Something happened that I can blog about!

Ok! Fun weekend. Started on Friday, ended on Sunday, as most weekends do. Here goes!

Friday night was Steph's high school graduation, but since I'm an ocean and half a continent away and the Internet was down (again), it was Disney trvial pursuit night. Oh, also The End.

I will explain. The End is a traditional enormous party always held the night of the last day of exams. Basically everyone gets as drunk as they can, as fast as they can, and crowds into the squares and has a huge party with loud music and, why not, more drinking. Vicki invited me down to Laura's flat to play Disney trivial pursuit with her, Lucy, and Laura, and so I did. They all started drinking of course because it's still The End even in the kitchen of flat four. That was fine, because we got Chinese and, as the night went on, I seemed to get smarter and smarter... Why yes, yes I did win. Twice.

We did pop down to the squares for a bit just to check it out. It was sooooo crowded. Vicki, Laura, and Lucy are fine drunks though. Lucy holds her drink very well, Vicki falls quite gracefully, and Laura had the good sense to go to bed before she was embarassingly ill. Experienced drinkers, these... Anyhow, we made an early night of it and went to bed to be well rested for the carnival the next day.

The carnival is another Essex tradition, known formally as Summer Ball. You're required to wear formal dress, and you go out to a big carnival around 9:30 and party until 6:30 the next morning. The weather yesterday was so miserable that they relaxed the dress code to "smart casual", but no one listened. The fools.

It rained all day. Thankfully it let up in the evening, but the fairground was one marshy, muddy, disgusting mess. Didn't stop girls from wearing floor length dresses and stilettos, of course. I saw girls walking around stained with mud up to the ankles. I dressed sensibly: I wore boots and my trenchcoat over my dress, even though Laura and Vicki were of the opinion I looked like a mobster : P The boots were waterproof and easy to clean afterward, as well as high enough to keep the hem of my dress out of the mud, with a thick enough heel that I didn't sink. The trenchcoat was because it was FREAKING COLD. Also so I wouldn't have to carry a purse.

The carnival was great. When Vicki, Laura, Laura's boyfriend Harry, and I got there we explored first. There were several tents, all with plywood floors, which was rather nice. There was a casino tent, a very large dancing tent, a smaller dancing tent specializing in alternative music, another small tent with international music, and a karaoke tent. There were food stands all over the place, a ferris wheel, bumper cars, a demonic tilt-a-whirl, and a carousel.

First we did the big dancing tent - a lot of popular British songs, but easy to dance to anyway. Then we lined up for the tilt-a-whirl. The queue was way long and took forever to get through, but it was fun anyway. We got some fresh donuts while we waited - they were really amazing. Laura and I had Vash moments. As far as the ride goes, it was worth the wait. The ride went on for rather a while, and the guys working it had a lot of fun spinning the cars faster than they ought to go. Harry and I thought it was amazing, but Vicki and Laura needed to go sit down afterward, so we went to the casino tent and hung out for a bit. Vicki ended up going back to the tower because she felt so sick. Laura, Harry, and I decided to stay a while longer.

We rode the carousel next - riding a carousel horse side-saddle makes you feel really elegant! Of course there was no other way to do it, not in a long narrow skirt. Luckily there's a big pole to hang on to. After that we decided we wanted food. I got chips and more donuts. The chips were so-so, but they were hot, which was all anyone wanted. Then we got hot chocolates and went back to the casino tent because we were so cold. After warming up for a bit we headed over to the karaoke tent because Harry said he'd do it. He totally backed out at the last minute, but I did get to see Ben, Tom, and a couple other guys do a horrible rendition of "Roxanne". It was very amusing.

After that it was close to three, so we decided to call it a night. I got back to my room, cleaned my shoes, and collapsed. Stayed up an hour longer just because, but then remembered Mass in the morning. Went to bed.

I slept really hard. I was sore when I woke up, a combination of the tilt a whirl of doom and not moving while I slept. Mass had just as many people as usual. I guess I didn't realize how much of the standard congregation are adults. I was expecting everyone to be sleeping off the previous night. Anyway, that was my last Mass at the multifaith chaplaincy centre. The next one will be in... Liverpool? Ireland? I don't know : P

Tomorrow I plan to go down to Tesco and buy a case of water and haul it back up the hill. Argh. I hope they sell little cases... six packs? That would be good... Then Tuesday if the weather's nice I'll head into town and look for a book to read on the plane.

Only 4 and a half more days! I need to pack... yee...

Oh yeah, I bet you're wondering about pictures... It'll be a separate post, for the simple reason that I am on my bed under a computer and my camera is all the way across the room on a desk. Yeah.