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Way up to Mars
2009-08-02 | 7:28 p.m.

I had one of those hilarious (and I use the term 'hilarious' loosely) moments where I woke up yesterday and didn't have a clue where I was. It turned out I was in Loughborough, at my friend Chris's house. And unfortunately had my parents (mum and stepdad) due to be dropping in on me 180 miles away in London and taking me out for lunch. Marvellous.

I think Men Behaving Badly really has been rubbing off on me far too much (though I am far more a Gary or Tony rather than a Dorothy or Debs).

On Friday I didn't have any plans other than going to work. I had a jury out (which meant I was sat in the office slacking), my judge had to leave at 1 o'clock and through the wonder of the Internet I discovered my friend Chris from uni had the day off and also no plans. So a spontaneous reunion in Leicester was arranged and by 13.55 I was on a train heading out of St Pancras.

After a near death experience (seriously - 20 minutes into the journey a heavy, clunky piece of luggage from above crashed on to the seat I had originally been sitting in. I had moved seconds before we set off because I like to face the way the train's travelling, rather than backwards) I arrived in my old uni city by 3 o'clock, met Chris and went to our erstwhile local, the Old Horse. Then after a bit we went and met his (and mine - at uni at least) friend Alex who was out for some birthday drinks with his mates. I was brought along as a 'mystery guest' which was amusing. And then the next thing I remember is the place we were in no longer serving food and things got very fuzzy indeed. Hence the waking up in Loughborough.

Luckily Chris looked up my train times and ensured I would be back in London in time for my parents' arrival. My mum rang me as I was walking to get the Tube and said they were slightly delayed, which I would have danced a jig of joy to had my head not felt like a fragile crystal swan that already had a few cracks in it.

When I got home I flopped onto my bed and far sooner than expected was woken up by my mum ringing saying they were 15 minutes away. I made it through lunch, and bringing them back for a cup of tea and then a walk around Wandsworth Common, but I don't really know how.

Today I ran 10.5 km in the gym then headed into Greenwich, so I feel slightly better about Friday night's consumption of approximately one month's worth of alcohol units in one sitting.

Ahh.

In other news I've been thinking about my career and not wanting to work at the Old Bailey forever/not having that option anyway as Digital Is Coming (probably not for a couple of years yet, but its implementation in other court centres is happening this autumn) and I think the next step for me, though not for a good while, will be working with the deaf - being their ears, essentially, and providing a live transcript of meetings and suchlike. I find the idea of this massively appealing.

In other, sadder, news my grandad in Devon is doing really, really badly and is in the advanced stages of senile dementia. I'm going down to see him next Saturday with my dad, stepmum and brother. I feel awful but I'm not looking forward to it at all. I wonder if he will know who I am - his granddaughter to whom he would give chocolate buttons to as a child, pretending they were put in the fridge by 'the magic man'. Don't get me wrong - I'm glad I'm going to see him, just I don't really know what to expect.

I don't want to end this on a low so I'll let you into a small secret: I've met someone who makes me feel absolutely giddy (which is nice after all that bollocks with the court clerk) and who seems to like me. Of course I fully expect things to fuck up as per the story of my love life for the past few years, but I can only see how things go.

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