How could I forget?!
I managed to omit from my Christmas goings-on list what was possibly the most action-packed day of them all!
It was Wednesday 28th December, I think, and my plans were threefold:
- Visit Saleem and Aunty Hosana
- Go to the theatre
- End up at Jenn’s house party
So, I woke up at the family home in Radlett, and ended up getting a lift to the train station from Amandhi. Dad was meant to take me, as he was headed into London anyway, but he threw a grump. As usual, really.
Aunty Hosana
Got to Kensal Rise station, eventually, and headed to Aunty’s house.
Now, she’s not my real Aunty, but earns the sobriquet through being a very close family friend. She was the local GP when I was growing up, and her home-cum-practice was, literally, over the road from my childhood home. She’s simply ‘Aunty’ to my whole family, and several other families too. She was very much like a mother to me when I was young.
Her son, Saleem, was (and still is!) only a few years older than me, and Aunty used to walk us to school in the morning. This is when I was about six years old. Saleem and I were good friends back then, and I got to play on all his cool toys, e.g. He-Man figures, loads of Lego, and home computers ranging from a Sega Master System to an Amstrad CPC 464 to an Amiga.
Those were great days - whole weekends spent setting up Lego assault courses that would propel a marble from one end of the room to the others, using elaborate schemes straight out of the Heath Robinson handbook; days when I’d get in trouble for being home REALLY late having spent hours trying to complete R-Type or Silkworm or something.
We moved to Hertfordshire when I was ten, I changed school, and we drifted apart. Going to university nailed the coffin further shut, to the extent that I’ve now seen Saleem about twice in the last three years. Rubbish, I know. I even managed to miss his 30th birthday, which is inexcusable.
Anyway, given that I’d be spending much longer than usual in/around London town, I thought I’d try to pay them a visit. I spoke to Aunty Hosana on the phone, and said that I’d be coming round…unfortunately, she didn’t convey the message to Saleem.
So, when I turned up, the door was opened by Joe, someone I didn’t know, who was visiting Aunty. Saleem wasn’t in, so I spent a couple of hours chatting away with the other two. He did pop by with his girlfriend, but they were committed to doing other stuff.
It’s awful the way age catches up with people. Aunty Hosana was no longer the wise and sharp-witted woman I remembered, but someone who interspersed insightful conversation with doddery reminiscenses and general confusion. So sad. It brought me close to tears, really.
After a couple of hours, I headed to the Kensal Green tube and on to the West End…
The Woman In Black
Got to Covent Garden and found that I had some time to kill before meeting people for the play that we were going to see.
It was to be The Woman In Black, at the Fortune Theatre. Through the wonders of lastminute.com, I’d gotten tickets for a tenner, and was treating mum, Amandhi and Ann (another family friend). Katie and Dan, friends from MUGSS both, were also joining us.
People turned up and the play was watched. It was excellent - a real Victorian horror story acted out superbly by a cast of three…or was it two? Probably best to let the young people of Essex describe it.
Afterwards, we went to a suitable pub for a few drinks - can’t remember the name, but it served suitably real ale, at suitably real prices. And had a real fire!
And then the party split up - mum and Amandhi to get a lift home with dad, Katie and Dan to get the tube home in one direction, and the rest of us (Rangika, Ann’s son, had joined us after the play) on the Northern line.
Jenn’s House Party
Ann and Rangi got off at Finsbury Park, while I continued to Manor House…I think. Followed Jenn’s directions to her place, pausing only to phone Dr.Liz, who was bored.
Got to the house eventually, having been well and truly flummoxed by the house numbering on Jenn’s road - it was one of those that, rather than having odd on one side and even on the other, seemed to go down one side then continue down the other side of the road. Odd.
Walked down the garden path, to be challenged by two girls. “Are you Sri Lankan?” asked they. This surprised me somewhat, but it turns out that Jenn had briefed them that a friend of hers was turning up.
It was a pretty cool party, full of lots of people I didn’t know. Spent quite a bit of time chatting to Lucy and Emma(?), two girls who’d gone to my school…well, our sister girls’ school. They were three years below me, but we still managed to find some common acquaintances and shared anecdotes! Lucy was rather cute, too, so it was definitely a pity that they had to leave early 
Unfortunately, I missed out on the spacehopper races - now that would have been cool!
Bedtime came, and I was very glad of my pre-booked space on Jenn’s floor - there were bodies everywhere. I snuggled down beside her bed, and enjoyed a fairly good night’s kip…only being interrupted by Jenn getting up to head to work, and then by two people crawling into Jenn’s bed. They made quite a good effort at not waking the sleeping drunk…but being drunk themselves, it didn’t work! I really cannot remember what their names were…Simon and Fiona? I don’t know!
Picture a bed. Now picture a sleeping Mahinda, wrapped up in a sleeping bag on the floor right beside said bed. Now picture a girl stepping across the sleeping Mahinda and getting into the bed. Now imagine that you’re the sleeping Mahinda, and you then hear the girl’s voice coming from pretty much a foot above you, saying “Euuugh, I think I might be sick.”
Not pleasant. Just imagine my fear, that I was about to be spewed upon.
Anyway, eventually got up and was taken care of magnificently by Jenn’s housemates and friends, before meandering out of the house towards Finsbury Park station.
Ended up going over to Amandhi’s flat (in West Kensington) to try and sort out her bike, before eventually heading up to Camden for the next round of drinking activities. But that’s another story.
