Fun and frolics by the river

This weekend I have spent a lot of time by the river (when I say weekend, I mean thursday - tuesday). I never realised how river-centric London is. But yes, it is, and yes, I spent a lot of time in close proximity to the old Thames.

Last wednesday was my brother's graduation. It was really nice to see where he's been at uni for the last three years (I am a bad sister and haven't ever visited). I felt really proud of him, he's worked hard and deserves his degree - and the place on his Masters course. He's going to have his own office, how cool is that. I don't even have my own office at my work (though I do have a jemima puddleduck toy and a cactus, so you know, I'm kind of a winner too). The whole family - well, immediate family - was there and we wandered about the campus, went to the CS department drinks, then went out for dinner. It was a really nice day.

On thursday morning C arrived! I hadn't seen him since 1998. He hadn't changed, except he was more grown up (of course!) and it was nicer as we didn't fight like we used to when we were 10 (again, of course). I have known C for all my life, as our families have known each other for 3 generations. He's Parisian and a year older than me, and we used to see each other twice a year - when he would come to stay at ours, and when I would go to France. My parents went to stay with them last summer and we realised how stupid it was that C and I haven't kept in touch. So he came to stay, and it was really cool! I picked him up from Waterloo and we went back to mine and talked the hind legs of several donkeys. In the evening J arrived and we immediately went off to meet #1 at the pub... My god I was so nervous. I am such a nervous wreck sometimes. I think I usually hide it quite well, but I am a lot happier when I don't need to organise stuff (social stuff, not work type stuff - I have no problem with that) and I can just go along with whatever is happening. That sounds really lame, but I just fret too much otherwise. Especially when it's something as potentially scary as J and #1 meeting for the first time!

Anyway, thursday was nice, just went to the Commercial, had dinner and then went back to the Comm. On friday we got up quite late to witness what seemed like a monsoon. I didn't think it would ever stop, but it did, so we went off into town to go to the Tate Modern and to Borough Market. On saturday we went to Soho, Chinatown etc, and then went to see the Transformers movie! It was good, but incredibly cheesy. I didn't really remember all that much about Transformers from when I was a kid, but it's not that hard to get to grips with. Afterwards we drank wine at the Ritzy Bar and J made origami birds out of tiny bits of paper. J is just too lovely. He's made me an origami panda. Sunday was spent first of all having a proper full english breakfast, and then at the Antony Gormley exhibition, then yet more wandering by the river. Antony Gormley was really good actually - I'd heard so many good things about it, and obviously seen the (quite scary) figures all over Waterloo. D had tried to explain the main exhibit (Blind Light) to me, but words can't really do it justice, as it's a bit like being in another world, like how it would be in the afterlife if your life was quite a cliched film. That doesn't do it justice either. Just go and see it. On monday J had to go home, because he hadn't taken a week off work like I had! C and I went to the Design Museum, and then met M for lunch. She's just been to Paris and ate snails, which completely defeated C's argument that french people didn't eat snails and frogs legs all the time. Today we took a boat to Greenwich, and the coolest thing happened - we had stopped at Tower Bridge, and a really old boat pulled out into the middle of the water. Our boat then followed, and as we were in the middle of the river, Tower Bridge opened, and the old boat sailed through - it was amazing! In all the time I've been in London, I've never seen it open, and then to see it from the middle of the river was just so cool. We spent the afternoon in Greenwich, the Docklands and Covent Garden, before C got the eurostar back to Paris, I came home and now I feel quite lonely.

This is a really crap entry. I rubbed onion in my eyes. I got bleach all over my feet accidentally so the skin will probably all fall off again. I miss J. I wish I didn't have to write my dissertation, especially as I have huge library fines AGAIN. Must remember to return books. Tomorrow I have to go back to work and JOY OF JOYS I have training all day, what a welcome.

I'm really really happy actually, despite all of that. J is just so great, he makes me very very happy. Even when I'm sad, if that makes sense.

I really need to go and wash my eyes. I don't want conjunctivitis AGAIN.