UP, UP & AWAY

PERSON I'VE SEEN MOST THIS WEEK: the UPS man who makes nearly daily deliveries to our flat with presents for Max.

Most of today was spent creating a magnificent guide to Montauk for Max's exciting secret birthday weekend. All the guidebooks seem to stop at East Hampton in their descriptions of Long Island, so I spent hours collating information from websites about nice places to go and things to eat and writing it up into a nice bound book (kind of).

The coolest thing I found out is that Andy Warhol had an estate in Montauk (now on sale for $50million) and many extremely cool people hung out there, among the most frequent visitors were the Stones. In fact the Memory Motel from the Stones song is in Montauk. But the song isn't about a Montaukian lady who bewitched Mick, but rather Annie Liebowitz, apparently.

Montauk was designed to be the Miami Beach of the northeast when Carl G. Fisher bought it in 1926 (how do you buy a town?) and built Montauk Manor - where we're staying. But then the Depression happened and Fisher's vision wasn't realised so it's now the poor relation to the Hamptons, which you have to drive through to get there, right at the tip of Long Island.

The most frightening thing I discovered in my guidebook compilation is that there's a Sinister Government Compound in one of the many state parks there - Camp Hero. First, I have to explain that Max and I have a thing about Sinister Government Compounds. Whenever we come across a weird an incongruous building or structure - like on a deserted mountain road in Greece or whatever - we always say it's a Sinister Government Compound (occasionally abbreviated to SGC if we're going for brevity, but not very often).

Anyway, Camp Hero absolutely is an actual SGC!! After it was decommissioned as a military fort where lots of radar technology was pioneered, it became the base for the Montauk Project - a series of secret government projects developing powerful psychological warfare weaponry that could 'drive an enemy insane, inducing the symptoms of psychotic disorders and schizophrenia at the touch of a button'.

Legend has it that Congress refused to approve the project, so the researchers approached the DoD, who agreed to fund it in top secret, using Nazi gold! And then the internet crazies start going on about time travel and time portals, but that's just silly.

With the guide, in all its technicolor glory, completed, I dashed off for an all-important leg wax, which was easily the worst of my life (the lady spread the wax UP my leg! I think her mind had been fried at Camp Hero), then went to meet Maxy for his voyage of mystery and wonder.

As proud as I was of my bespoke Montauk guidebook, it turns out that Max has had a slightly more impressive day - 230,000 people and counting have read his piece about who is able to tell Hillary to throw in the towel. Hmm, well done.

Max did very well on our ride to the airport to be excitedly curious about where I could possibly be taking him, despite the fact that I gave him a collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories last week by way of preparation, he suggested Montauk in the first place and he booked our flights to La Guardia (the BBC has a great deal with US Airways, whereby tickets are 100% flexible, so if you miss the flight you're booked on, you can just get the next one).

All went very well at the airport, despite us arriving only 30mins before departure (I managed to stay uncharacteristically zen on the way there, despite everything taking ages, safe in the knowledge of the BBC deal). We didn't even really need our passports, because internal flights are just like buses, according to Max.

Unfortunately the smooth streak of luck ended when we went through security. Standing in the queue, I never connected the clear bags of mini bottles of shower gel and stuff being presented by people with the socking great bottle of champagne I had in my handbag.

Unfortunately the security man did and ripped the bottle out of my bag. I tried for a while to insist that there surely wasn't a problem as long as it was all sealed up (I'm a logistical genius!) and ask whether a flight attendant could look after it for me until we got to New York, but the jig was up and I grumpily had to wish the security men a fun night on my special birthday champagne and slope off to the gate, with one of Max's surprises spoiled and no champagne to drink on arrival.

Just as I had to stay zen about running really late for the flight, I had to suppress the grump/sadness that would usually set in in this situation and be fun Birthday Monitor for Max. I had the opportunity to wallow when Max nipped into a shop, but then a man walked past and complimented me on my new 'Little Lebowski Urban Achiever' t-shirt, which cheered me up.

