'You've got a pretty mouth'

Well last night was not what I expected, but was all the more entertaining for it.

I strolled over to the bar, I do enjoy an evening walk in London. I think it's fun to imagine the stories of the people you go past, the two chaps with bags of shopping. The happy looking lady with a parcel. The old man wearing a tie and carrying flowers. I wonder what they were off to do.

London is so full of people it's often easy to stop thinking of them as actual personalities and just as things that occasionally get in the way on the tube.

The bar was busy and Mac was in very good if rather drunk form. He has recently married a lovely girl and he was marking the occasion of his birthday and a massive promotion at work, it's nice to hear of friends doing well. Present at the party was the usual mix of slightly smug London couples plus a few floating 'others'.

One of them was a member of a fairly well known band, who took rather a liking to me. With in about 5 minutes she was offering to come back to my flat to demonstrate her technique. Clearly I had been wearing the right scent in some ways.

After a while she got extremely drunk and took to lolling in a chair next to me kept saying I had a 'pretty mouth'. It's a new compliment to me, anyway I declined her offer, politely of course and she was escorted home by a friend as she really wasn't in any sort of state to be traveling alone.

I got chatting to one of Mac's old friends who I had met briefly at a party before but never really talked to. She was talking about her girlfriend who she has been seeing for year now, and then we talked about the situation with A.

I spoke of it in very much the past-tense saying it was something I wished could have been more but sadly it's over. I big step I think you will admit. Then S (as we shall call her now) started teaching me sign language, her partner is deaf and so she been learning it that way.

I had a marvelous time learning how to sign. I could now, should the need arise chat up a girl in very shoddy sign language, and even better I learned a lot of very rude signs perfect for saying offensive things about people in meetings.

Armed with this new knowledge I went with S clubbing to meet up with her girlfriend and her girlfriend's friends - who were an amazing collection of people. Her brother was a tall cross dressing chap who was prettier than most women I know, called Hamish. They were all extremely nice and had a really impish sense of humour. As they were deaf and it was fascinating watching them talk being able to pick up snippets about what they were saying.

The club was right in the centre of the West end, exactly the sort of place I never go to but it was a hoot with this crowd of very naughty people signing in the joyful knowledge that the people they were signing about had absolutely no idea what they were saying. Oh and the fact we had free booze all evening helped.

At about 3 I was a broken man and made my excuses and left, while I may not have ended up going home with a new special friend (which I'm not entirely sure I wanted really) I do have an excellent new chum in S and I can communicate in a new language.

Not bad for a Saturday night, really. Next weekned I'm going to try and meet the woman of my dreams and learn Dutch.