Happy Guy Fawkes Day!!

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!!

Not sure you're supposed to say "Happy" about a day that's all about a foiled gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament, but there are fireworks and it's about as close as England gets to an Independence Day, so we'll go with "Happy Guy Fawkes Day" anyway then.

I had to get up early to go to work, as today was the day that I needed to hand over my old PC for them to transfer all of my files onto a shiny, brand-spanking-new computer. I must say, while I'm still not in love with PCs (I love my Apple way too much), I do like this whole idea of getting a computer that I don't pay for.

They gave me a loaner computer for the day, but I find that trying to do anything on web mail is pretty useless, so I just spent my time trying to catch up on my novel. Alas, I only finished the day at 5,568 words, only about halfway to where I should be! Definitely have to pick up the pace!

Luckily, they gave me my computer back at mid-day, so I didn't have to go too long without. I was surprised at the computer they gave me however, as it was an absolute BRICK. I'm so used to laptops getting lighter and smaller, that to get one that is larger and heavier was a surprise. This thing better be lightning fast and have a battery that lasts for years! (Alas, I can already tell you that the second point is not true). The new computer has Windows Vista on it, which is going to take some getting used to, although I'm really just tempted to pack it all in and insist on getting a Mac! Macs are so much better!!!

Anyway, at the end of the day, I took my absolutely giant new laptop, and made my way to my club, where I was meeting two old friends from Magdalene for dinner.

I arrived at around 6:45, as we were supposed to meet for drinks at 7, but Joel had already rang me earlier in the day to say that he was going to be late. (In fact, Joel had called me a LOT to confirm when we were meeting, saying he had a mind like a sieve. Still, it's always nice to talk to Joel, whenever he calls). As I was putting my coat away, my friend Sara texted to say she was going to be late as well, which mortified me as I hadn't gotten a chance to turn my phone off yet, but they are banned in the club. You can bet I turned it off pretty quickly!

Given that my guests were going to be late, I went and got myself a glass of white wine from the bar, settled down into a big leather chair by the fireplace, and set about reading the daily newspaper. It was funny, as that morning, in one of my more childish rebellions, I had dressed in a conservative dress shirt and black dress, but then had decided to wear bright orange tights. While that seemed like a good idea at the time, there in the club surrounded by men in their dark grey and black suits, I started to feel a bit self-concious about my bright orange tights. Kept my newspaper in my lap and reminded myself to dress more conservatively next time!

At last Sara arrived, followed rather shortly by Joel, and we had a good time catching up on all of our news since we'd last met. For Joel, I teased him about how it had been a whole two weeks since we had seen one another, although for Sara it had been years since she and Joel had met up.

Given that they were both late, to give them time to have a drink it was nearly 8 PM before we headed into dinner (after Sara had insisted I make the reservation for 7:30!), but luckily the staff at my club is so wonderful, they acted like they'd been ready for us at 8 PM all along.

I had a lovely salmon and caviar starter, then a veal steak with bernaise sauce for the main, and an absolutely heavenly fudge cake for dessert. We had a few minor issues with the fact that my friend Sara has celiac disease and can't eat wheat or gluten, but luckily there were a few things on the menu that worked for her, so all was well. Joel poured the wine for all of us like a perfect gentleman, and I just appreciated once again having dinner with such good company.

We spent most of the evening talking about our various romantic lives. Joel is dating a girl eight years younger than he is, which I love to tease him about, so he doesn't discuss it too much. Sara has had some forays into online dating, and had a frustrating thing with a 24-year old that recently imploded, but mostly seems frustrated by how British boys don't ask girls out.

I've been doing some reading on this, how American boys will ask you out, you'll spend some time together, before eventually deciding if it will be exclusive. British boys, on the other hand, will hope to get really drunk and hook-up with you, and then if that works out, then you'll start dating. As strange as this theory sounds, this is how Joel ended up with his current girlfriend (he claims he got very drunk one weekend and woke up with a girlfriend), and I will even admit that my most-long-term relationship with a British boy started that way.

Still, I'm never going to be okay with getting drunk and hooking up with people, so there is obviously a cultural difference here that is proving to be quite a conundrum.

At least, when I told Joel about neighbour guy, he agreed he seemed interested, but warned me that I was in for a long wait if I was waiting for him to ask me out. Alas. So Joel's theory was that I needed to find some flimsy excuse for us to get together, and to ensure that it wasn't anything that involved "sitting across the table from one another". Indeed, when I think back on the date with the lawyer guy that crashed and burned a few weeks ago, the main problem was that we were stuck with a table inbetween us.

Joel recommended going to an art gallery or something where you could walk along side-by-side and talk about what you were seeing. He said, "That's just about the most perfect date for a guy, even with no real reason for going at all!"

Suddenly, I remembered something from our days in college. Joel and I used to be as thick as thieves in school, to the point that we didn't even have each other's numbers, because we simply saw each other so much. People used to give me messages to give to Joel, knowing for sure I would always be seeing him. And I remember how Joel was the one person I could do anything with, even to the point when one afternoon he simply said to me as we finished lunch (together, of course), "Adrian, let's go to the Fitzwilliam Museum, right now! I've never been!" And so with that, we dashed off and went to the museum, and spent the day giggling and laughing and just bouncing around the place, enjoying a totaly unexpected and random day in the museum.

Yet Joel and I had never been anything other than friends. Right? I mean, if he'd been interested, he would have asked me out, right? Oh wait, except British boys don't ask girls out...

Holy crap, I just get the sense that I may have missed something here.

Whatever might have been, I guess timing also plays a role. Joel is dating a lovely girl, and I've also got other things on my plate. We're good friends now, and I'm grateful for that.

After dinner we retired to the bar, and shortly thereafter, Sara left us, leaving me and Joel to finish our drinks and keep talking. Joel then confessed something to me that he said he hadn't even told his parents or his girlfriend, that he'd just enlisted in the Navy.

That was a tough one, for it was when Joel enrolled at Sandhurst and wanted to join the army that we had our first real spat, where I was too paranoid about him getting hurt to really countenance his decision. And when he eventually didn't end up enlisting, I was relieved and all went back to where it was before. But now here he was talking about being in submarines?

I suppose that if this is what will truly make him happy, I'll be supportive, but then I started talking to him about his quarter-life crisis, how I thought he was going through it, and what mine had been like. And making the point to him that you never really get a flash of insight about what you're meant to do with your life, but that it's really quite a gradual build-up of figuring out what you like, and slowly pulling them all together.

He then asked me, "How on earth do you do it? How on earth do you take all of the jumbled thoughts in my mind and lay out for me exactly what I'm thinking?"

I laughed and told him that it was the same reason we are friends: We basically have the same brain. It's always easy for me to know what Joel is thinking, for all I have to do is imagine what I myself would have thought.

All of a sudden, as we were deep in conversation, Joel realised that he was about to miss his train, so we dashed up and left the club, making our way back to the Underground. I smiled as Joel reproached me for even attempting to walk on the outside, towards the kerb, as ever the gentleman, he took the outside position, even as we rounded corners and changed direction. It's so nice to be out with a boy who knows what to do!

Finally on the train, it was my stop and I had to go. But Joel stood up, kissed me and hugged me, and just whispered in my ear how wonderful it had been, and how we needed to do it again soon.

Indeed, even just as I was walking home, my phone buzzed with a text message, Joel already telling me once again what a lovely time he'd had. So, in the grand mix-up of life, we'd ended up as friends instead of romantic partners, but it's wonderful all the same. He's my darling Joel, and I have no doubt that he adores me too. Great friends are marvellous like that.