2001-05-28 - 11:36 p.m.

�I see you every day � you walk the same way�.weekender!�

First of all, unending thanks to the venerable Shlippy for giving me a bit of aesthetic respectability at last. You gotta love robots. Unless of course, they�re dangerous, evil automatons that are hellbent on destroying all humankind. 10 points to anyone who knew, by the way, that the word robot comes from the Czech for �forced labour�. Sigh, if only this kind of knowledge were more sexy. I�d be fighting them off with a concise dictionary of etymology, I tell you.

The only other Czech word I know is �pivo�, which is beer, coincidentally the same word in Polish. Great, though admittedly random at first, segue there, given that I partied with the Poles for the first time in a while again last night, along with all that that entails. It always starts innocently, if surreally. Among the more, um, eclectic guests were the blind psychologist who wants to be the next Brian Eno and a couple of Americans who were on shore leave as dancers on a cruise liner � her: walking Jerry Springer show, him: camp as knickers, and, for reasons best known to himself, wearing a bhindi. Anyway, the turning point is always the time when they crack open the Polish vodka, and in a show of international magnanimity, force you to down a huge glass. Ah, how we laugh as it rearranges the DNA of your mouth and oesophagus. Still, it would be rude not to, although come to think of it, I never see any of THEM actually drink any of it.

�Saved your life for a two day flirt�you pay the price �cos Monday sure does hurt��

Of course, after this, things often deteriorate fairly rapidly. Lots of really fucking linguistically laboured conversations that would be unbearable in your right mind but are suddenly the funniest thing in the world and lots of pharmacologically enhanced dancing and singing (they�re all big Motorhead fans, so it can get a bit, er, rowdy) and lying on each other. Which is fine as far as it goes. But then it�s up �til 5, nowhere to sleep, no cigarettes in the house, everyone getting edgy, no money for taxis, cold light of day, useless for the next 24 hours. Smashing.

�Weekender, whatever you do, just make sure what you�re doing makes you happy.�

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