget the bleeps and admit they're in love, right? moving on...
2. codec & flexor - the most surprising appearence of the weekend, as the club tent explodes in a burst of crazed electrohouse energy. we forget that they aren't 'a band' - get back behind the machines! what do you think you're doing!? inspiration for all laptop-based acts to get (a)live.
3. depeche mode - sigh. try not to shed a beery tear as approximately 100,000 people enjoy the silence.
4. oh dear god i fancy jake shears. he's so lithe and limbering and such a sharp wit... 'hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there? just nod if you can hear me...is there naybody home?' ok, ana matronic is the real star here, but i ain't lookin at her right now.
5. sylvie marks. she knows what playing to an empty room (tent) feels like.
6. michael mayer & the minimalist corps.

under my desk i hide the secrets in my sandals, rusted with the dried earth of the sun-scorched campsite... i wonder if my feet will ever be clean again

i'm keeping all your books too

let me be your fantasy.

Dear Sir,
I hereby give one month's notice. Thank you for your help and assistance over the last three years, but I now feel completely undermined and isolated by the company.
Kisses x A-M

let's get dirt-y playlist

madonna hung up
gossip listen up mx something...remix
kate wax pleasure zone
britney crazy (stop rmx)
miss kittin requiem for a hit
simian mobile disco hustler
lil kim how many licks
uffie ready to uff
sharon philips i want more (trentmoller remix)
peaches do ya
inner city good life
madonna music
cansei de ser sexy music is my hot sex

...and more i cant remember right now because this is a really short list...

a fabulous, long-overdue dj debut (!) from poptext abby, love for luscious lex, and 'when's the next one?' to joey muck, the night's main man...

pamflet rides again!

little update...

RAVVVE: digitalism's jupiter room is finally out tomorrow

READ: pamflet IV is launched on tuesday - it's the indie nostalgia issue

BOYZ: phoebe and i wrote about porn in g2 on friday

HAHA: the beyonce's 'ass' skit on dead ringers tonight was brilliant. i love dead ringers

living in the 1980s

i was there, in 1985, when they filmed the transx video, in a studio in cologne... thanks data!

mayday! mayday!

mayday! mayday!,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

surprised?

I'm HONOURED to be djing at the Vibe Bar on Sunday evening. I'm on at 8.45, after Piney and before Lucky Soul... WOW! It's free, do come along. Seb&Fiona are the lovely hosts...

I Was Surprised, Too!

when: Sun 28 May (6pm-12:30am)
where: The Vibe Bar (Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, E1, 020.7426.0491) Tube: Liverpool Street map
links: Venue info

Nothing says Bank Holiday weekend like a game of hook-a-duck, and if it's against an aural high-five of sweet pop and electro-country, so much the better for celebrating. Sugared '60s poppets Lucky Soul bring the tambourines, with catchy tunes and more sweetness than a Mister Softee van. Emotive accordion pop, Kansas charm and the occasional gingham frock come courtesy of the delightful Piney Gir Country Roadshow. Snail-racing, pastoral film shorts from Tall People and a host of DJs complete the life-affirming bill. East Londoners giddy with childlike joy? You'll be surprised, too.

things that have happened during the past month

finally saw ellen allien: beautiful & bugged out

witnessed the return of quiffs

turned 25

robin rocked bank holiday lovelife (pictures on flickr soon)

liked what i saw of morningwood

decided to go to benicassim after all

booked flights to ibiza

FREE THE HARROW ONE!

FREE THE HARROW ONE!,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

:(

brody has no friends on myspace.

going to any festivals this year?

i wanna go to the exit festival. you know why? cos dog eat dog are playing! i'm not messing wit you. seriously. remember, from the early 90s? rad.

OUR POD WILL NEVER DIE

omg. the man in the ipod shop has just declared little pink thing dead. ipods: the ultimate consumer item; the pinnacle of capitalism. i wanted to get help. i'd waited. i'd procrastinated. i thought it might get better.
'let me have a look at it,' he demanded under the harsh glare of minimalist fluro lighttubes.
'um, i can tell you what's wrong with it - it FELL ON THE FLOOR. it has a BIG DENT IN IT.'
'we don't repair them. you can't open them up, you see,' he explained, detecting the scent of desperate consumer loss in the air, 'we can replace it for you - they cost £122.'
'riiiight. and how much does an ipod nano cost?'
'£109.'
'riiiight. ok, i'll leave it then.'

niall: if you're reading this, i'm sorry. fucking sorry.

pamflet at the london zine symposium

more pamflet,
originally uploaded by lord nick.