The flight of dreams, which didn't cost much, didn't require a passport and to which we could rock up really late, ended up being delayed by 30mins and we had to sit on the runway. But we watched 'Pushing Daisies' on Max's iPod, so it wasn't too much of a hassle and we were soon at LaGuardia, riding a shuttle bus to the car hire place.

Max enjoys navigating whenever we drive anywhere - he loves the maps - but I got a car with satnav this time, so Max wouldn't find out where we were going, and so that he could enjoy the ride. I also presented him with his first present to open - an iTrip, which lets you play your iPod through your radio. This is something he's been quite obsessed with for a while and all champagne contraband was forgotten as a robot (we named her Polly) guided us out of the airport and Max got excited about his iTrip. Technology is great.

It turns out that the good citizens of upstate New York don't need sustenance on their roadtrips as we couldn't find one service station to eat at on the 3 hour drive to Montauk. It became something of a desperate mission - we even dived off the road at one point, following a sign promising knives and forks, but got totally lost and nearly melted the satnav as it constantly had to recalculate our route. Tell you what, though - satnav is incredible. I'd never driven with it before, but can safely say now that Max and his maps are obsolete - it's me and Polly all the way.

Finally, at about 11.30pm, we saw an oasis of neon in the darkness and were never so happy to see a diner that probably made omelettes with eggs from a carton. We ate and ate and ate and then hit the road again, me trying to distract Max from the enormous signs directing us to Montauk and then, as we drove through the Hamptons, trying to pretend that there might be something other than Montauk beyond them. Long Island is long and thin, so this was woefully unlikely.

Maxy was very excited as we entered Montauk and we finally managed to find Montauk Manor, despite Polly saying we'd arrived when we were in the middle of a deserted road. It was gone midnight and it was a little eery to walk through the dark, stone lobby of this big faux-Tudor manor house, where a random man was sifting through bits of paper at a random desk. The night receptionist (different from sifting man) was a gruff fellow of few words who looked a little like a fisherman and, I suspect, shared many mental qualities with Jack Torrance from 'The Shining'.

For all the grandeur of the hotel, our room looks a little like a chalet from 'Hi-de-Hi!' - kind of outdated and basic. But the layout is really cool. There's a kitchenette and sitting room on the ground floor, then a mezzanine level across half of the room, with a bed platform and little bathroom. So there's a ceiling across the kitchenette, but then the sitting room's ceiling is basically double height and there's a huge floor-to-ceiling window, which will flood the place with light in the daytime. Unfortunately said window has no curtains, so I suspect we'll be seeing said daylight sooner rather than later...

RADIO SILENCE

Sorry I haven't been sharing my adventures of late and thank you to those who have clamoured for more blog action.

The lull has been due to having work to do for the company I was working for in London and therefore...
a) not actually *having* any adventures
b) being busier than usual
c) getting really mizzy/blue and not feeling up to blogging

In good news, all these reasons have gone away, so I will soon be able to blog again. I say soon because I'm about to dash out of the door to whisk Max away here on a surprise weekend o' birthday fun, for his 30th. Ssshhh, don't tell.

But next week, I'll fill you in on all my tales and encounters, including three new friends, a weekend in New York, my rad new wheels, Def Leppard on 'Dancing With The Stars', Cuba Gooding Jr's chauffeur, Flight of the Conchords, Max leaving his shoes in a taxi, my burgeoning softball career and 'The West Wing'.

Have a great weekend! xx

LADY OF LEISURE

MOST ABSURD SOURCE OF EXCITEMENT THIS WEEK: my gym locker - it opens just like ones at high schools in movies

This is the life! Now all my work is out of the way and we've made some excellent new friends, I'm much happier and relishing my freedom more than before I was stuck in the house all day, hitting my head against the wall trying to get work done.

Monday was particularly exciting, as Patrick got in touch about softball, properly inviting me to join his team every Tuesday (which is especially handy, as that's the night Maxy often works late, covering the primaries). On closer inspection, it would appear that softball is nothing like rounders - they wear gloves, for a start - but fortunately last night's game was cancelled due to a soggy pitch from Monday's torrential rain. Bunch of lame-os, wearing gloves to catch a hard ball (cricket, anyone?!) and cancelling at the tiniest drop of rain - if British sport stopped for a bit of rain, we'd never get anywhere! Oh... Still, I'm really excited about playing in the shadow of the Washington monument and look forward to next week, by which time I should be up to speed on the rules.

