The Saturday List #426 - Twenty things that only people who know me very well might possibly understand the meaning of

 For New Year, we went way with friends.  The group are based on friends I made between 1983-1986 when I worked for an IT company called SPL International. The firm was based on Windmill Street, just off Tottenham Court Road. Every year, they would take 30 new graduates on. They'd be fresh out of Uni, from the sticks and looking to enjoy themselves, as they earned decent money and had time on their hands. I am not a graduate, my boss took me on to do all the rubbish work that he'd be embarrassed to ask graduates to do. A group of us would go to the pub every night and on a Friday go to the Neel Kamal on Percy Street, for a curry and then to the Windmill for a few pints, before finishing the weeks work. We formed some very strong friendship bonds, which are still in place. This year's group comprised of five couples. If you think that it was a bunch of nerdy blokes plus partners, you'd be wrong. Two of the original SPL group are female, and partners have been added and assimilated into the group. Over the years, the partners have become as strong friends as the original boozing club. Only one of the group still works in IT, the rest are retired. 

I was contemplating the conversations we had and other friendship groups I have. I have a similar one around my band, people who've been around since the start. Occasionally, we talk about the early days of the band. Single words will result in everyone bursting out into laughter. We had a whole protocol of things that we could and couldn't say, on pain of near death.

It got me thinking. There are lots of things that I could say, that only someone from one or other of the group may know. Now I know that this will be of no interest to anyone else on the planet, but hey ho, this gives me great pleasure to write, so enjoy or not. There will be about a dozen people on the planet who will snigger when they see this, and I suspect that the most they will understand is 10. Apologies to the rest of you.

1. Cuban Troop Formations.

2. The round number club

3. Mork dance

4. La Vie En Rose

5. The barrel of doom

6. The Feast of St Lucia

7. Piece of wood

8. The School Room

9. The Turkish Cell

10. "I'm Nick Perks"

11. Emil's van

12. First 100 pints of Guinness free!

13. Late night football under the motorway

14. "Alan Haimes ten points"

15. Goatybeard United

16. Tandem beer bust

17. "Don't go that way, go this way, that way's much quicker"

18. ADS 365 drinks cabinet

19. "Cuppa tea"

20. Thorpe Park

This may have been totally incomprehensible to you, but every one made me snigger or smile

Gabba Gabba Hey to one and all!