I couldn't have liked it more

Six weeks just flew by. It's all over tomorrow, and you probably already know I've got plans to have a drink after work. I almost regret it's over, but I quickly recover from that.

A report? If I've lost any weight A) it's negligible and B) it's more likely because I've been going to the gym these past few weeks. But my skin looks healthy, and I feel relaxed; socially crutchless and fine for it. The husband says I'm "prettier, fitter, healthier". I've become a bit of a prig maybe. Perhaps I'll do it again next year.

As for this blog, well I can't see doing much more updating on it beyond the next few days - although perhaps I'll pop an update on it every now and then, if it's relevant. If I do Lent again, or go completely teetotal (I'd bet on the former rather than the latter) I'll revive it next time. I realise some (including my husband, and Peter) assumed that the '40 days' of the title referred to 40 daily entries, and were disappointed at my more lackadaisical approach. Maybe it's a guy thing! I was only making an allusion, biblical - natch, to the 40 days Jesus spent being tempted and the 40 days Moses spent on the mountain. It was not a particularly serious allusion, mind. Nor was it even 40 days! Never fear, I'm getting the hang of this blogging and if you're lucky/unlucky I'll let you know where my next one is.

On the penultimate day of my booze fast I'll leave you with these lyrics, some of the best I've ever seen on the joys and terrors of an awfully good party.

I love how it starts off with those bright young things - Nou Nou, Nada and Nell. But poor Millicent arrives with her sensationally decadent comb, then the comparison to the end of the Roman Empire adds to the sugestion there's something a bit more jaded going on. The suggestion they all might be at the same party one hundred years hence is both exhilarating and terrifying. Notice how slowly the revellers start to age and disintegrate? Why else would Freddy be wearing a truss and what did happen to Elise's bust?

Of course, I aspire to be Elsie - indeed, "if you're supple you've nothing to fear" -

Cheers

I went to a marvelous party, by Noel Coward

Verse 1
Quite for no reason
I'm here for the Season
And high as a kite,
Living in error
With Maud at Cap Ferrat
Which couldn't be right.
Everyone's here and frightfully gay,
Nobody cares what people say,
Though the Riviera
Seems really much queerer
Than Rome at it's height,
Yesterday night-

Refrain 1
I went to a marvelous party
With Nounou and Nada and Nell,
It was in the fresh air
And we went as we were
And we stayed as we were
Which was Hell.
Poor Grace started singing at midnight
And didn't stop singing till four;
We knew the excitement was bound to begin
When Laura got blind on Dubonnet and gin
And scratched her veneer with a Cartier pin,
I couldn't have liked it more.

Refrain 2
I went to a marvelous party,
I must say the fun was intense,
We all had to do
What the people we knew
Would be doing a hundred years hence.
Dear Cecil arrived wearing armour,
Some shells and a black feather boa,
Poor Millicent wore a surrealist comb
Made of bits of mosaic from St. Peter's in Rome,
But the weight was so great that she had to go home,
I couldn't have liked it more.

Verse 2
People's behaviour
Away from Belgravia
Would make you aghast,
So much variety
Watching society
Scampering past,
If you have any mind at all
Gibbon's divine Decline and Fall
Seems pretty flimsy,
No more than a whimsy,
By way of contrast
On Saturday last-

Refrain 3
I went to a marvelous party,
We didn't start dinner till ten
And young Bobbie Carr
Did a stunt at the bar
With a lot of extraordinary men;
Dear Baba arrived with a turtle
Which shattered us all to the core,
The Grand Duke was dancing a foxtrot with me
When suddenly Cyril screamed “Fiddledidee”
And ripped off his trousers and jumped in the sea,
I couldn't have liked it more.

Refrain 4
I went to a marvelous party,
Elise made an entrance with May
You'd never have guessed
From her fisherman's vest
That her bust had been whittled away.
Poor Lulu got fried on Chianti
And talked about esprit de corps.
Maurice made a couple of passes at Gus
And Freddie, who hates any kind of a fuss,
Did half the Big Apple and twisted his truss,
I couldn't have liked it more.

refrain 5
I went to a marvellous party.
We played the most wonderful game,
Maureen disappeared
And came back in a beard
And we all had to guess at her name!
We talked about growing old gracefully
And Elsie who's seventy-four
Said, “A, it's a question of being sincere,
And B, if you're supple you've nothing to fear.”
Then she swung upside down from a glass chandelier,
I couldn't have liked it more.