Buoyed by my burgeoning softball career, I decided to look into playing tennis here, too and found this website which puts people in touch with tennis players of similar ability to them in the DC area. I've already contacted and heard back from about four people and lined up a couple of games, so am really looking forward to that. No gloves required there, and potentially some more new friends - woo!

This sporting frenzy went to my head and I had great plans to go to boxing class on Monday night, but never quite made it. I did however go to pilates on Wednesday, but it was a really rubbish class, so I won't be going again. I need to find me a good one to go to, especially with all this eating out we're doing. Bleurgh.

Alison invited me to drinks with 'the girls' tomorrow night, which is lovely, but Max and I will be on our way to his birthday surprise, so I can't make it. When I suggested meeting up next weekend, she explained that she's off to a beach house in North Carolina as it's a bank holiday weekend. I jokingly said, 'take us with you!', just by way of saying it'll be sad not to see her for two weeks, but she took me seriously and invited us! It would be pretty cool. But it would also involve Max taking a second Friday in a row off work and we're trying to save up his holiday for a mammoth roadtrip at the end of our stay, so we're staying here for the bank holiday weekend. But it was so nice of Alison to offer.

I love having the days back to myself again and yesterday I got to spend the morning with Maxy, as he was covering the primaries last night so didn't go into the office until later. It was a gorgeous day, so we went on a tour around DC on a topless bus. Unfortunately we had a nightmare finding the spot where the buses leave from (how do hapless tourists manage it?! We finally found the bus stop, which was in a multi-storey car park...) and then the tour itself ended up being something of a bust. It was really boring and the tour was conducted by a recorded guide, so we kept missing things as it was out of sync with the progress of the bus. So that's one thing Philadelphia has over DC - its bus tours are better.

But we saw Embassy Row, which was pretty cool - it's just a huge long road lined with embassies, many of which look like buildings from their own country, which is funny. The Mexican one looks a lot like a hacienda and the Swedish one is all cool and angular. We also saw the FBI, Arlington Cemetery and the cathedral, which was beautiful and very European.

I've had a lovely day today, just pootling about on my bike and running errands. I made yet another friend today, while in line at the metro. Well, I wouldn't call him a friend because I don't imagine I'll see him again, but he was a very friendly middle-aged man who gave me his card and invited Max and me out to the suburbs, if we ever wanted to see that side of DC life, so that was nice. (although, written like that, looks a little like an invitation to a swingers' circle...)

Tonight Max and I discovered an awesome roof terrace restaurant just down the road, with the floating chandeliers I was so fond of at the 18th St Lounge when we first got here. I chose to leave my bag at home, figuring that Max had keys and a wallet, but this unfortunately meant that I had no ID on me, so wasn't allowed to drink. They're hilariously hardcore about IDing everyone here. But it's not that hilarious.

While I was waiting for Max to arrive, I was watching a tango lesson going on inside, which looked great. A lady waiting for her dance partner told me that there are lots of places like that dotted around DC, which will have a dance class in the early evening, then for the rest of the night it becomes a club that plays that particular type of music, so you can try out your new moves. Sounds cool.

Hey, and Max was hero of the hour at work today, though frustratingly no-one seems inclined to acknowledge this. At 1pm, Obama's press office told them that they would be announcing a 'major endorsement' at 7pm tonight. Max checked his most reliable blogs (erm, not this one) and found one with a picture of John Edwards and the cryptic strapline, 'ready to choose?'. So Max announced that he reckoned the endorsement would come from Edwards, which gave everyone time to prepare footage and quotes and stuff so that when indeed it was Edwards they announced at 7pm, the BBC had had about 6 hours lead time on the story, courtesy of Max! Clever man. I just wish there was a little more back-slapping in News, so Max could feel appreciated.

Still, no fear of him feeling unappreciated tomorrow - we're off on his birthday surprise extravaganza! Woo!

