Settling into Portsmouth

Monday day I worked, was pretty quiet but chatted away to the regulars and got some chores done. My favourite regulars are Taf, an old Welshman who tucks into at least eight pints in a session, and loves telling me the same story about going to Sydney and something about a taxi, his aunt in a straw hat and a friend who turns out to be someone else....I think. Then there's Ivy, this tiny little old lady who is adorable and always comes in for a large house white and reads the newspaper for a good three hours. Then there's Chris who is so friendly, and tells the most interesting stories about his childhood. He told me one about the horrible things that happen in Catholic boys schools, particularly military schools which is where his dad sent him. Told me about getting the cane numerous times for the most petty reasons, for example not using the very bottom line on a piece of lined paper when writing an essay. You can't ever imagine that sort of thing happening in schools now but he said I'd be surprised by some of the older Catholic schools in the UK that keep very clammed up about what goes on.

Monday night Jimmy and I met up with Sarg, Sam G, Robyn, Kerri, Nick and Vinnie at one of the pubs on Albert Street and then headed into Guild Hall to Yates's. Had a few drinks, Vinnie had half a bag of chips in his beer before Sarg's beer was poured into the chip packed from which he then drank the rest. We then headed down to a new club that Mal, Jimmy's to be housemate and boss at Yates's had just opened called the Lyberry where standard antics continued including nudity, mainly Sarg and a lot of pinching, biting and headlocks. I think Jimmy even drew blood on Sarg's shoulder. Special bunch. As usual Jimmy did a Houdini act and disappeared, I ended up with the impossible task of walking Sarg back the staff house. He seemed to be taking one step forward and two steps back so I tried to turn him around so he'd cover more ground walking backwards towards the house but it unfortunately didn't work. Took about half an hour in the end instead of five minutes...so not TOO bad. Slept my first night in the staff house, I hadn't moved in yet so Robyn and I shared. Didn't get to bed until about four as everyone was running around doing all sorts of silly things but apart from the realisation that I wouldn't get much sleep living in the house I was looking forward to moving in.

Fell into the routine pretty easily, mainly the going to bed in early hours and never waking up before ten thirty. On days off at the moment I literally catch up on sleep and relax on the couch, its easy when it's just Jimmy and I or just myself when he's at work, I suspect things will change once I'm living with eight people, not two!