...or to be more accurate, another night where I <em>should</em> be doing some music work, but I've managed to faff about until 8pm so far. My first minor panic involved not being able to find my MOT etc. to get my tax disc tomorrow. I eventually decided that it must have gone into the recycling and resigned myself to an 80 quid fine and a load of hassle. However, it turned out that it was in my work bag all along, so I had a beer to calm myself down. Time has somehow slipped away further since then. Once I get this blog entry done though... yes.. that's when I'll start on cramming four weeks of work into the remaining 4 days before my assignment is due in. I work (best) under pressure.<br /><br />Anyway, what has been happening? Mostly work. Last week I was in London for a work training thing. I went down on Saturday for drinking and fun at the Seymour Place Salon and a good time was had by all. There was some competitive 'Taboo!' and I met my first right-wing Australians. Afterwards we retired to the pub and watched Finland win the Eurovision Song Contest, much as I'd hoped they would (but in one of the way that you hope for something that you know is impossible). Fantastic. After the pub we went back and talked nonsense until the early hours.<br /><br />On Sunday morning it was raining a lot, but that didn't stop us visiting almost every eatery in the area trying to decide where to have breakfast. Eventually we ended-up in the planned choice, <a href="http://www.theprovidores.co.uk/prv.html">Providores</a>, on Marylebone High Street. The Turkish poached eggs were excellent. A casual day of lounging around followed, but we managed to get some geekiness in there with a trip to Maplins on Edgeware Road.<br /><br />On Monday I get to the Radisson Edwardian hotel in Heathrow nice and early for my week long training course. It was interesting and actually useful, plus the hotel had top food. We got the level of drinking down to a level I could cope with this time too - it was quite hardcore on the last training course! The hotel itself was massive and seemed to be a corporate favourite. Our merry band was small compared to the large group from an 'ethical pharmaceutical company' who seemed to employ mainly attractive women in their twenties. Top stuff. Their fancy dress party on Monday night was most amusing.<br /><br />On Friday the course finished at midday so I went into town with a colleague to see X-Men III at the Odeon in Whiteleys. It was ok, although I felt it could have been a bit longer as it was all rather rushed. He then headed off and I met Dave and we went for some food at The Shish on Queensway where I accidentally had some nuts and felt all allergic for a bit. Afterwards we went to the The Old Duke and sat out on the balcony where we talked to two random Oxbridge escorts. It was all quite bizarre but they were friendly enough and invited us to a strange non-drinking lock-in. At one point I thought they may have been trying it on but one of them had this weird bloke hanging around. London eh? I don't know what the hell is going on there most of the time.<br /><br />Oxbrige people are funny. Usually I'm with the 'they're just like us' brigade. After all, I did go to a private school so I can relate to being called 'posh' and having kids from other schools randomly abuse me, so I'm usually the first to defend those who seem to attract such treatment. Sometimes it does begin to grate though, as was the case on Friday night. We fell into the whole university thing and it ended-up with the 'of course we're better because we went to Oxford' thing. Of course it's probably true that academically Oxbridge types have to be better qualified to get in, but it does result in some badly adjusted people coming out the other end who seem incapable of dealing with non-Oxbridge people. I guess people stick to what they know but I have to bite my tongue when I hear someone saying they could never marry someone who didn't go to Oxford. It's very weird, and in a way it makes me feel like I'm being judged, if indirectly. Maybe I'm just oversensitive. Anyway, you can <a href="http://www.takemetodinner.co.uk/">pay to go out with</a> both of the girls I met on Friday (and plenty more like them) if that sort of thing floats your boat. Look under the 'elite' section. Says it all really. Thankfully the vast majority of Oxbridge graduates I know are lovely people, but I'm sure they know people who suffer from the whole elitism thing. Mind you, perhaps I'm guilty of the same thing (although in my case it would be graduates, rather than Oxbridge graduates)? I don't think so though.