Christmas Parties with the Creatures of the Night

[dotinthesky]

I went yesterday to my first (and only?) Christmas party this year. It took place in London's Southeast, supposedly near a maximum security prison, where the government has permission to shoot down any flying objects above it. The house in question stood quietly near a park, not too far from Plumstead Station. When I got off the train, I bumped into The Gay American. We walked together to the house, past Nee Naws and desolate subway paths.

There was enough food in the party to feed a troop of monkeys (or of escaped prisoners.) The hosts, Rosie and Steve, had mellow Christmas songs going, malt beer boiling and plenty of Pound Stretcher gifts to make everyone happy. More guests arrived after me, games were played, an entire bottle of screwtop red wine was drunk (by yours truly), and many many slices of carrots chewed. I managed to win a set of candles, which is fortunate since I think Suzi had planned all along for me to have them.

Suddenly, like all goth parties go, people had dropped their manners and were singing along to *Heart* at the top of their lungs. Suzi and I retired to the sofa underneath the stairs and gossiped, which seems like something we always do in parties nowadays. Paper hats were worn, pictures snapped, but thankfully everyone kept Christmas' spirit in mind and didn't expose their genitals to the room (at least while I was there). Bedrooms remained safely off limits for Lesbian shenanigans, windows remained locked against daredevils and nobody tried to crash the party despite the front door being left open for some fresh air.

Around 11:45, Suzi, myself and Aden left the party and caught a bus to Greenwich North tube. Plans were made for a future goth excursion to Brasil, where I'll be able to take everyone to Sao Paulo's one and only goth club Madame Sata, as well as the beach and my mom's farm (where the goths will be able to pet my mom's cows and horses, and breathe some good Brasilian fresh air.)

I gave my quick goodbyes to Aden and Suzi and ran to catch the last Jubilee train heading west. To my drunken shock, as I walked into the carriage I spotted Doris sitting down with some people. Doris was the first girl I became friends with when I was 17 years old and had just moved to Hong Kong. During my first weeks in high school, she sat with me in the canteen, as well as in homeroom, and was basically that friend we all have before we naturally find the crowd who will turn out to be our real friends. I did the shitty thing and dumped Doris, though we always remained in good terms -- even after she moved away to London, to a private school, but came back to Hong Kong on holidays and dated sailors. I remember going to a football match with Doris and one of her sailors -- a guy whose dream was to be a hairdresser (!?) -- and having a really good time. Years went by and I lost touch with her... so yeah, she was in the Tube last night... and I completely avoided her. I was tired, drunk, and she looked different, with her hair long and dyed blonde. But it was her. She got off at Green Park station and walked away without looking back.

Comments

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

Arrrgh I missed HEART? Gutted. I *love* HEART!

\m/ \m/

[tga.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, this is what you get for seeing Cradle of Crap!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I think even the most ardent HEART fan would put a stop to "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" being played 6 + times.

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

It *was* an accident with Steve's MP3 software to be fair!!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

By the way, thank you again for a lovely night! :)

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

No problemo! Hopefully there will be many more! :-)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I was telling Kevin about the feast he missed; he will come to the next one, even if I have to drag him. :)

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

Not sure we can afford to put on such a sumptious feast every time, but we'll do our best!!

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. That *is* one of my favourites.

I much prefer the late 80s Heart to the 70s Heart, I'm afraid.

God, I'm lame. I'm not even cool in which period of uncool bands I like.

[izzybees]

The world is so small.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It is! And fate is devious and likes to play with our heads when our guards are down and we are drunk.

[izzybees]

I'm listening to some crazy circusy music, so this comment actually gives me a very freaky feeling when combined with the circusy atmosphere I am already in. Aieeee!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

As long as you dont tie a rope between two chairs and try to do some circus acts in your living room, I think you should be fine. :)

[izzybees]

Nah, I have absolutely zero sense of balance. I somehow ended up in Gymnastics class in high school (half of us thought the class was just GYM because the rest of the word didn't show up on our schedules). My friend Nancy and I neglected to do ANY of the stunts we were supposed to; instead we built forts out of the floor mats and would hide away inside of them. Our teacher didn't care anyway. Every time I got onto the balancing beam I nearly fell off within 2 seconds, so he understood why I didn't want to do the final project: putting together our own routine. He passed me even though I didn't do anything - a LOT of my teachers did this at that school, actually. I think maybe they were told to, because of the aforementioned bomber boyfriend.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the PE classes in my school. We enrolled for Weightlifting one quarter and must of us just spent the class pretending to use the equipment. It was fine by the teacher as long as we looked busy.

[izzybees]

I took weightlifting in high school too, but our teacher was an Olympic coach so he didn't let us get away with goofing off. He was a cool guy, though, and he helped me figure out some good exercises for weird bodily problems I have. I actually enjoyed weightlifting.

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

Yay! The Caesars have been on repeat for me, lately. I ran into a friend I had in middle school once, in college, and she looked completely different. Emaciated, pimply, really unhealthy. I'm still actually not sure which of two girls she could have been. She was dating a guy I just did not like and it was weird.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

My chances of running into people from high school feel so remote because of where I studied (Singapore and Hong Kong.) To suddenly see someone from the past (which feels not only time-wise distant, but geographically too) freaks me out; it really put a spin to my evening yesterday.

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah, I can imagine that would be strange. I thought it strange enough to meet up with a friend of my old best friend's (my next-door-neighbor from 4th to 10th grade) older brother at the Met.

[sbeth76.livejournal.com]

That last paragraph was like a Hemingway short story.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I've never read any of his short stories. Any you can recommend?

