Squash with Sophie

After last night's ass-kicking at squash, I was looking forward to playing this evening with my friend Sophie, who had never played squash before. Mostly though I was looking forward to catching up with Sophie, who is such a great friend.

As we got to playing, Sophie was terrible at first, although improved a bit with time. (The first shots didn't even hit the back wall, but after a while she got better). Still, I had to direct my shots straight at her for her to return them, but at least we were able to get some good volleys going. Still, it reminded me that I need to play more, as I enjoy the game so much and want to get better at it.
Play with Sophie. She's terrible at first, but improves a bit with time, although I still have to direct my shots her way for her to return them. I need to play more.

We didn't keep score, but promised to next week when we played, and set a time up to play straight away. Then we showered, changed, and headed out looking for dinner. Sophie suddenly got the brilliant idea that we needed to go to this place she new on Dover Street, called Automat. Not the cheapest place ever, but not stupidly expensive, and I had to admit the ambiance as we walked in was really nice. Instantly, I loved it, even as it was bustling on a Monday night.

Sophie surprised me by wanting cocktails after she had just been talking about how she needed to watch her budget, but I was fine with going along with that. The first two cocktails I ordered, it turned out that they were missing some key ingredient, so Sophie finally suggested a passion fruit cocktail that was on their specials list, while she got a champagne and Cointreau one. I had to admit, although I'm not normally a cocktails kind of person, in a proper cocktail bar where they know what they're doing, cocktails can be incredible. I really enjoyed my passion fruit cocktail, and would actually consider coming back to this place for another one, it was so good.

We then got burgers and split a bottle of Malbec, and just spent our time chatting for ages about boys, gossip and life. I once again was reminded very clearly of why I like Sophie so much: She is exactly like me. And it's a bit scary to realise that Sophie is turning 36 with no boys on the horizon, and if I don't change things, that's exactly where I'll be too.

Because just like Sophie, I'm rather attractive, funny, witty, and outgoing, always the life of the party and everybody adores me. People constantly ask, "How can a girl like you be single?" But I'm single for the same reason Sophie is, which is to say I don't meet that many boys I like. As I said to her, "You meet your friends' husbands, and while you're happy for them, you're not in the least bit jealous of them to be saddled with those guys for the rest of their lives." It's sad but true, I can't think of a single married friend of mine, where I think, "I wish that were me." I sometimes think married people have not been putting enough effort into convincing us of the advantages of the state.

And Sophie is just like me in that she tries hard to keep her nose clean, even as it seems like everyone around us is getting up to a lot more than we are. (Yet, we both wisely seem to realise that we'd rather indulge in the gossip than become the subject of it). She told me a hilarious story about a late night in the Savile Club library, where C (who Natasha has been sleeping with), tried to put the moves on her. She of course demurred, only to then be interrupted by SM and C's twin brother looking for a place with a bit of peace and quiet. Apparently this led to SM having a meltdown at the Halloween party we both missed, with the twin brother's girlfriend yelling at SM to stay away from her boyfriend. My goodness, so much drama!

Sophie then told me herself that all of this good behaviour while the world goes on around you, means that she's slipped up a few times with the worst ones possible: Married men. And she seemed to feel quite guilty about it, but was saying, "In a weird way, they're such a safe choice, because you know they won't tell anyone about it, and you don't have to worry about getting attached." Bizarrely, I think she had a point.

Goodness knows I've been propositioned by more than a few married men, but that's really been a line I swore I would never cross. Hearing this from Sophie, who is basically me a few years down the line, did worry me quite a bit. Maybe I need to find a nice boy just to keep me in line...

She also made another good point about how we are so alike, in that we have multiple groups of friends. She noted that most people we know in Clubland center their social circles around the clubs themselves, whereas we are always out and about with different groups of friends. I'd never really thought about that, but I think she did have a good point about keeping things varied.

Finally, after spending way too much money and having way too much wine, we headed home, with promises to play again next week. I wrote to the Young Dutchman on my way home about my fun evening out, telling him that Sophie was a pretty good substitute for him, but no real match for the original. Still, it was just such a great evening with Sophie, and I can't wait to play again next week!