It's autumn, time to start working.
I left school in 1983 but the feeling of the start of a brand new
term, a brand new school year is so engrained in me that as soon as
the seasons start to change, I start working.*
It also seems like a good time to
socialise and invite friends round to dinner. Whenever I cook,
I accidentally find myself serving meals that are chromatically
challenged - all beige foods, like roast chicken with mashed potato
and parsnips, or all purple foods, or all green. I'm trying to
stop this or at least to stop people noticing this when they come
round for dinner. One trick is to get everyone really
drunk. But that's an old trick and everyone is wise to it and
anyway, I'm usually the only one who is drunk.
Another trick is to distract
everyone. When I lived with my friend Kate, we went through a
stage of getting very drunk and rollerblading in the kitchen when
people came round. The kitchen was small but our desire to entertain
was not. But now we have Jessie, our new secret weapon and a
master of disguise. All she has to do is appear in the kitchen
in one of her wigs and inject a little colour into our lives.
*Then I relax again.
Playing now:
MacArthur Park - Donna Summer
Reading:
The Liars Club - Mary Karr
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda
