On Friday night I travelled to London to visit Deepali for her Halloween/Diwali party. We called it Hallowali. I was itching to go as I missed Halloween/Diwali entirely while I was poorly in bed. And I missed people. Non-coworker people. I dressed as a bunny and aggressively advocated for Pali to dress as Betty Boop and we partied alllll night. I don’t fully remember what happened but I do know that it was wonderful. And the day after that was wonderful, and the day after that and the day after that…
I wanted to make this short and snappy but I don’t think I can.
Again, the party was fabulous; I invited my friend Poppy and she gelled with everyone like I knew she would. We ended up drunk calling our old boss. Pali and I danced to Desi Girl by Dostana maybe three times in a row.
The next morning, all of us girls went out for brunch and it was inspired. Maybe the girls knew I was feeling a bit down because this was simply the best pick-me-up ever (EVERYONE WAS SO NICE TO ME). These days I’ve been feeling quite lonely so I was super affectionate with everyone and everyone reciprocated and it was a very sweet feeling. I think I’m unlearning to not feel weird about it.
Pali’s mum came to visit later and we went out for a meal in Chinatown, bought some taiyaki from the bakery, and went home to watch Strictly Come Dancing over some chamomile tea.
The next day I went to the Tate with my friend Dylan who I had missed a bunch and we had a great big catch-up. Then I had to rush off to watch the performance Deepali produced at Almeida Theatre which was just so lovely. It was called “Unearthed: Extracts” and included a range of performances that told individual stories about minorities living in the UK in the 50s and 60s.
We managed to convince Pali’s mum to come to the pub with us afterwards and she was very cool about it, even with all the bras hanging from the ceiling. I ended up extending my trip by an extra day, because I just wasn’t ready to go home yet. My mum called to tell me that she understood how I felt, which I appreciate a lot. I’m home now and I’m lonely again.
