If I’m unnecessarily stressed this week, I have only myself to blame: I’ve been pouring all my spare time into a Secret Project which has led me to put on hold any plans of going out, reading, talking to people, seeking any medical attention for the cough-which-refuses-to-die or blogging. (Don’t get excited – it’s not even a Secret Project which will be of any interest beyond a very select number of people. And it is lots of fun… just demanding. Like how I imagine NaNoWriMo is.)
But good things have happened over the past month! I had drinks in the (surprisingly plain) bars of Parliament one night, which (and this is distinctively unsurprisingly) feels exactly like wandering around a Cambridge college. (I even bumped into someone else from my year at Caius… draw all the obvious conclusions you wish.) Abbi and Paul also returned from their second wedding in South Africa, so we had celebratory return pizza, and later a touristy trip to the Greenwich observatory with Jen – last seen on this blog a little over three years ago!
I also had a lovely catch-up lunch with Melissa – feeling slightly wistful that I wasn’t involved in her new and exciting projects – and spent last weekend lazing quite a bit with Grace in Warwick. And watching The Lion King at the student cinema. Which, um, was brilliant. Good children’s movies are utterly wasted on children: they totally fail to appreciate all the Hamlet allusions, and I’m pretty sure my single-digit-self was foolish enough to miss the goose-stepping Nazi hyenas entirely. If you take anything from this mess of a blog post, take from it that you should make a date to re-watch The Lion King.
And so 2012 has got off to a thoroughly lovely start. (As it was always bound to, really, with a satisfying name like that. Twenty twelve – or, if you really prefer, two thousand and twelve – sounds like a Good Proper Year, the kind of year that Jay Sean would write a song about.) New Year itself without the traditional SexFest party was a bit of an innovation: the first time since I was 15 that I didn’t spend the first ten minutes of the year running around in the road and bashing my nearest and dearest friends over the head with pillows\balloons. I could easily get used to its replacement, though, which involved cake, wine and a just-delivered-in-time Indian takeaway at Charlotte Speechley’s housesitting gathering. And some inspired make-up artistry from Amy, too.
Since then I’ve pubbed with Sanna, dined with Oliver and Abi, drank with Joshua and Robert and manuevored my family and Grace’s family to go and see News Revue together – not to mention going back to work for more dutiful and honest labour – which is hardly bad going for the first week of 2012. If I just declare the year a success now and stay in like a hermit I could also make good progress on my new years ‘resolutions’, which it usually never even occurs to me to make but this time have somehow solidified enough in my mind to be real. (I will read more books than last year, again. I will not keep conveniently forgetting that I’m supposed to be flat hunting. I will sign up to Code Year and learn something new. There, that’s enough. Any more and I’ll be forced to resort to that all-encompassing fallback target which we used to pull out at school when things were desperate – “I will improve my handwriting” – which no one ever really meant because anyone with bad handwriting is secretly proud of the idea that they are too busy to shape letters properly.)
I saw The Iron Lady today, which didn’t do very much for me even though it was all very well made and everything. I think I just enjoy more plot and narrative beyond the framing device of “an aged and dementia-suffering Margaret Thatcher remembers the greatest political hits of the 1980s”, and would have probably enjoyed a film more which focussed tightly on a smaller period of her life. (Then again, I might just have enjoyed a film more where young children sitting behind me didn’t keep asking questions about what was going on. Hey ho.)
Even though the BBC probably weren’t thinking of me specifically when they dubbed 2011 ‘the year when a lot happened’, I might appropriate it, because it was quite a ride. Thanks to everyone who made it happen, whether for one day or the whole year…
January
SexFest On Tour gifted the art of midnight pillow fighting to Barnet’s streets, and kicked off a month of some fabulously geeky activities. I’m talking about going to see The Room for the first time, starting Firefly with Jamie and Katie, hosting a Dr. Horrible sing-along in my front room, another evening of Science Museum Lates and – of course – getting memorable one-on-one time with Psychic TV. Tash K introduced me to Sherlock, Charlotte Speechley and I saw The King’s Speech, and I happily failed to kill Matt and Caroline whilst cooking them breakfast.
Sunny California: this was my Februrary
In early February I said my goodbyes in unconventional ways: probing local homoeopaths with Tash K, and a memorable and mostly hilarious SFX Weekender with Abbi, Paul and David. And then I packed my bags and left for a month in America! Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco… and all the way showered in hospitality by friends and family who took me everywhere from a lecture theatre in snow-covered Harvard to a kayak on the glistening Pacific Ocean. An amazing time, leaving me with some very happy memories.
