:: Extra Value Economy News - Part 2 ::

And so on to news of my weekend. Things started of well with the onset of a cast party for Twelfth Night. It all seems a long way away (performances are at the end of July), but the director wanted everyone in this enormous production to get to know each other before rehearsals commnece on 23rd April which is, appropriately enough, Shakespeare's birthday. So I turned up at this do, expecting much cheap wine and a few peanuts and twiglets. In fact we were treated to a veritable feast of roasted meats, lasagne, tarts and home-made hummous. The director's husband, who is a big-shot London theatre producer, was demoted for the evening to the role of wine waiter - which seemed a direct reflection of the Lord of Misrule. I caroused along with the cast and ended up having to walk a (very drunk) fellow cast member home.

My Saturday was dominated by a Jean-Pierre Jeunet double bill (Délicatessen and La Cité des Enfants Perdus), which was part of the Carte Noir London French Film Festival. My cinma companions then accompanied me to a pub and then a bar for cocktails before I realised I was horribly late for my next appointment - Not-For-Prophet's birthday. I careered across town to discover that party still in full swing and woke up fully clothed on Sunday with a splitting hangover in a friend's bed.

Fortunately I just managed to drag myself to Embankment to watch the marathon. Delooney was running to raise money for Amnesty and I saw her run past (for all of 10 seconds) and then met up with her and her parents in a bar for celebration (aaargh!) The hair of the dog trick seemed to work quite well and I was much revived. None too soon, as I then received a call from Juicy Lucy (down from Huddersfield) who wanted to meet up for drinks (double aaargh!). However, things were nice and chilled out and I returned home less drunk than I might have been ready to come to work bright and early...

...at which point the plan failed. After cooking a light supper to stave the ravening hunger, I flicked through dull TV channels to aid digestion. Waking up at 4am (fully clothed on the sofa - I think there's a pattern here) I realised that hopes of being bright as a pin today were dashed.

I did however make it into work in time and spent a productive period before office hours and during my lunch break uploading the proposed scenario for the opera and trawling the internet for these juicy morsels:

• Iraq's new TV station
• Revelations about J-Lo's loo seat
• I could do with some of these...
• b3ta's Theory of Relativity

I'm about to be chucked out of the office, so that's it till tomorrow!