Sunday I woke up rather later than I'd intended, but what the heck. Fi came round to visit Kate, and kindly gave me a lift to the Radcliffe Camera so I could walk the short distance to Cyg's, where most people had gone Sainsburying. Spent a happy time with Alex et al scorning gay lifestyle magazines. Then to Christ Church fields where we all got lost w.r.t. each other, and there was much wandering until the picnic finally coalesced. In contrast to Saturday's being an excellent pain day, Sunday was not so good, but that's what drugs are for, n'est ce pas? I'm much with the stiff upper lip when I want to be. Anyway, it meant that Michelle didn't need to feel awkward about walking slowly, since I was much the slower of us. Unfortunately I think the drugs rather prevented my noticing something, of which more anon. During the picnic, delight was taken in an adjacent bunch of
Alas, some had to leave at this point, but the residue realised that the remainder made for filling two punts, so more punting ensued: rather more successfully on Ben's part than on Cyg's, though at least Cyg didn't fall in. No Pimms today, but there were alcopops and so on, and a merry time was had. Then a repeat of the ice cream, and back to Cyg's for the last goodbyes on my part. Kate came to pick me up, and then we spent a happy evening and night talking. I'd forgotten how much I love spending time with her. One thing that did come up was a discussion of my music, and I offered to mail her a couple of the files - whereupon she suggested I dump them all to a CD instead. I had to point out, somewhat shamefacedly, that, antique t00b that I am, I have no CD writer - at which point, after she'd finished spluttering, she said that she'd buy me one in the morning, since they were so cheap. We also planned cooking an Atkins-friendly birthday cake for Fi the following day.
That night (well, OK, early morning) I was ill. Headache. Muscle tremor. Alternating hot and cold flushes, and running with sweat. When Kate came to wake me, I was literally dripping with sweat. We suspect sun/heatstroke. She was deeply kind, took wonderful care of me, and insisted on driving me home so that I didn't have to deal with trains and buses. It turned out to be even cheaper to buy a CD writer online, so she ordered me one which should arrive here any day now.
By yesterday evening I felt well enough - though not well - to go to what was presumably the final Deadlands session, which went splendidly, and my pickled chilis were much enjoyed by the braver among us. Then home to bed, and a long long sleep from which I have pretty much just awoken, feeling almost human again.
All in all, a wonderful weekend, and many thanks to everyone who helped make it so.