March
Tugging me back home, though, was a 2025 (delete as applicable) with Grace. This went well. Later on we actually watched Eat, Pray, Love to make sure our relationship wasn’t based on hating a film unjustly… and it wasn’t. I also saw CULES perform up in Cambridge, danced for the Wii a lot at Emily’s 18th birthday, went on the March For The Alternative, hosted more Geek Corner – with cake! – and conducted the first ever dominicself.co.uk Readership Census which revealed that over half my readers belong to Ravenclaw. So no surprises there.
April
When Joshua ‘brings work home with him’ it’s cuter than most, and we spent a day obsessing over Munchkin the kitten during the hot and summery April – perfect for a NOMAD outdoor cinema evening of Strictly Ballroom, too. There was also my first visit to the Tricycle of 2011 (Brontë) and the annual QPCS extravaganza (West Side Story). Online, I had a tweet illustrated by the marvellous Irkafirka and also got into Kiva, the micro-finance charity. Plus, more smiles in more diaries 
May
Jimmy Buchanan died in May this year. His funeral was a tribute to how many people loved him – a rare and wonderful chance to see so many old faces again. Thankfully, there was also an end to every conversation collapsing into “so, about the AV referendum…” as I hesitatingly made up my mind and voted, safe in the knowledge that it was about to be massively defeated anyway. (It was the same story at Joshua’s Eurovision night, but with much more fun and laughter.) This month I also found my cocktail soulmate in Matt, attempted some couples badminton in Abi’s back garden, was treated to a recording of QI courtesy of Jamie, saw Mark Thomas at the Tricycle and finally got to meet, argue and drink with the one and only Henry Balkwill. Oh, and I also completed my last little bit of work on School Wars and at long last joined the massed ranks of smartphone addicts.
June
Retro family fun in Clacton: a day at the seaside, complete with sandcastles, arcade machines and dodgem cars! Later in June my birthday was a joyful mix of picnic, pub and Pizza Express, and the very next day (because I was all old and everything) I started work at Groupon. In a proper office and everything. (Just six months later, it’s incredible to look back to my first day and see how much has changed.) I also played some competitive games of Hungry Hungry Hippos in Cambridge, watched some classic films (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, When Harry Met Sally and Alien) and went along to my first of Jaf’s gigs one night in Camden.
@giantlawnmower; @reddalek
Plenty of summery things: my second Puntcon in Cambridge, Saoirse’s 18th birthday picnic in Green Park and the QPCS Summer Fair, where Grace and I progressed from participating in the annual debate to judging it. Talking of Queens Park, my old Humanities teacher dropped in for a visit one lunchtime, as did a rain-swept Sanna and Theo, while Rishal and I saw the final Harry Potter film together. Caroline and I admired Matt and Laura’s new flat in Balham, Saoirse and I saw the Out Of This World exhibition at the British Library, and Robert returned from America for an excellent Corrib reunion. Also, in the category of ‘things I managed to miss out on until now’, my boss bought me my first jägerbomb!
August
Talking of ‘firsts’, Paul’s Stag Night was in August, where we all discovered Joshua’s violent masochist side during paintballing. I caught up with several people I see rarely – lunch with Ellie, traditional ‘how are you?’ drinks in The Island with Harriet – and once again stole Oliver’s air bed one weekend. Saoirse made amazing gnocchi for her dinner party – during which, so far as I remember, we actually avoided violent argument about the riots – and the days were generally long and warm enough for plenty of (Tastecard discounted 
) meals out.
September
After a year of talking about it, it was gratifying to finally be able to hold a real, physical copy of School Wars in my hand as Melissa celebrated with not one but two book launch parties. This month there was also a memorable evening in Robert’s flat, reunions with a Irfan, Sophie and Maryam, an accidental gatecrashing of Marion’s birthday party (at which I convinced an irritating interloper that Charlotte Speechley ran BBC2) and – in competition at least for one of the geekiest activities of the year – a tour of the London Underground headquarters at 55 Broadway. Katie and I embarked on another television odyessy together – Fringe this time – and Grace and I spent a day rambling around Box Hill armed with some very precise instructions, galvanising hunger for a pub lunch and lots of goodwill. But the biggest event of September has to be Abbi and Paul’s wedding, for which we all got dressed up and then danced all night.
October
If you’ve been following the story of Abbi and Paul’s marriage through the months, you’ll appreciate the all-important final stage which was finally accomplished at a dinner party in October: eating off their wedding plates for the first time. With Grace gone to uni, Charlotte and I huddled in the pub to compare survival notes, though she was soon back for a weekend riverside stroll in Greenwich anyway. At work, the infamous Hell Day brought the team closer together, I had my final Tricycle visit of the year seeing Walk In The Woods for my dad’s birthday while mum, Katie and I also delighted in Matilda The Musical. And, to even more delight, this month I also unearthed my dad’s Rag and Tag stories from a rediscovered audio cassette
November
All of the old arguments about schools were back with a flourish one morning in early November, as Hannah and I were invited into Latymer to argue our case before a room full of students. Abbi’s birthday was celebrated with plenty of wine and cheese, Warwick student life was interrupted by me for a weekend, the indomitable Team Awesome enjoyed a heady mix of pizza and cocktails, while Simon and I laughed a lot at In Time. And not to omit a sustained Plants vs. Zombies addiction, a lovely sangria night with Lucy and Grace, finally getting Nic to North West London and the Groupon Editorial Christmas party!
