The Susanne

‘I think you are wrong, Basil, but I won’t argue with you. It is only the intel­lec­tu­ally lost who ever argue. Tell me, is Dorian Gray very fond of you?’

The painter con­sidered for a few moments. ‘He likes me,’ he answered after a pause; ‘I know he likes me. Of course I flat­ter him dread­fully. I find a strange pleas­ure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said. As a rule, he is charm­ing to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thou­sand things. Now and then, how­ever, he is hor­ribly thought­less, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat,
a bit of dec­or­a­tion to charm his vanity, an orna­ment for a summer’s day.’

(The Pic­ture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde)

The Best­friend just spent a long week­end with me. It was pos­sibly the best time I’ve had in almost three years. (Since she moved to Hungry Hun­gary) I am sure she is my lucky charm. Whenever we are together some­thing utterly amaz­ing always hap­pens. Like this week­end when we wanted a pub to show the Derby-​Fulham match. They weren’t going to show it, they said. Dammit. Went home, coaxed and threatened The Boyfriend’s band­mates to skip band prac­tice and come to the pub with us instead so they’d show the match. Of course it didn’t happen.

But here’s the mir­acle of The Best­friend:
When we got to the pub, the man in charge poin­ted us to a sep­ar­ate room in the back. With sofas. And a gigantic screen cov­er­ing a whole wall. And that’s where they were show­ing our match. Yeah! Only cause we’re pretty of course. We’re such a magic team. Too bad Fulham didn’t win, and will be releg­ated. But now I’ve seen a match I can begin call­ing myself a sup­porter. And I’ll sup­port them in the league below. Big fish in a small pond and all that.

We then met up with a whole bunch of people from the past. Strangely they barely men­tioned the fact that we have not been in touch. They were simply just as cool and sweet and fun as if no time had passed. Brilliant!

Sadly, the oh so rare visit is over. I am exhausted. I believe I’m becom­ing too old for week­end long bouts of drink­ing. I even some­how found myself at uni two hours early today, having been too con­fused to check at what time my tutorial was. At least I got to spend the extra time read­ing Dorian Gray. Lovely book. Abso­lutely amazing.

Peace.

I am writ­ing an essay on Tess of the D’Urbervilles. It is the first time I have come up with an idea about what I want to write, then an essay out­line, and THEN star­ted writ­ing, in my entire car­reer as a stu­dent. I feel so… well, I feel good. And clever! True, my essay is due tomor­row and I only star­ted writ­ing today. But I will do it! I will com­plete my mag­ni­fi­cent essay and reap the glor­i­ous rewards.