A FRIEND INDEED

MOST EXCITING DISCOVERY OF THE DAY: Obama's campaign manager goes to the same church as me!

Today finished off a great weekend / four days of making new friends and feeling like we have a real life here.

I went back to the 'she' church (which Alison assures me is a gay church, being - as it is - in the heart of the 'gaybourhood', as she puts it), where people were appealing for helpers with the creche and children's groups when term starts again in the autumn, so I reckon I might sign up.

Max met me aftewards and we got brunch at quite a grody place down the road, realising that what we'd thought were typical American breakfasts only actually happen in New York. Same with authentic diners. Boo.

Afterwards, we headed home to watch an episode of the West Wing, as the weather was rotten. However, as ever, one episode turned into three and before we knew it, we'd finished season 1 (within a week!), Bartlett had been shot at and we were left on this massive cliffhanger of not knowing who was hurt.

Because we're renting our DVDs via NetFlix on the internet and are getting discs mailed to us, we calculated that, by the time we'd returned the disc we'd just watched and they'd dispatched the first disc of season 2 to us, it'd be Thursday. This was unacceptable. We needed our fix. We were desperate.

So, with all the shame of a crack addict, we scuttled over to Anne's flat down the hall to take her up on what I'm quite sure was a hypothetical offer of borrowing her copy of season 2. Again, we needed our fix.

Anne looked really worried as she opened the door and saw us standing there sheepishly - as if something terrible had happened - but when we explained what we were embarrassingly asking for, she burst into fits of laughter and invited us in.

Within a minute, we each had a glass of red wine in our hand (it was 3pm) and were sitting on Anne's sofa, chatting away. She is just so nice. She was telling us all about her and Hugh (including how they split up last year then went to therapy and are now back together, which made Max and I squirm in our British but-we-only-just-know-you-ness) and about how her cousin/roommate Megan was at a Radiohead concert this evening (which we could've guessed, as we were woken this morning with Stompy-like noise coming from her room behind our bed, and Radiohead music blaring out).

Part of Anne's finals for which she is preparing involves building a website with two classmates. They decided to make a cookery website specialising in tactile food and Anne was busy making some special cookies to accompany their presentation tomorrow. So we helped out by unwrapping lots of Reese's peanut butter cups, while chatting away. The photos on the website are great and it turns out Anne took them with a special macro lens on her camera, so I'm really hoping she can be my photography Yoda and teach me the ways.

It was absolutely pouring it down outside, so it felt lovely to have nothing to do all afternoon but sit in our new friend's flat, drinking wine and shooting the breeze (with one eye at all times on the next West Wing boxset...).

A little later, Anne's classmates arrived and they both seemed really nice, too. One reminded me of a mix between Juno and my friend Kate and she blew my mind with talk of felt tip pens especially designed for drawing on food. Cooooool. She also drew our attention to her recipe for candy sushi on the website.

As I was helping Anne out in the kitchen and we were just chatting away, she suddenly gave me a massive hug and said how nice it was to meet Max and me and how it really felt like we could be proper friends, rather than people who pass the time together or just wave to each other in the hall. I feel the same - it's really nice and we're so lucky. I didn't really think we'd meet people like this here.

We left them to it as they debated whether they had time to include the Eat Yer Face jelly mould in their presentation and scuttled back to ward off the torrential rain with some more sweet sweet West Wing crack.

DC DINNER PARTY

MOST EXCITING DISCOVERY OF THE DAY: if Obama wins the national election, some of Alison's friends are likely to be in the Administration. Woo!

We went to our first DC dinner party today. After a morning of 'West Wing', followed by an afternoon of work for both Maxy and me, I had a second go at making brownies (in an ingenious foil tray, which you use to cook the brownies in and which comes with a plastic lid, so you can also transport them in the same tray. Ingenious!) and we headed out to the treacherous South East of DC to have supper at Alison's house.

As I've mentioned, the majority of white people just operate in the west of Washington, as it is said that the whole of the East is rough and ghetto-y and sure enough, there has been quite a lot on the news lately about a spate of shootings in the North East of the city.