...last saturday, in spite of ragingly inappropriate hangovers, phoebe, nick (illustrations exhibited behind!!) and i turned out, as promised at the london zine symposium.
don't ever let me hear you say pamflet doesn't keep it real.

ever wondered what happens when...

something gets caught in an escalator?

i got my wheely trolley trapped in the down escalator heading towards the charing x branch of the northern line this morning at euston. part of the metal frame got trapped between steps as the stairs slid into the floor and i panicked. luckily some trusty american tourists came to the rescue and kicked le trolley out of the way, by which time i'd mananged to infuriate streams of commuters on their descent into the underground ('getouttatheway!!' etc). i very graciously thanked the tourists for their help ('you're welcome ma'am' ma'am!!!) and cursed everyone else. bad, but slapstick start to the week.

token mix for spring oh-six

1. shannon - let the music play
2. similou - all this love
3. phoenix - if i ever feel better
4. hot chip - over and over
5. new order - bizarre love triangle (richard x mix)
6. the knife - silent shout
7. telex - how do you dance?
8. sasse feat. kiki - loosing touch
9. sharon phillips - want 2 need 2 (trentmoller mix)
10. modeselektor - silikon
11. coburn - give me your love
12. donna summer - i feel love
13. mish mash - speechless (king unique mix)
14. altern 8 - infiltrate 202

what are you looking at?

By www.yukoart.com 2003,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

www.yukoart.com

how we read now

another reading survey published in the guardian today. i do love these lists, even if they've taken only a small sample of readers. This one is particularly revealing, as it confirmed that men are not our main consumers of fiction, yet they dictate what we read (publishing world) and value in our books (literary awards).
I do have to take issue with some of Prof Jardine's points though. Our most influential literary editors are female - Erica Wagner at the Times, Claire Armistead & Annalena McAfee at the Guardian and Jane Mays and Susie Dowdall at the Daily Mail and the industry's most influential book buyer is Caroline Ridding at Tesco.
What I thought was interesting was the number of translated works in the top 20 - 5 altogether - remarkable considering that british schools and universities are notorious for ignoring foreign (non-english) texts in their literary curriculums. but then we do study English Literature. i'm going to survey my male friends now to see what they come up with.

In other news, Annabel has recommended this site to me - super cute! I've flickr'd Yuko's vision of American Life-era Madonna above.

minute of silence.

time for me to be serious for a moment.
john mcgahern, ireland's greatest novelist passed away last week. me, mum and aunt peggy went to hear him talk about his 'memoirs' on the South Bank last year and there was no sign then of just how ill he was. his publisher, faber have a tribute site up at the moment. try 'amongst women' and move on to the autobiography.

reading list

another article on the fascinating world and wardrobes of the glossies' underpaid fashion assistants, this time in the sunday telegraph's stella magazine. i'm just jealous, cos i really want to be interviewed for a piece on
publishing publicity assistants, the glamourous world of.

mag assassin:
1. what is up with elle magazine??? admittedly, i am a subscriber, but i obviously (and happily!) don't fit their skewed idea of a demographic. last month it was christina aguilera on the cover. this month it's p*ris hilton, who the interviewer quite patently loathes, but manages to hold her tongue just enough to extract a few 'outrageous!!' exclamations from the vacant-eyed valley girl.
2. the article by the sloaney girl transplanted to primrose hill to stalk indie boys was completely mystifying. she moonlights at club nme and the barfly when she's not sipping bellinis or eating chic cuisine at her chums' pads on the 'hill. i mean, girls only ever go to gigs or indie clubs (how 90s) to check out the boys, anyway, cos we're all listing to waily girl rock on our ipods right now - that or The Bridget Jones of Podcasting - whoppee!!!! ok.