Our Site Editing team
OK, December deserves an apology, because it proved to be so busy that I didn’t get a chance to blog. Not once. So I never wrote about the fourth Secret Vegetarian Festive Dinner (complete with masks and an erotic reading of What A Duke Wants), finally seeing The Ides of March, the happy night in the Chamberlayne with Grace, Charlotte, Alex and Rosie, or even the surprisingly amazing company-wide Christmas party in Shoreditch. I didn’t get to rave about Black Mirror, tell you the story of how I ended up carrying Arwen’s fish home on the Tube at midnight, be quietly chuffed about the Editorial Awards, or thank Ellie for hosting an exceptional Christmas dinner (& drinking games) for us all. There was also lots of family stuff (as befits the season): my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary, deciding to watch The Godfather, Christmas Day itself – with a narrow victory for my team in the all-important quiz! – and a lovely day trip to Suffolk to see the other half of the family.
Oh, and Grace and I also embarked on an ambitious project to watch all of Buffy… but with only four episodes down so far, that’s really a journey for another time.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Recently Seen:
Walk In The Woods at the Tricycle for my dad’s birthday, an updated production of the 1988 play about the power play between two US and Soviet arms negotiators. Despite its depressing poignancy in capturing the futility of most international diplomacy, I was still bathed in warm nostalgia for the Cold War, and enjoyed it as much as I always enjoy the Tricycle: lots. (Yeah yeah, I was two years old at most at the end of the Cold War, but I can still induce faux-nostalgia in the same way that I can ‘miss’ British Rail sandwiches.)
This month I also went back to News Revue with Grace and saw In Time with Simon – a silly film which is not even particularly well made but entertaining all the same. We even laughed at the ending, where the characters actually go to the trouble of explaining to the audience why their plan wouldn’t work and then proceed to carry it out anyway.
A weekend of catching up: Simon and Nic
Abbi’s birthday lunch a couple of weeks back was a very happy haze of wine, cheese boards and wrapping paper going up in smoke. (Top tip: candles are made of fire!) We also had ‘Team Awesome Pizza Night’ after work – ‘Team Awesome’ being my not-very-creative name for one of our regional teams which has stuck through the lack of a more creative alternative emerging – which moved seamlessly and very pleasantly from the ‘pizza’ stage to the ‘secret underground cocktail bar entered through a fake fridge door’ stage. And let’s not forget the evening that Lucy, Grace and I went out for numerous jugs of sangria – a set-up which, admittedly, sounds worthy of a sitcom but was actually entirely lovely. Apart from the discussion of variable rents across the country, which made me weep inside.
I feel leaving this photo uncaptioned may be the wisest course
I won’t pretend there was a linking thread through this post, but at least I used full sentences 
Other cool things this month: playing Plants vs. Zombies, finally finishing The Scramble For Africa, upgrading to Spotify Premium and many, many burritos.
I’m sure my relative quietness on education and schools recently has been a blessed relief – although for those around me it’s probably been replaced by excess chatter about Groupon deals. Anyway, for one night only I’m afraid you’ll have to endure yet more, because today was Retro Comprehensive Evangelism Day!
Having taken the morning off work, Hannah (in the @HforHannah sense) were welcomed into Latymer Upper School – as ambassadors from state school world – to talk with, and be questioned by, a group of Year 10 students. (In this we were merely following in the footsteps of other QPCSers who have done the same thing in previous years, like Marion and Miles.)
I wasn’t going to blog about the students too much, but suffice to say they were all engaged and open to discussing the whole state/private divide. Which is actually pretty brave of them, given that my aim is always to plant the idea that it doesn’t have to stay that way. You don’t have to send your own children to the same kind of institutions you were sent to – it didn’t happen to me, for a start. But it can’t be a ‘sacrifice’. We have to prove that comprehensives really can do education better, and that starts by standing up and putting a human face on a system which will never compete in power and prestige. So, yes, it was really good to speak to them – and kudos to Latymer for allowing the whole exercise in the first place.
There was a slight weird coda to the day, too. Through an unexpected work connection I ended up seeing Andy Burnham speak in Tower Hamlets tonight, and after asking my obligatory question about schools he gave a long answer which effectively summed up School Wars! Nice to know these things are all a little bit circular
Blurry photos from the pub will recommence next post. Which may or may not be written entirely on the Tube home…
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