So in my head, it has become this forbidden land that only the bravest people go to and I imagined it'd look wholly different to the Washington I've come to know. Perhaps a little more like the Fire Swamp from 'The Princess Bride'. Alison had brushed off the danger levels when we talked about it on Thursday, but she also talked about living in Durban and not leaving her handbag in sight in her car, due to the certainty that someone would smash a window and nick it while she was at traffic lights, so she's obviously used to living in the Danger Zone. Max and I are most intrepid.

As it happens - and as you may've guessed - the bit of the SE that we went to was very nice, thank you. It was all very similar to the bits we know - coffee shops, wide streets, lots of trees... And the Capitol building, which is the centre of the city, so forms the divide between West and East.

Alison lives in a beautiful apartment over two floors in a really pretty house in such a pretty neighbourhood that it almost looks like something out of 'Pleasantville'. We imagine lots of congressmen live there. And there's also a big, Spitalfields-esque flea market there which we must go back to when it's open.

It was really nice to see Alison again. She'd spent all day working at a vineyard in Virginia, to help a friend out, but by the time we got to her house, there was an enormous loin of pork cooking on the barbecue (/'grill') outside and the most delicious looking chocolate cupcakes with white frosting and a strawberry on top of each one, already made and patiently waiting for us to scoff them.

As I was scanning the DVD collection and gleefully realising that Alison is also an 'Arrested Development' fan, Patrick and Leanna turned up. They're a couple of Alison's friends from grad school in LA and they've been married for 8 years or so, because they wanted to move in together but are both religious, so figured they should get married first. Alison and Patrick now work together here, but I'm not wholly sure what they do.

Patrick is muchos fun and, with Alison and Anne, completes our triumvirate of brill new friends. He's kind of short and bearded but very mischievous, a little like a wily elf one might come across en route to Mordor. He's a real anglophile and also watched 'Dungeons & Dragons' as a child, so we got on very well.

Leanna is very quiet and had a headache, so wasn't drinking. They're also trying for a baby, which was another reason for her abstinence. So I didn't really get much of a sense of her. Though, after bottle of wine #8, Patrick whispered - apropos of absolutely nothing - that Leanna has done acid, so there's obviously more to her than meets the eye.

The sixth of our number was an enigmatic chap called Colin, who went to grad school with the other three and who's just back from studying molluscs in Australia and New Zealand as part of his work for the WWF. He is far cooler than Patrick, and more of an observer/judger as a dinner guest, than a joiner in-er. He reminded me of Jordan Catalano from 'My So-Called Life', as he was quite handsome and brooding.

It was most satisfactory to discover that he's also a fan of Flight of the Conchords, and my aggressive matchmaking skills which had lain dormant since assaulting poor Jo with instructions to pursue Mark's friend in New York, started bubbling to the surface as I thought he and Alison would make a good couple. But then a) as the evening wore on, I realised that Colin's enigmatic qualities actually translated to being kind of dull and b) when I floated the notion with Alison she firmly shook her head. Though I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of history there.

The food was utterly delicious and we were sitting at a proper dining table in this beautiful, dark wood-floored open plan sitting room/dining room. As a result, Alison will never be welcome at our flat, as it isn't as nice and she is clearly used to a far higher standard of food than I could possibly muster. That's a shame.

So it was a really really fun evening and we didn't leave until 1.30am. Conversation flowed as easily as the wine, the girls chatted at one end, with the boys nattering away - usually in peculiar accents - at the other. Max really hit it off with Patrick and Colin and I suspected he had something of a mancrush on Colin, but it transpired afterwards that he felt the same way as me - initially smitten, then realised Patrick was way more fun for being less cool. I think he was just excited that he'd found two people unable to detect how rubbish his accents are!

Turns out Alison's roommate (who wasn't there) is a Republican, so I'm really interested to meet her. But crucially she also works at the White House, so might be able to give us a tour of the west wing, though we think there might be some rules about only American citizens being allowed inside.

After the deliiiiicious main course (Alison managed to do that rough mash potato which, whenever i do it, either comes out uncooked or all creamy and smooth), Alison served up her cupcakes (yum) and my brownies which were devastatingly uncooked! Well, they were a bit cooked, but they were mostly raw and floppy underneath the top. I think maybe the foil tray didn't have a heavy enough base to properly cook them all the way through, or something. I was sad.

