Stace has graced England with her presence once again. We have had an awesome time. Truly fantastic. We were, sadly, forced to operate within the constraints of what was possible. We had a list of what we wanted to do while she was here, and this list was about three weeks long. We had 11 days.
We did the important stuff:
- Going to see Newcastle thrash the living crap out of Aston Villa, and getting on the telly in the process. At 45-6 seconds, the blonde with the blue-star t-shirt in the front row is Stace, and the idiot to her right is me- dishonourable mentions go to Stephen and Claire to my right, disgraced, cheering for Newcastle United. Credit where it’s due- Claire survived another assassination attempt to go to the match she bought the tickets for. I’ll get you next time, Graham, next tiiiiiiiiime……..
- Going to Durham, and reminding ourselves what good people our friends are. Naomi and Jen were as sweet and supportive as ever, and Dave and Ella took time out to travel from different parts of the country. Not only was it great to see people for the sake of seeing them, which is always great, but the extra effort they put in was touching.
Visiting York. I am increasingly jealous that I have no personal connection to this wonderful city. I’ve never lived there, I didn’t study there; none of my family is from York. It would be nice to say any of these things. The pubs in York range from the dreary to the phenomenal. With the benefit of a bit of first hand research (nothing is too much for you guys) we can recommend The Black Swan, The Old White Swan, and if you’re cygnophobic and happen to enjoy a bloody good burger, The Lendal Cellars.- Going on a proper date. To quote the wise and lovely Kristina Rimpley, who knows what it means to do the long-distance, long-term thing: “People say, like ‘You’ve got Skype’. I’m like, BITE ME!”. Yes, the internet makes maintaining a long-distance relationship easier. It might not have been possible, once upon a time, to sustain a relationship as well as we have. MSN and Skype are better than phone and letters and emails. I honestly don’t know how far we’d have made it without modern technology. It might have failed horribly. It might not. I don’t want to think about it. But if you think the internet has made this easy, really, really, bite me. It’s not easy. A lot of the time it’s not even normal. Sitting together watching a film doesn’t happen. Getting a hug doesn’t happen. Having a beer together doesn’t happen, because when it’s teatime here it’s breakfast time there, and people look at you funny when you’ve got a bowl of cornflakes in one hand and a bottle of lager in the other. So the opportunity to get dressed up and hold hands is frankly mind-blowing. The Blue Coyote played host to our first night out together in six months. The South African waiter there can recommend some first-rate reposado tequilas, like Partida Reposado. We didn’t get to go dancing. Maybe next time.
And we did lots of other things too, which I won’t bore you with. It was just nice. we did soppy romantic stuff and social stuff and civilised stuff and geeky stuff. I handed in my paperwork for the visa. It’s a matter of obtaining some documents and waiting for an appointment for an interview now. The amazing thing is that next time I see her, we will be together, more or less, forever.
