Aoife arrives, and a Hogswatch meet

My very oldest friend, and the woman who agreed to be my bridesmaid when we were both about 12 years old, came to see me. We met her in Heathrow at lunchtime and travelled home on the bus, then pottered about a bit getting ready to go out in the evening.

Aoife has finished her B.Obs. now, I think it is, and has only Surgery and Medicine to go, or Chemistry and Geography, or something. Then she spends a year as an intern. Soon she'll be Doctor Aoife. That sounds awfully grown up; I feel kind of left behind. I'm only about to start a degree with the Open University and it'll take years to finish, part-time. But I suppose I have a house, and she hasn't... for what that's worth. It's not a competition, but I sometimes envy the people who did things in the usual order . . .

Hogswatch

Aoife, Janice, myself and Rob all travelled in to the Green Man together. There we met many people and drank many drinks. Among the people we met was Marina.

I first met Marina in August 1998 and again in September 1998. We have spent the past 3 years disliking one another. No, I don't know why. We each thought that the other disliked us, which was . . . strange and confusing and a little fucked up.

At the meet, I got unsober enough to talk to her about this. Is good. 3 years' worth of low-level hostility, real or perceived, cleaned up and dusted off. We actually like one another - at least, we have no reason to feel otherwise, and we have many mutual friends - and may in future get along better. At least the first impression has been undone.