Sunset

is now my favourite time of day.

To paraphrase, our good friend Hippy invited Anonymous, Curious and myself to her house on Thursday for a stayover, and in the evening the four of us walked to the beach [it never ceases to amaze me, how cool it is living so close to the seaside] in time to watch the sun set, and, in a nutshell, it was the most incredible, breathtaking, awe-inspiring thing I've ever been lucky enough to see. At that moment, stood between two of the most Brilliant people I've ever been lucky enough to meet and wondering how I'd return to routine after witnessing this totally Alien experience [my first proper sundown], I couldn't have found it in me to hate anything or anyone, even if I wanted to. There has never been a time I was more at ease than I was then.

It was beautiful. Electric orange, spilling through the clouds like paint from a pot, eclipsing the grey sky and reflecting over the water to give something polluted and ugly the most stunning edge. I wish, more than anything else, that I'd had my camera with me, so I could show you how damn pretty it was. Everyone knows I'm rarely without it any other time. Maybe it's a sign from God. 

"Quit living through yo camera, crazy fool!"

"But God! How will I remember the happiest moments of my life when I'm old and decrepit without the photographic prompts to remind me?"

"Quit yo jibber jabba!"

Forget Morgan Freeman, God is now Mr T. 

And that's not blaspheme, because I'm comparing Him to someone I think is awesome, as opposed to, say, Hitler. Joking about heiling God is a step too far.

Yeah. My half term, pre-sunset, was such good therapy! On Sunday night, Anonymous barged his way into my home, sneezed his illness all over the place, disrupted our quiet family life and demanded that we take him all the way to Northamptonshire. We managed to restrain him until the next morning, but we couldn't hold him off any longer; he was about to get violent when we eventually set off. Luckily the journey there was pretty good. I don't think any of us would have survived had there been any traffic to prolong the time spent without the love of his life.

Look at that face. Butter wouldn't melt.

An interesting fact - I ate at McDonalds for the first time in about... four years? Everything tastes so much better at those kind of places when you're a merciless carnivore. Damn ethics. Damn vegetarianism. Damn greasy chips. Damn misleading condiment dispensers. [There was a mixup with the ketchup and the barbecue sauce. My bad.] The Yorkie McFlurry, however... That was good. That was very good.

So we got to the meeting place, and Anonymous managed to bully Chicken Tits [or Vennie, or Blondie, or Violet], Big D and Darts into hanging out with us [I will admit to being a little unfair on my wonderful anonymous friend about now]. I can't tell you enough how great it was to see Chicken again. I didn't even realise how much I really missed her until we saw her coming towards us from the other end of the park, and had a serious mini-debate over whether to let her get to us before hugging her, or closing the distance and leaping on her. Guess which one we went for? ;) It was also really nice to see Big D - he was probably the first friend I made, as a tiny tiny ginger toddler, but as we grew up we talked less and less and, until Monday, I hadn't seen nor spoken to him for... probably 3 years. Which is shameful. When we were little, we used to hang out all the time. As well as a reunion for old friends, I met a new one; Darts joined the group after I moved away, and I'm really sorry I don't still go to my old school to get to know people like her. She's so lovely! I love how none of us were really daunted, because the afternoon so easily could have been awkward, but it was great! Long story short, we ended up huddled around an electric heater in the church I attended every week for the first 11 years of my life, which was a surreal experience. We played Anonymous's guitar, ate a crazy amount of sweets, caught up with/got to know each other and then, after a few hours, walked straight from the church to the pub, played darts [from which Darts earned her name] and pool [or tried to, on my part] and the eventual, inevitable truth or dare [which I didn't actually instigate this time:P]. You're better off reading Chicken's blog, or even Anonymous's if your mind is up for some blowing, if you want a more detailed version of events - you should read their blogs anyway, they're both very interesting people and I love reading what they have to say :)

A far more accurate account of Monday, told by someone way more likely to give a true overview as opposed to the irrelevant "AND THEN I SAW A TREE" details someone like me tends to provide

Another considerably more true summary, from the lion's mouth itself

Ok - it's 20 to 4, I have to be awake in 5 hours, school starts again on Monday, and I've typically left everything to the last day. There is more to blog about! I'm just... rubbish and unprepared and I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing it. Grah.

By the way - She's Always a Woman to me, Billy Joel. Because she always will be.

Quote of the Lifetime: Our beach. Our friend. Our sky. Our night.

PS, Chicken? You know what you should totally do? Dye your hair!