Very excitingly, I mentioned to Patrick that I'd like to play softball - cos I saw a bunch of people playing in the evening sun on the Mall when Max and I went to see the cherryblossom ages ago and thought it looked fun - and he said I could play for the co-ed team from his office who play in a league on the Mall every Tuesday night! Woo! I'll just have to wait to see whether it was the wine talking... (by this stage, Max and poured him and Patrick a full wine glass each of dessert wine. Thank goodness for yesterday's hangover, or else I might've joined them.)

We eventually wended our way home, at the end of a lovely evening, confident that we'd be seeing lots of Patrick and Leanna in the future. The four of us wandered down the middle of the deserted street, chatting away, and Patrick showed me a $1 coin, which I didn't even know existed.

Max and I hopped in a taxi (Maxy firmly holding onto his shoes. Which were on his feet) and got home in no time, driving past some incredible government and museum buildings and getting back to our flat from across town for something silly like £6. What a lovely night.

BRETEROSEXUALS & JEMAINIACS

STRANGEST DINING PARTNER OF THE DAY: Cuba Gooding Jr's chauffeur, sitting next to us at a Mexican fast food restaurant (he told someone on the phone that he was driving CGJ tonight)

Aaaargghh! The tickets worked! The tickets worked! We saw Flight of the Conchords live! Since the 'tickets' were just a printout of a webpage, I was dubious right until the usher took them off us, but they worked! And the seats rocked!

It was soooo exciting to see Jemaine and Bret in real life and Dave the bandana guy from the series did the (not particularly funny) warmup! Man, they were awesome. And it was compleeeetley sold out - I guess because their series is on HBO. They started with 'Inner City Pressure', both playing weird instruments and Bret doing really good/funny falsetto.

They chatted in between songs and I was really relieved that they're more fun on stage than being themselves on the Conchords podcasts. Jemaine was excellent and Bret was way more fun than I expected. He's had a haircut, but still looks hot.

They did nearly all my favourite songs - 'I'm Not Crying', 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room', 'Think About It' (would somebody please remove this cutlery from my knees?!) and 'Robots'. I'm sad there was no 'If That's What You're Into', but they played three amazing new songs including a hilarious one about ex-girlfriends. It was very annoying that the crowd kept shouting out requests for songs (and Murray), but Jemaine and Bret seemed pretty used to it and it was just funny to see them playing strange instruments.

The merchandise was mercifully rubbish, otherwise I'd be writing this bedecked in Conchords t-shirts, caps and key fobs that I'll never wear again (I have a whole drawer of post-gig merchandise bought in the excitement of the moment never to see the light of day again).

Skipping through the streets afterwards, whistling songs we'd just heard and in no way resenting paying more than double what most other people did, we stopped off for some surprisingly tasty Mexican at the fast food place that promises it doesn't use lard, then put in a cameo at drinks for Geoff and Sarah's wedding for those who couldn't make it to New York.

However, I've been so hungover all day and we were both so snoozy/addicted to the West Wing, that we only stayed for a little while - long enough to establish that supper with Geoff and Sarah is off because Geoff had invited us while drunk and forgotten they had other plans - then headed home to gobble up more West Wing.

As we were coming into our building, we bumped into our neighbour Anne - she of the poker chips from a while ago. I introduced her to Max and we got chatting for so long that she invited us into her apartment. She's so, so nice and we really hit it off. She was amused to hear that we'd left a party to come home to watch 'The West Wing' and revealed that she has all the series on DVD, so if we ever need to borrow one, there's a stash but metres from our front door. Woo!

Anne's a post grad archivist student preparing for finals, but seemed amazingly relaxed, despite having big exams to prepare for. Weirdly, the vicar at church appealed for an archivist a couple of weeks ago to help her with some material about the church, so I mentioned this to Anne and she's very excited by the prospect, which is a nice coincidence. Her boyfriend Hugh turned up after a little while and they invited us to stay for Chinese food and wine. But with the West Wing mewing at us from our DVD player, we left them to their evening and skipped off, pleased to've made another nice friend.