'hormone rock' in the sunday times style magazine. a complete waste of paper. come on girls, you can do better than that! if i'm not mistaken, dido has been bothering us for about 5 years and as for Fiona Apple and Beth Orton... what?

and something actually worth reading: kira cochrane on feminist bloggers from last friday's guardian.

there goes my hero

planbkareno,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

check out the centre polaroid - karen o is reading and SMILing at the pamflet fashion piece in the last issue of plan b. cannot believe this. yesterday was best day ever - in terms of sunday times and karen o photo.

former tres tourist cover girl...

lida on hoxton in today's guardian...

'really rather terrifying...'

i could only be talking about the pamflet launch at 43 south molton last night, of course, which i have to say was the best yet... the excesses involved probably mean that we're going to have to hold our next launch in a 'roped off' section of the bar at after skool one saturday night and not a plush private members bar - snakebite anyone?

i didn't exactly get to do my speech either, which, let's be honest here, is probably for the best... i want bed or failing that, a spanish arch breakfast. mmm

thank your lucky stars...

for anyone who's ever moaned about the crapness of london fashion week, check out los angeles' contribution to the international fashion circuit. la fashion week, judging by reports from some US bloggers, is a deeply embarrassing affair and seemingly just another vehicle for miserable west coast slebs to whore their skinny asses for the paps. check out tara reid, paris, latoya jackson (!) et al on the front rows and reassure yourself with the words 'only in hollywood...'

show me your bones

show me your bones,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

didn't know how much i missed you baby/why did you have to go awaaay/oh yeah/never knew how much i loved you/now that you're back,please staaay/ohhh whoooaaa

- lovesong to karen ohbaby

Z from The Like

Z from The Like,
originally uploaded by lord nick.

la girl, london street: it's all good baybee.

hey you what's that sound?

when i visit the german sites on the internet they all have The Minimal Sounds... i'm going back to berlin this weekend! it is -9 there! let's all wrap up very very warm...and keep dancing.

i like the like

download their cutesome fanzine here.

hey, annie!

my annie mac interview has finally been posted on shejay, but it's been edited slightly oddly... main points are there though!

look, honestly, hold on

i don't care about the nme awards (below).
forget katie grand. (interviewed very nicely in ES this evening. KG is well good.)
all my being a celebrity stylist dreams have just come true.
click here.

honest guv, it was an accident

that i ended up watching the end of the nme awards tonight. remember kids: you're only as rock 'n' roll as your hair is messy, so get scruffing up those mops or no one's ever gonna want to talk to you.

hmmm
the winners: lauren laverne was the only lady 'nominated' for an award - in the respectable category of radio show, as it happens, but the only female winner was actually Madonna for Sexiest Female, which, let's face it, even the NME couldn't have let Pete Doherty or the Arctic Monkeys win. Um. I guess no one heard Madonna's album then, cos like, sexiest female? Uhhhhhh like, was that a really halfarsed attempt to get her to turn up? how embarrassing. continue reading.

the finale: yes the awards formally known as the brats are still pedalling the 'godlike genius' trophy, which might be relevant if your idea of god resembles a vacant-eyed, northern primate that wouldn't sound like it could sing if someone added an echo equivalent of the turnbine room at the tate modern to the noise emitted from its mouthhole. words cannot express the excruciatingness of that man. mine certainly can't. and how can the ipc marketing team think it's a good idea to put conor 'conman' mcnicholas on the small screen?? give me mariah carey any day.

what was i going to say? oh yeah - madonna: sexiest female. ian brown: godlike genius.

tokengirl has left the building.

look at them go!

great news on the pamflet front...
issues one & two will soon be on sale exclusively in tatty devine's two london branches.
publication date for issue three should be confirmed within a nailbiting next-few-days.

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ANNA!

last night saw some serious pink carpet posing when the lovelife crew found themselves just a designer dress away from the (H)ell(e) style awards at the Truman Brewery on London's trendy Brick Lane.

rolls royces (?) lined the cobbled street, pulled up alongside minicab drivers and stolen bicyclists.

here we are, forever tiptoeing around the action, eavsdropping on 'music sounds better with you', shivering in the damp chill of london's once cutting edge, now blunt east end. on the outside looking in but for how long?

