2001-02-18 - 21:46:40

�Angel, don�t take those sleeping pills, you don�t need them��

SO getting over a particularly brutal couple of days of ego-bashing involved an early start in the pub yesterday, the first time in ages that I�ve begun drinking with the aim of getting rat-faced firmly in my head. Drinking heavily is such a reassuringly straightforward affair, a well trodden path from A to B accompanied by bar snacks and increasingly energetic conversation. Returning to my friend�s house, though, we stumble upon a small party involving random members of a travelling Polish theatre group, and being the sociable types we are, it seemed jolly rude not to join in, meaning an honest day�s alcohol abuse turned into a night of buttock-clenchingly health threatening excess. The cheap Mitsubishi pills they can lay their hands on are becoming a worryingly frequent addition to the nights� proceedings.

Cue two hours inane grinning and inappropriate physical proximity.

�I�m a water sign, you�re an air sign, gone gone to Valium, can you get me some?�

The morning after, and I�m sat drinking coffee with one of the more dour Poles, who�s grasp of English is certainly more tenuous than it had seemed the night before. I asked him how he was. �Alcohol�drugs�.life�� he murmured. And whilst it was a fair summation of the situation, I suddenly realised that he could only talk in jumbled, depressing aphorisms. Later, he came up with, �Third world war�computer war�� which I thought was a bit much since we were only walking down to the shops for some tea bags. I flailed for a response, but had to agree.

Today I�ve been feeling really great, as you can imagine.

�With sweet FA to do today, sweet FA to do today��

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