OPERATION FRIENDS

MOST HUNGOVER PERSON IN THE WORLD TODAY: me

A very exciting thing has happened to make me feel sooooo much happier than in the past week or so: not only is this block of work very nearly over, but I've made my first proper friend! Sure, nailbar lady is nice, Geoff and Sarah are fun and Jane is very friendly, but I've finally met someone I can imagine hanging out with, rather than just passing time with. Woohoo!

Max's friend Roseanne put us in touch with her friend Katy who put us in touch with two people she knows in DC, one of whom is Alison, who we met last night for drinks, as part of our Soph & Max Get A Social Life campaign.

It was a little weird, as we felt a bit like we were going on a first date. But Alison picked a really cool place in Chinatown called Rosa Mexicano and when she mentioned in her email that she chose it for its mean pomegranate margaritas, I had an inkling that we'd hit it off.

And sure enough, we had a really fun night, chatting away. It wasn't at all awkward or weird and Alison just seems terrifically nice and really funny. When we were making plans to meet, it was kind of convenient that we also had a leaving do to go to on the same evening, as I figured it'd be handy getout excuse. But when it came to it, we were really sad to leave and would've much preferred to've hung out with Alison for the rest of the night.

So two pomegranate margaritas later, we bid farewell to our nice new friend and headed to the dreaded Vapiano (weird 'conceptual' Italian restaurant with the credit card system) for leaving drinks for a couple of people at the Bureau. By now I've met the sort of core of the Bureau party people a few times, so it was nice to see familiar faces and chat away to people by myself, without having to feel like Max's appendage. The pomegranate margaritas may've helped.

A new face at the table was that of Kevin Connolly, who's a correspondent Max has mentioned a lot. He seemed really fun, if kind of hardcore, in that News-y way and we had a jolly time bantering with each other.

After helping to polish off the largest bottle of wine I've ever seen, we chose the moment at which the heavens opened and biblical rain began to head home. It was really the most insane rain I've ever seen, but fortunately I'd brought Max's trainers with me, so he wasn't stuck in his flipflops (it's been raining on and off all day). He was about to put them on as I managed to hail a cab, so came flailing out the restaurant slipping and sliding in his flipflops as we hurled ourselves into the taxi.

It was only when I got home and tried to finish off a bit of work I needed to submit before my boss got into work this morning that I realised how blind drunk I was, having drunk a lot and eaten very little. I have now learned the important lesson of getting one's work done before one goes out boozing, as I was seeing double and needed Max to remind me how to use the computer. I eventually managed to get the work done - not sure if it makes any sense - and Max eventually managed to wrangle me into bed, despite my limbs having turned to jelly. Classy.

As you might expect, this morning wasn't a bundle of laughs for either of us. I felt like I was going to die with every move I made and it turns out that Max left his trainers in the taxi last night, so I've been trying to get some sense out of the lost property people while my friend Dan back in London is helping me scour the internet, looking for exact replacements.

All of this would be much easier to deal with had we not woken up in the worst possible way. Max shook me awake (he's a brave man) to say that the alarm hadn't gone off and that it was 9.30am (he's due in the office at 9am). So with as much rushing and hurrying as could be mustered, he dashed out of the house and I came to check whether what I wrote to my boss last night was legible (hardly).

Through my hungover haze I was confused to see (with the only eye that was working) that my computer said the time was 7.40am. Then the penny started to drop about as slowly as if it was sliding down a wall covered with treacle. Somehow, our dodgy $10 alarm clock/iPod dock had gained two hours and the reason I was feeling so rotten was that it was two hours earlier than we'd thought!

So I called Max and told him, but he was so nearly at the office by then, he just kept walking and I retired to the sofa to feel sorry for myself. But not before getting a lovely email from Alison, saying how much she'd enjoyed last night and inviting us over for dinner at her house tomorrow night! We passed! It really felt like getting a call from a guy the day after you've been on your first date. Yippeee!

Now all we need is for the Conchords tickets to turn up...