Cod on!

Word. I am still thoroughly blind. Alas and alack. So after waking up on the tiger skin rug, I eventually persuaded leather boots man to let me go. So it got to Sunday morning and Rosanne woke me up at about half past seven because we were setting off to bath.

"A girl.. then two boys.. then another girl.. then two girls.. then a boy.."

Together with Donatello who had hit his head on the wall and was seeing colours we strolled down to collect our tickets from the station, and then went to go see Zak and Bam at the Car Boot Sale where they were selling a typewriter and other assorted goods. Daniel Taylor went to work and we codded on to the train. We wrote the words "Cod on" on a page of notebook, as a total quota of coddings we were permitted to utter. The train announcer treated us to some of his guitar chords. Old people sat next to us. That was cool. Then suddenly, in Bath, which is all Sandstone, along Upper Bedford Road and to Matt's pub, which he lives above. That familiar crippled form waving at us from the top window, and then down comes Matt. We sit outside the pub with Matt, Sophie and other Bath-folks and then go up to see Matt's room, where we sit around for a bit.

Now Matt had told us that there was going to be a 'street party' going on in Bath. But a 'street party' could be anything from a small amount of people limbo-dancing in the road to a proper full on rave. Eventually we get around to setting out to go look at this party. The other week M the C jumped out of his window because he saw a friend of his walking a dog past. Landed on a picnic bench where two girls were having a drink- did his knee in but got their phone numbers.

"I've got to be back here at four for another practice."
"Matt, it's half past four now."
"Oh well. Lets go then."

My god. They weren't joking when they said street party. The place was packed, a great big heaving road full of sound systems, reggae, hippies, spangled people, stalls, and that smell in the air you get at festivals.. smoke in the air from a rolly on a summers day... there were strips of turf along the ground for reasons that didn't need to be explained.. we bumped into Sarah but then we lost Matt and Sarah in the crowd and bought some cans of beer. Strolling up through the crowded street, some crazy people with terrifying grins, and pounding pounding psytrance, "I didn't like it at first but then I took a load of drugs and listened to it for seven hours and it's BRILLIANT" . . . walking back and we meet up with Matt and Sarah again and then this guy is clawing at my back making teen wolf noises more of the street and then gradually we keep searching for some cod on and Matt has to go off to the pub to play bass and so we head on to the pub and we finally catch up with Ed who is beefy and we get some ales and cider and meet the rest of the kids from Bath. Matt plays his bass with notable flourishes, up and down the stairs we run to the back to the street and we finally get a cod on and then meet this man called David who is wearing an unusual millitary style coat above his bare chest and we bring him back but then as he disappears inside we find some crutches in the street and Matt the Cripple stumbles home as we carry his bass and back to the pub where Matt works and up to the roof where we sit on the roof and watch the sun set and then back to the party downstairs for beefy has booked out the whole of downstairs and it is a rococo lounge which is massive and there is a barbeque and apparently but I don't remember it Matt and Rosanne are trying to open a bottle of tomato sauce and it exploded and went all over rosie and all over her clothes and face and matt licked it all off her face and then rubbed the tomato sauce that was in her hair into her hair but she can't remember it either and then she phoned tommy and becky and we go to find records in Matt's room and Rosie has fallen asleep along with Sarah on his bed and we try our hardest to wake them but no avail and return back downstairs and I meet many people from Bath and Haywards Heath who are all lovely and gradually the party finishes and I think I have lost my bag but it is actually somewhere and matt finds it and then we manage to wake up rosanne and sarah and so we go to beefys house but matt gives me two bottles of wine to carry but I drop one of them and then we get to beefys house and I pass out for a bit but wake up and then we meet this guy called will who said something mean to me and then I try to go home but we are in bath so I don't and he is actually probably quite nice and then we go to this other house where matt made a sculpture out of a mirror and a washing line and this man is trying to make me go to the shop and I pass out for a bit there I think and then back home and I am wearing Matt's sunglasses and we climb over a wall and find outselves very close home and we get back and there is nothing but a room with two people asleep in it and contrary to our expectations we find Beefy's Noodles and a breakfast in a can and so we cook up the noodles and matt cooks up the breakfast in a can which is beans and hash browns and sausages and then we are eating the noodles but then the breakfast goes in on the noodles and he is drinking gravy from the bean tin and eating mush and then we fall asleep for two hours and then me and rosie wake up and leave matt a note and go out to explore bath

so bath is lovely, although it is a bit of a maze for us, and we go in many circles. we look at childrens clothes and squishy skin cleansing products that make your hands all clammy and glittery, we buy sandwiches and find a park to sit and eat them. we try to go look at the abbey and the roman baths but end up in a craft fair, where we try and decide which dog picture Tom would buy, we see a man with slumpy feet. we arrange to meet Matt at Jay's Cafe, which actually turns out to be called the Jazz Cafe, and we have a cup of tea and read "Ireland's Own". Rosanne mutters about crocodiles. Matt and Sarah and (?Mark?) turn up and then we set off to go to the bank and go to the loo in waterstones and then Matt gets a call from beefy and it turns out his boss wants to meet up for a chat.

so me and rosie have to go back to matt's house to get our stuff so we go a ridiculously roundabout way back to the pub and we have matt's keys so we get our stuff and then we go back to meet sarah and mark? and matt at the jazz cafe and it turns out that matt has lost his house and his job. however he may be moving to brighton to exercise show ponies so we sent him a load of property papers from Brighton. after a sad farewell to matt and the kids from bath we buy a packed lunch, I buy the ploughmans sandwich and rosanne goes for a prawn layer. on the train, we eat our lunches but drift off into a sleep and miss our stop. getting off in fratton, we are faced by maniacs with ghetto blasters and a cross drunk racist girl. eventually as the annoncer tells us the stations too many times we draw into brighton and head home in time to see anna hall sicking up and into a deep sleep catchiing up on deep sleep