Visited P. yesterday at his flat. We sat in the flat, filled with posters of different comics and bands, drank some cider and listened to DJ Vadim, Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, Massive Attack, Pink Floyd and some psy-trance. Neither of us has very much money this week so it had to be Crofter's Cider from the big plastic bottles. We didn't get drunk, not having been able to afford it.
We went to sleep at around 10pm and I woke up at 4am. P. had already been awake since 2am. We had coffee and listened to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, which is one of his favourite albums of all time. P. knows his music so well he's like a human shazam. Seeing him tends to cheer me up and in his own words, he's more of an upper person than a downer person. Also, he's obsessed with Harley Quinn.
He sometimes likes to listen to music on his headphones while I'm there and he said:
- Sorry, how unsociable of me, but still it keeps me happy
I joked:
- At least you won't annoy me then.
He laughed.
-No, only joking, you don't annoy me, I said.
Today we went to the Cavern in Gloucester for his friend A.'s birthday. The Cavern is a cafe which offers services to the mentally ill: between 7 and 11pm they serve free non-alcoholic drinks and you can chat to a volunteer if you're feeling unwell. It has gilt framed mirrors, Chesterfield sofas, purple wallpaper and various black and white photographs on the wall. A group of about ten people were gathered at this event.
A. had her hair done into blue-dyed braids and wore a lime green T-shirt. She has also been to Wotton Lawn, the local mental hospital. I told her about how some bloke called Cavern frequenters retards once and she wasn't impressed. I told her that I got angry at him.
A., P., one of A.'s support workers and I went out for a fag and the support worker spoke about a man who walks around town shouting out the name of Jesus and stating that only He can save us. She said:
- This man thinks I'm the Devil. Whenever I bump into him he calls me the Devil.
We went back inside and A. had her birthday cake with all of us singing happy birthday to her. We had tea and birthday cake and A. unwrapped her presents. For some reason she hated a card with a unicorn that the support worker got her.
- I hate you, she said to the support worker.
Then we had to dash off because P. was going to his mother's that afternoon. We walked through Gloucester, which was sunny and crowded. We said goodbye at the bus stop.