Day 123: party one.

Last night, after mustering some energy, I went to a leaving party for two friends from my last agency. They are a great couple, and are heading to Tanzania to volunteer in some helpful capacity for a few months, then will wander the globe for the rest of the year (as far as I could gather). Anyway, as I said they are both lovely people and attending was a must. By now I am pretty cool with parties, in a non-drinking sense. I am not bothered anymore by the initial slowness/hint of awkward that is the beginning of most parties. I am quite happy to ride it out over a ginger ale or bottled water and wait for everyone else to loosen up. As it was an agency party anyway, I knew just about everyone turning up (a few being arrogant advertising cockheads I have zero time for, but most being quality people I adore) so the awkwards were limited.It was a good event and there were lots of fun people to catch up with, and I didn't have any alcohol pangs except one flicker of thirst as my gaze fell momentarily on the cool line up of chilled green bottles in the beer fridge behind the bar. No biggie, moving on. Indeed, the party had the potential to have been quite a fun and raucous one, peopled as it was with so many pleasing folk. Only there was one person there who was not so pleasing. A male from my past whom I would be more than happy never to see in my life again. It wasn't so much that he ever behaved badly towards me, more that he was just a touch peculiar. It was a peculiarity that I first mistook for interestingness, but soon identified as weirdness. I'm all for people being cool and different, but this guy had qualities that were quietly alarming and made me want to put many miles between me and him. Seeing him in the same room was a shock that literally made my face and body contort, shiver and cringe all at once. After that I could relax so little that my only option was to leave. Once I'd hit the pavement and fresh air outside I felt happy and at one with the world again, safely able to slip away into the Friday night noisily crowding Oxford Street. And my good time with my old work mates wasn't sullied either, just cut a little short. But as I have another party to attend any minute now, an earlier night probably wasn't the worst idea in the world.