Finger f*cked

Colindale, London, England // 6.49 pm // Mostly cloudy 16ºc / 61ºf

Finding it pretty difficult to type right now. For the second time in a few months, the index finger on my left hand has basically falling apart from the tip. And it's really painful to type on. I'm not really sure exactly what is, but I'm far from getting it seen to by the doctor just yet. I've had a bad history of eczema, but it isn't that. I might have to read up on psoriasis.

Had a really busy, packed weekend. I took Thursday off work and spent pretty much all of the day cleaning and tidying almost the entire flat, in time for my friend Stephen to fly down from back home in Saltcoats and stay for the weekend.

He arrived quite late on Thursday evening, and we didn't do much other than have a few beers and go out for some food. On Friday, we headed over to Wembley Stadium, as that was one of the places he definitely wanted to see. Unfortunately they weren't doing the tour, as there was an event on. The event was in evidence as soon as we got there - it was the day of one of Take That's gigs there, and even at 2pm the place was crawling with kids and grown-up kids wearing t-shirts of Gary Barlow etc! Amusingly, although there was a DJ playing music over the tannoy system, he said he wouldn't be playing any Take That. Although he played plenty of Robbie Williams!

After that, and lunch, a few drinks and a quick change, we headed into town for a couple of drinks before meeting up with Elle, and going to the Gielgud Theatre to finally see Avenue Q. Elle and I wanted to see it for years, but never got round to it. Good job we did too, as apparently it is closing for good in September. It was definitely worth the wait though - it was brilliant, really really funny, and very clever. It was also the first time I've been to the theatre in as long as I can remember! In fact, I don't even know if I've been to a show since I myself was performing as Oliver Twist in the Palace Theatre in 1994!

On Saturday, Stephen joined me as I continued my Central line pub crawl. This time we headed up to the western-most point of the line and back as far as Stratford. It was also the first time I've done it at the weekend, which did result in slightly busier bars. That, and Stephen drinking a good bit slower than me, slowed things down a bit. But we still managed to finish it in time that we got back to the flat, changed, showered then headed out for a night in Camden. We started off at Lloyds No.1 and ended up at Electric Ballroom. Although it's almost like a student night in there, I really do love it in that place. Getting served at any of the bars is amazing - you usually have your drink in your hand in less than a minute! Strangest part of the night - getting chatted up and hit on by someone who I'm sure could've been Stacey Slater from Eastenders!

On Sunday, we had a bit of a slower day, and headed down to Embankment for a few drinks and a meal, before going back to the flat. Later in the evening we went to the local for a couple more and a game of pool.

And on Monday I took him for a tour of work, and a couple of drinks before we came back to the flat and played a lot of Fifa 09 on the PS2. And he flew back home on Monday night.

Yes, that was a lot of drinking.

Back to work yesterday, and it was a bit of a crazy day. And Tuesdays being Tuesday, I did the radio show in the evening, which went really well. But I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get to see the Michael Jackson memorial ceremony, which was definitely one of those big see TV moments.