1st Friday of the month

so it must be bookgroup...

The number of people who turn up to BG varies every month, just because people have other lives and other commitments, one month there were just 2 of us and then there are nights like yesterday when we have to keep adding tables and gradually the over riding noise in the Black Cat is that of English (I'd say English voices but that would be wrong since we are a pretty diverse group of English speakers - Shanghai, India, Florida, Australia, Wales, Canada, Portugal...and all speaking English better than the Liverpudlian and the Brummie) at least last night we managed not to break into song (has happened twice so far, Bohemian Rhapsody & an Abba medley) but that was probably down to the absence of Jenny and (big) Rebecca (she's 9foot tall I'm sure) who are neither shy nor retiring.

By the end of the evening we were 15 and had scared away 1 table of quiet Germans, not that the proprietor would complain, we are a regular (does once a month count as regular?) booking (when we remember to book that is) and we don't just sit there drinking water, in a four hour period a number of bottles can be emptied - especially if (big) Rebecca and Kamesh are there (both were AWOL last night, although Kamesh wasn't expected as he's just hit Ibiza on the last leg of his 'Kamesh does Europe Tour') Unfortunately the largeness of the group and the weird shape of the table meant that it was impossible to have a proper discussion about the book (because that's what always happens at BG right? We spend at least...5 minutes talking earnestly about the book*) unlike the Dusseldorf BG apparently (which Michelle also goes to, or should I say used to go to) who have starting laying down rules about presenting the book you want to suggest and preparing questions...snigger, a bit too earnest, they probably all drink just water too!

So if we didn't talk about the book (although it turned out that about half of us had actually read the book - the Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton) what did we talk about?

- the 'joys' of the circus, especially one where 100 children between the ages of 3 & 6 are the acts and the show is over 3 hours long - Rebecca was literally gagging for a drink by the time she got to the bar
- what Ian plans to do next, if he manages to get early retirement from RWE
- Sam's favourite book - something about the devil visiting somewhere...it's really satirical apparently
- the fantastic BBC Sherlock, which was on in August and was truly AMAZING
- where a group of girls can go for a boogie without looking like they're trying to pull and without having to suffer techno/rave music
- the possibilities of going to Glastonbury next year
- watching live music, Michelle saw Keane and Franz Ferdinand in a small French club a couple of years ago and we're off to see Scissor Sisters in Köln in November and Arcade Fire too and maybe Sheryl Crow & maybe the Gossip

It was a good night, we even managed to agree on a book for next month, mainly because Leah was the only one who'd brought a book suggestion along and no-one else had any other ideas, and by the time I got home at just before pumkin time** my voice had almost disappeared (the effects of wine or my cold or both)


* complete fabrication, 5 minutes maybe. Earnestly? No. Heatedly, possibly - I'm often ranting how rubbish the book was and how I didn't finish it.
** midnight obviously, if you know your fairy tales