My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night
But, ah, my foes
And oh, my friends,
It gives a lovely light!
Edna St Vincent Millay (1920)

I'm with Edna on this one. My candle burned all weekend, and now I'm a quivering pool of melted stuff. But, oh, my friends, what a lovely weekend.

The plan was to have a nice, quiet Friday night at home with Marcus. He cooked dinner and we opened a bottle of red wine. And another. And a third. And some organic beer. And various brightly-coloured alcopops. Managed to watch the American telethon at 4am.

On Saturday afternoon we went shopping. Together - a potentially dangerous thing for couples to do. But it went off very smoothly: we bought Jonathan a Captain Scarlet DVD box set and found him a really anorak-y map showing which tube carriage to sit in to be sure of arriving near the exit at your destination. Geeks rule!

Back home to watch Marcus wrap the present: an incredibly painstaking process involving much precision measuring and accurate folding and half a roll of tape. Then off to the party upstairs at The Yard. Simply everybody was there, including fellow bloggers Ian, Iain and David. The party was excellent, and had everything you could possibly need: As much free booze as you could drink? Check. Chicken satay on a stick? Check. Great company? Check. Music by Boyz pin-up DJ Juggy Jones? Check. Home movies of Jonathan as a baby? Check. Embarrassing photos of Jonce in the nude? Check. Good friends, old boyfriends, drunk friends? Check.

The others all went off to Barcode (where Juggy got jiggy, allegedly) but Ian, Marcus and I went down to Queer Nation at SubStation South. I'd love to tell you what happened there but (1) it's all a bit of a blur and (2) the bits I do remember are not fit for public consumption (and Marcus tells the "two tongues" story far better than I...). Annoyingly, I discovered three free drinks tickets in my back pocket the next day, with no idea of how they got there.

Sunday, of course, means the Dame Edna Experience at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. "Imagine Judy Garland on acid: 'Are you a good witch or a bad witch?' 'Miss Garland, this is a bank'." We finally got to meet the mysterious - and gorgeous - Dave, chatted with Andy'n'Alex, watched Andy drool over Drew, avoided Guy's flailing arms, spoke to Christian ("I've got to tell you: I'm addicted to your blog"), got trashed, whipped our shirts off, danced like grinning loonies and generally had a brilliant time. "Your friends are so nice," said Marcus on the way home. Aren't they just?