I don't know what more to ask for/i was just given one wish

TIGA REPORT
COMING SOON

WATCH THIS SPACE

TONIGHTatTHEOLDBLUELAST

come out 2nite!

whatever hosted by hotelmotel at the old blue last

i'm on at 9.45 - dance me in baby!

a novice writes: My First Fashion Party

pamflet was out on the town last night, representing at London Fashion Week, our dear country's impoverised, slightly desperate but jolly good fun date in the fashion calendar.

the venue was sketch, the unturndownable location of choice for any self-respecting down with it london girl. sketch rules. it's beautiful. cant remember who the designers we were who we were meant to be celebrating, but that was the least of our worries. the invitations were circular wafers, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the holy body of our saviour/communion. great idea. we worship at fashion's altar, etc. one complaint: free booze lasted around 7 minutes, which meant one glass of wine each, but this is London Fashion Week after all...

ms brightside

last night i had a lovely pre-valentine's evening with kate and anna from shimura curves for HAPPY VIOLENTINE. there was indie. there was motown. there was stereolab. it was all very good. and they will be back, maybe next time as a four piece...

citizen girl

for the past 3 and a half years i have been trying to be/become a useful member of great britain's economy. having been fed the myth that a prestigious (puke) university education would improve my employment prospects i now find myself in the unenviable position of still owing more than i could even hope to earn in a year.
OH WOE IS ME!
woe is me for happening to enter high education within the 7 year window between the labour government introducing fees and loans and the reinstatement of a grant system.
woe is me for embarking upon a ridiculous course of (failed) academia installing in me a sense of entitlement so profound that i don't even believe having a sense of entitlement is my own fault, but somebody else's for putting it there.

so what could have brought on this brooding and unholy exposition?

the little white letter on the doormat this morning. not a fragrant red billet-doux, but a standard economy envelope. yes i was expecting it - after all, the same thing has happened at least twelve times in the past two years.

is it really such a bad thing to be so misfitting and unemployable that no business can slot you into their moneymaking enterprise? especially when you know they're hardly going to pay you anyway? which is at least half the point of working in the first place.

but i still have to face the fact again and again that i'm not the best person for the job and never will be. if anyone wants a freelance wotnot, you know where to come...

here kitty kitty kitty

i found out over the weekend that even chief diva and all-round inspiration MISS KITTIN, perfect that she is, occasionally suffers from the odd TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY. several of which have been documented on her new 'live' sesh from afternoon sonar 2005. i wasn't there for real, but i was at the event's 2003 counterpart, when kittin played an intense, revolutionary set, based on her radio caroline mix.

what makes her djing more than just record spinning is the vocals she adds to the records she plays, enhancing and reinterpreting everything from her own recordings to aphex twin's windowlicker... this is really bloody difficult, as she admits in the cd's sleevenotes, hence 'technical difficulties', but it makes her oh-so-special live when she gets it bang-on right as grazia would say.

PLAN B FEB/MAR ISSUE OUT NOW

...featuring fashion by Pamflet: here and here.

baa baa black sheep

i find myself this morning fighting the urge to run out of the office and down to oxford street to kit myself out in the HOT but cold outfit of the moment. That would be the black alice band, paul smith shades, classic trenchcoat, black tee and skinny trews that kate moss has been pictured wearing on her whirlwind london visit this week. have to force self NOT to be taken in by this 'casual crim chic'. for a start a black alice band would be rendered pointless in my darkish hair, a cotton trench ain't gonna keep me warm when the chaffeur's not waiting for me outside and the sun really isn't shining, so i'm not about to start crusing tubes with shades on.

I AM STRONG WOMAN. no kate-aping for me. maybe i get a white alice band?

does anyone believe this story??

i didn't think i'd live to see this day...

smash hits goes the same way as number one, just seventeen and, er, big!

HOT!!!!

check out the le tigre remix of 'standing in the way of control' RIGHT NOW. it's joyous.