[sbeth76.livejournal.com]

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/vershort.htm

That's my absolute favorite one. And there it is on the internet in its brief, majestic entirety!

Here's another one, but it's got a typo.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~conreys/101files/Otherfolders/Hillslikewhitepg.html

[la-magarita.livejournal.com]

Madame Satã!!! Que saudades!!! Bons tempos!!!

O mundo realmente é pequeno...eu estudei um ano no Canadá e fiz amizade com um mexicano de Guadalajara. Quando voltei pro Brasil e comecei a fazer cursinho, conjheci uma mexicana, de Guadalajara que era muito amiga do Paulo, meu amigo mexicano! Muito louco! Não existe a teoria de que estamos separados por 6...ou algo assim???

Não era vc que conhece uma pessoa que estudou na Escuela del Sol, o Ricardo, se não me engano. Acho que não conheço, mas com certeza ele deve conhecer algumas pessoas que eu estudei lá...

É muito louco pensar nisso!!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Descobri que voce tinha estudado na Escuela del Sol quando eu e meu amigo Henrique estavamos passeando pelo Orkut. Reconheci sua foto imediatamente! Com certeza voces tem amigos em comum daqueles tempos, e aposto que deve ter havido pelo menos uma vez quando estavamos na mesma boate/cinema/casa de show sem sabermos que um dia nos conheceriamos no Livejournal.

Hey there, just curious...

[yllyan.livejournal.com]

Just thought I'd introduce myself; I'm a friend of sore_eye_ah's from Oz but I live in London now...

seems like weird things happen in London, so many people pass through on the way to somewhere else... or end up staying a while... it's so huge and there are so many people here, it's a bit of a mecca... you can go for weeks without seeing anyone you recognise, then bump into people you knew in another place and time... you briefly connect with thousands of people you will never see again... and then you happen to sit down in the same carriage of the same tube train as a phantom from a past life... I suppose its not really that different to any other big city, but that sense of transience seems heightened to me here somehow...

what do you think of london?

Re: Hey there, just curious...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Hi there, I agree with what you wrote: there is a feeling that the city provides anonymity, and you can disappear into it, but at the same time you are at the mercy of fate and can just as easily run into someone from your past (the perils of living on a crossroad.)

I love going for walks in London and observing the life around me. Sometimes, I'll let myself wander for just an hour and, without a doubt, I witness a couple of unexpected and sometimes amusing events in that time period. When I stay at home during the weekends, I feel restless and unhappy, as if I didn't "use" the city as much as I should or could.

use the city...

[yllyan.livejournal.com]

*nods* there's always so much activity, so much going on, its exciting! (though sometimes overwhelming) but i guess thats why im here...
what about the idea that because its a crossroads there are a lot of people here that are only going to be here short term: how many people are here forever? how many just come for a while then move on? how long does it take to feel at home in london? i feel like there are a lot of places that are initially more welcoming but that once you spend a while here it starts to suck you in and it grows on you over time...

Re: use the city...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

there are a lot of people here that are only going to be here short term

I'm an example of that. I moved here four years ago with my boyfriend, but we always knew it was temporary. We might be moving to Canada next Summer, if all goes to plan.

How long have you been in London?

london

[yllyan.livejournal.com]

I've lived here... well, its a long story. permanently since about march/april. i wasnt initially going to stay here, i wanted to live in the netherlands or germany. kinda just turned up with a suitcase and wondered what to do next. london has sucked me in tho... i ran out of money so it was either stay here and work or go home to australia. and since i didnt like the second option the first seemed like a good plan. however, trying to be an artist in one of the most expensive cities in the world is something of an... interesting... idea... lots of people, lots of contacts to be made, lots of stuff to do, but with no money its kinda hard to make use of the stuff this city has to offer... the only way is by just getting to know other people into the same stuff and trying to do stuff without money, and its hard to get to know people if you dont have money in the first place *holdshead*

where did you come from originally? whats the deal with canada? sounds like an attractive prospect from what ive heard... would that be a permanent thing? i know ppl from there and ppl moving there and ppl living there at the moment... well of course sore_eye_ah is there at mo...

where's yr BF from; same as you or somewhere else?

im still wondering if london is a place you can live in permanently... i dont know many people that have always lived here but my housemate(he's english) assures me that they do exist and that there are people who love it and want to stay here forever...

Re: london

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Lots of questions! Which deserve very long answers... well, how about a add your journal to mine and we go from there? ;-)

El mundo es un pañuelo

[la-mascherina.livejournal.com]

I had the reverse experience in Hong Kong, I bumped into an old friend from Edinburgh Uni near the central MTR, we caught up as if four years hadn't passed at all.
If you get the chance again, would you like to catch up where you left off with her?

Did you hear or read about the Democracy march in HK?

Congrats on the new job by the way, working for the Goth tourist board and all. ; P
.... where the goths will be able to pet my mum's cows and horses *tickled*

Re: El mundo es un pañuelo

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I didn't hear anything about this Democracy march, though I know there's been sporadic bursts of protests in HK since 97. *goes look for it in news sources*

Re: El mundo es un pañuelo

[la-mascherina.livejournal.com]

Here you go:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4496556.stm

We got caught up with a conga of protesters near Lockhart road, last year. There was everybody from workers to families with little ones and grandparents who looked like they didn't know really what was going on and would have probably been happier at home. Yet it was peaceful, for a forceful march.

Re: El mundo es un pañuelo

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for the link... I'm glad to see they are protesting. They must still remember so vividly what they had prior to 97, and it's a good sign for their society that they won't let it disappear without a fight.

Re: El mundo es un pañuelo

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That anonymous comment was me!