Blerg.

I'm not feeling well right now, I think I have an ear infection and I certainly have quite a sore throat. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow and I have been stocking up on orange juice, echinacea, and vitamin D. So hopefully it will all be well soon.

That being said, probably sleeping on couches the past two nights has not helped.

Last night I was at Laura's house for Lara's last day in Europe. (She had been in Europe for 8 months, so I was quite honored that they let me hang out with them on her last night.) Lara had come to my flat earlier in the day and we had traded the complicated body rhythms that I have been learning for some African dancing that she had learned along the road. It was pretty great until the security guard called up to the flat saying we were being too loud and he was going to call the police- which is utterly ridiculous because it was 6:30pm and even if our clapping was loud- we were still squarely in the "practice" hours so whatever. Someone was being irrationally fussy.

So we gave up on our super cool, but loud clapping games and instead got out the bass and Lara's fiddle. She played me an Iraqi folk tune and I played her the first movement of the Eccles sonata (I really need to memorize more music...) and then we messed around with the mode that Poucha Dass is written in and jammed with that for a while. We were supposed to meet up with Laura for dinner so that didn't go on nearly as long as I would have liked, but oh well.

We met Laura out by London Fields and then walked around far more of Hackney than we intended to trying to find a restaurant. We ended up at a charming (but very cold) Georgian restaurant. So that was nice.

Saturday night I stayed at Jill, Natasha, and Heather's house. Their party was wonderful. Lots of inter-year bonding, good costumes, and silliness. The American cello trio were dressed as Orion's belt, which I thought was terribly clever. They each had on silver dresses and a glowing star necklace and ridiculous hair. I'd post a picture, but I ended up forgetting to photograph the party even though I brought the camera along...

At about 3:30am the party changed tone from dancing about and having squat wars (two people crouch and then try to knock each other over) to everyone lounging about and listening to Kajali (not sure if that is how you spell it), a Kora player from Senegal and his girlfriend Rahana (again, not sure if that is spelled correctly) an American singer who has spent the last two or three years studying Indian raga singing. It was blissful.

11 people ended up spending the night, piled in little heaps and then in the "morning" (the sun was already rising when I finally fell asleep) we made poached eggs and toast. So that was lovely, but probably did not help my cold/ear infection/whatever.

So now the question is: do I go see fireworks tonight, or do I be a good little girl and stay in and try to get healthy?