THE NEW FEMINISM

say you were there - phoebe and i were...

so much to blog, so little time

jodie marsh could have been a lawyer. but settled for taking clothes off and blogging.

more-than rumours of madonna 2006 tour

hot hot hot new lovelife flyer by datassette: coming soon

what we'll all be reading this christmas

are you on my ravelength?

oh saturday nights. so far away by monday afternoon.

only 25 days til the next bugged out. come with me?

peaches roxx

Peaches' new album is out in March - I think - and here she is on the cover of the new ish of Bust to pre-publicise it. Why does it take Borders a fortnight to get copies?? Ok, because they have to 'ship' from the US, but I just don't have the patience!

lalalalala last night

oh isn't annabel just divine?
she played fiery furnaces, lcd, we are scientists, her faves clor, annie, jamie lidell, tomas andersson... nice things.

i'd like to formally apologise to the gentleman who turned up promptly at 7pm only to linger for half an hour before approaching the dj booth to ask anna1 and anna2, 'are you going to play any hip hop? on kiss fm today they said there'd be hip hop...'

problem child

i'm meant to be writing other things right now - anything except this i think.
i've been listening to boy george and the culture club's 'colour by numbers' every night this week to help me get to sleep. the problem is that it's on cassette and when it gets to the end of side one i have to get out of cosy bed to eject and turn it round. which means it's not helping me get to sleep, right?
'colour by numbers' is my earliest musical memory. listening to it now it's like 'hmm that's a bit simply red, it's a bit ub40' but it's so much more than that. there was that whole early 80s pre-SAW sound that took pop music very very seriously. the kind of groups who played instruments and made proper albums. boy george's CC was part of that movement.
i don't want to ignore my pop heritage.
not that anybody cares about my particular pop heritage, but we each have our own, i'd like to think. top of the pops on a thursday night. fisher price tape recorder. a dressing up box.
i remember clutching the tape box in my probably sticky little hand and bringing it to the counter in woolworths. i think it cost £3.99.
then there was the fancy dress party - the floppy straw hat with woolen plaits stiched on, the baggy black shirtcoat, the make-up. i was a girl who wanted to be a boy who wanted to be a girl. i loved it.
i went to the hanover grand for annette's birthday. why can't i remeber how old we were? teenage. boy george was djing there and i thought 'shall i? shan't i?'

until madonna came along there was really only one queen of pop for me.

PAMFLET MANIFESTO

Phoebe and I have written an alternative-style manifesto for G2. It's in the paper today. Check it!

pic of the year...

optimo,
originally uploaded by small town flirt.

if you can't see one below, try this...

photo of the year

last night was trying to think of something that would make my first morning back at work a little cheerier and searched out this photo from the TDK festival last August bank holiday. It's a pic of me, looking thrilled to finally meet Optimo legend Twitch. I spent 2 of the best hours of my life dancing to his set on the opening night of Benicassim a few weeks earlier and I told him that. Needlesstosay I think he was a bit scared of me and alex.

dawn of an era

new year's eve ended when i passed out in leopard print at 7 o'clock this morning - in my own bed, surprisingly. thanks to phoebe&nick and kt&jack&rich for providing the venues for an evening of thoroughly fun-filled celebration. it was scary to realise that we have NOW entered the late noughties, and we're all reaching our mid-twenties (some are already there) and what have we done? and are we running out of time? so that's what i was mainly talking about. i think. a lot. everyone had picked up their litre bottles of smirnoff which every supermarket was selling on special offer and we were popping cava and champagne at midnight and ran outside with laura's thoughtfully-remembered sparklers and shivered when it started to rain on us. phoebe was really bad and smoked a sneaky american cigarette. a couple of hours later me, richard&emma and jp were chauffered off in laura's fabulous wee car with fancy satnav to guide us thro the City streets. to k/j/r's place. it was messy.
good-natured spats were erupting around around the 'dj booth' which was a laptop perched on the dining table. i think. datassette played his 'stop the message' at least 4 times, due to popular demand. then anna-babe played from her mp3 player and we all danced and talked rubbish and hugged and fell around the floor and all loved each other very much. somehow me l&jp left to go to the dolphin on mare st where her bro was hosting a party but the bouncer wouldn't let us in. which was probably a good thing as far as i was concerned... drinking for 12 hours? hell. so i missed the family dinner this evening. getting out of bed didn't seem like a very good idea.

absent friends:
redmond - saving lives
natalie - cooking a delia roast for simon and herself
anet - bruised and drunk somewhere in the alps
kitty - playing safe somewhere in NW
bates - bournemouth bash