I’m sorry, I’m not drinking due to the police incident. Yes, they asked me to leave my car there, hopefully I can collect it later.

I can play that up nicely until you realise that I have no idea what the police incident was, the car park exit was closed hence the car still being parked in the car park, and that all things considered it wasn’t that inconvenient, I just didn’t have a chance to get changed properly for the meal as it had taken me 1.25 hours to go down two floors of the car park. I listened to a lot of the book of Genesis on my audio Bible though so it’s not lost time.

I made it to J’s meal eventually – her second hen night. There were about 10 if us, and it didn’t take long for me to realise that a lot more people knew of me than I knew them

Oh so you’re Mary… I work with your mum…

Oh, yes, Mary knows him from Church…

Oh you’re Mary – you used to play with my daughter when you were 10, you have changed…

There are times when it’s good to still live in the community you grew up in, and times when it’s not. I’ll let you decide which is which.

Still, it made conversation easier over the food. As ever, when they all wandered off towards a bar I panicked and went home. Not quite sure why I like pubs so much but can’t handle bars… Although at the moment it’s more just not handling large groups of people in noisy places. Which, conveniently, is also my current excuse for not going to the gym... :-)