Sitting in the pub on Friday night - yes I know not much of a surprise. This is after of course I went to another pub with my work colleagues for a cheeky pint. I realise also that I need to go to a bar in Soho / Covent Garden area which is famous for it's Latin music. I look at my phone wanting to see the time and suddenly out of nowhere there is a child of about 8-9 standing right next to me.

It's a little chubby girl with a scarf wrapped high around her neck and her mouth struggling not to suffocate within it's woolen pink interior. I take a double take and wonder why the kid is here in a pub and secondly what the hell does she want from me.

'Scuz me, can you sponsor me.'

Now I'm about to dig for change asking her - 'Oh okay, what's it for.'

'Charity mista!'

'What Charity....' I scan the piece of paper she has outstretched to me and see name's of people and the amount of their donations. But the paper is bad quality photocopy and I cant even make out what charity, actually most of the writing is blurred. My hands stops.

'I don't think so... maybe you should photocopy a new piece of paper though.'

The girl doesn't flinch and walks onto the next table who cough up a few quid.

There are so many scams going on in London these days, you need to keep on your toes and read between the lines, so to speak. Seriously what parents says to a child to go down to the pub and get signatures at 9:30pm and ask for money. Probably the type of parent who says to the kid after saying that - 'When you get the money, buy me a carton of fags and get the milk!'

I hadn't caught up with Som for a few weeks. Supposedly I was to go to this farewell in Covent Garden, but I didn't get there. We sat around the pub drinking Guiness and Lager while playing board games. Chess, Checkers, Connect 4, Snakes and Ladders, but by far the one that we had the most fun with was Jenga! Building that stack of wood and then making an obscenely twisted tower of wood rafters while not knocking it across the table made my night. Som loves to make things top heavy I found out.
We retired onto a game of dink at the end of the night and my bottle top flew over his head and landed in a gentlemens beer on the table behind him. The poor guy was a little shocked as I went up to the bar and bought a new beer for him.... he then joined us for a game.

My weekend was very much a state of chores, washing and cleaning of which I didn't mind and of course having residents of Number 4 dragging me to their flat for a night of Guitar Hero and Vodka. Guitar Hero is toooooo much fun... I can see even my oldies getting into the game. Strumming notes on a plastic guitar while rocking out to Black Sabbath like an Ozzy groupie was too good not to miss when I was invited.

Apparently I'm the single man on the block and a few of the neighbours want to get me drunk.... There was one night at Lou's farewell (hope you are having fun back in Canberra mate) I found myself in an awkward place. I was ascotted back to one of the flat's to 'get some more mixer' and once arrived I was sat down on the sofa and set upon by lashings of tongue which I was forced to reject with quite a bit of upper body strength. The green light appeared when she said 'You want to play rough eh.... well I'll be right back to wrestle.' I nicked out the back door, jumped over the brick seperations of our back decks to return to the party. I've learnt to leave a number of the flats a little earlier due to infamous ascotting's happening.

Sam dropped around on Saturday to watch Russell Peters and catch up, which is always a pleasure entertain. When you ask Sam to 'Make yourself at home' he certainly does, to the point of leaving the toilet door open while he's pissing. Maria and Sam were introduced on a very long P Flat.

This morning I arrived into work with a sore throat, migraine and tooth ache.. but I realised I haven't updated with a day in the life for a while so here it is!! :)

Mental notes for all - if you can't think of a good Christmas present for someone;

Stand up comedian Russell Peters on DVD - Outsourced
Great documentary about wheelchair rugby - Murderball
The new Scissor Sisters album, followed up with the new Killers album
1 Game of Jenga + 1 Bottle of Whiskey = Suicide Jenga!
Guitar Hero for the PS2

Hope y'all well!

xo