Oh what a night!

Saturday night I helped out at a fundraising event for one of the charities I work for, because if the technology is needed, I have to go along. The guy we hired to run the night had his gear stolen, and we ended up using a hired DVD and a bastard combination of a clapped-out LCD projector, my laptop, PC speakers, wireless microphones and an 80-watt bass amp, together with miles of cables and connectors.

It was really interesting getting the gear to the venue - a 20-minute bus ride away. I had a large rucksack, and a trolley with the mike set, speakers and amps. Oh, there was a bottle of cava and some peach juice involved as well ;) And a couple of contributions to the buffet (how the banoffee pie survived the journey, I'll never understand). I stopped off on the way to pick up my mate and more food and soft drinks.

The journey, tiring as it was, was nothing compared to the shock waiting for me at the venue. I walked in, parked the stuff, started to unpack and set up . . . . and looked over my shoulder to ask my mate to help me with something. She was 10 yards away, talking to a guy who looked familiar for some reason. A very bad reason. I did finish setting up, but then retired to the kitchen to ask my colleagues if anyone knew him. Well, they did.

One of the company Directors said "yeah, his name is **** and he's a drunk, sponging bastard. I feel sorry for Woman He's With". Light dawned. It was indeed my ex-boyfriend. The one I usually describe as an alcoholic, personal-hygiene-challenged sack of bollox with less brain cells than your average mouldy peanut and a habit of sticking like Velcro. He was bad enough back then, but he now has very little hair, even fewer teeth, and a large beer belly. And quite probably no liver left at all.

Much to my colleagues' and my mate's amusement, I managed to avoid talking to **** all night, by pretending to be busy, on the phone, talking to someone else, or just plain disappearing every time he came my way! While, of course, keeping the jury-rigged bastard heap of technology working.

That was not a night I want to repeat any time in the close future. I came home totally exhausted! And now I'm praying that he's still too thick to figure out where I work - but as he was sitting with one of my computer students, I'm waiting for the inevitable visit.

The last time I bumped into him was several years ago, and luckily I had a staff pass to the local college where I taught part-time. So when he started to wait in the stree for me to come past, I'd use my pass to get in one end of the college, out the other, and round the back streets to where I REALLY worked. That kept him away from my office, at least, but it didn't stop him creeping up on me almost every day. So then I bribed a tall, brick-built colleague to be my 'boyfriend' until **** got the hint and went away!