Yesterday, I had to go on an intrepid journey to Virginia - a whole different state! - to get our computer fixed at the 'genius bar' of the nearest Apple Store. In fact, getting to Virginia just involved sitting on the metro for about four stops (with my bike! cool!), but it was a terrific adventure nevertheless. Virginia looks very different to DC. Erm, kind of.
Unfortunately it all turned out to be a massive waste of time, as not only did our computer behave itself like an errant child who no-one believes is a nightmare because they're always good in public, but the 'genius' actually managed to make things work and lose 80% of our iTunes library. I am only able to write this calmly having freaked out at length already. Gnaaah.
In the evening we met with another friend of the person who put us in touch with Alison. Hopes were high, as we'd hit it off so well with Alison, but unfortunately that law-of-averages thing that I thought would apply to Erik Love actually came into force on this evening. Jackie and David (both American) are management consultants. Jackie looks like Tina Fey and David wears tan suits and hangs out at Boujis when he's in London. They're both nice enough, but Jackie's just kind of hard work and hates DC, so is down on everything, while David seems just a bit to much of a sloaney networker.
In good news, we discovered another lovely roof terrace restaurant and had quite nice sushi with them during a gorgeous sunset. But we were a little relieved when the night was over and we could slope home to watch 'The West Wing'. I got the impression they probably were, too - I got little sense that they enjoyed our company and think they were happy to get home to watch the UK's Prime Minister's Questions, which they enjoy every week.
But the balance was reset today when I had lunch with a really nice lady called Cindy. She used to work for Tiger Aspect when they had an office in DC and the head of production in London gave me her details. We met in Georgetown and were quite the ladies who lunch. It was lovely, to cycle through the sunshine to my lunch date in Georgetown, and me and Cindy got on really really well.
Before Cindy arrived, I was wandering around the nice restaurant she'd chosen, accosting any sole female and asking if they were called Cindy, when a nice old couple befriended me. We got chatting and it turns out that he spent 20 years in London, living just round the corner from where my friends and goddaughter live in Eaton Place. When the lady heard I was from London, she asked if I knew some person, who runs a hedge fund there and again - as with my first trip to Georgetown - I worried I'd been woefully mistaken for someone way fancier than I am! Anyway, they left and the chap - Lanny Carew - gave me his card and asked me not to be a stranger. Turns out he was instrumental in setting up BBC America (still not quite sure what it is he does), so perhaps he'd be someone good for Max to meet.
Anyway, Cindy's really nice. She's head of production at National Geographic, is probably in her early 40s and has been married for two years (her second marriage) to a chap called Jim who's a personal trainer and actor. We got on really well and seem similarly frustrated with the way that reality TV is replacing all the good programmes and that working in TV doesn't really do much good to the world as a whole.
We chatted and chatted and chatted and then had a ladylike saunter around the shops of Georgetown, including Dean and Deluca, where I found puff pastry but it cost $10 (£5ish)! Cindy has created a sort of co-op of production managers here in DC and offered to circulate my CV around, so it'll be good if I get a bit of work out of that.
Before I headed out to Georgetown, we were visited early this morning by our downstairs neighbour, Giles, who was complaining (very nicely and friendly-ly) that water was coming down from our apartment into his and that he was getting a bubble in his ceiling. We worked out that the water was coming from our bathroom and immediately called the management company to get a plumber over. He promptly discovered that there was so much water leaking behind our shower that the whole wall was rotted through.
The point of telling you this is sharing the utter relief that Max and I felt on realising it's not our problem. We've only been homeowners in London for a year, but are already exhausted by all the stuff you have to do when the property is your responsibility. So to be here and renting and able to just get a management company to sort things out is bliss.
This evening, we finally managed to have dinner with Geoff and Sarah, having made plans two or three times before but had them cancel. It was really nice to see them again, as they're kind of our original fun DC friends. But the whole evening turned out to be really stunted and difficult and - dare I say it - kind of boring! It was a real shocker - we seem to get on much better when drunk and bantering in a bar full of people, than when sitting round a table talking. It was a little painful and I began to worry that they probably think we're awfully dull, until I realised that actually it was them who were being weird and boring.
Maybe they were tired, or dying for a cigarette or something. But I'm relieved that we've made other friends here besides them. It doesn't look like we'll be going to the basketball game or getting the TeVo that Geoff promised when we first met on that fun night in the 18th St Lounge. Ah well.
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