by the time i staggered in the door i was destroyed, demolished and drained. Lou was already in bed doing her guppy impersonation - lying back with her mouth open- the song on my PSD was on its 9th repitition and the clothes i'd put on over 17 hours ago felt like they were hanging off me, as if i'd somehow shrunk over the course of the day and could no longer fill them. my head was full of beers and distant thoughts as i tripped towards my bed and got undressed, hanging my work-gear in the cupboard so that the creases could fall out over the weekend. i changed into an old pair of tracksuit pants and a tshirt and felt no better for it, the drawstring was the only thing holding the pants over my hips, the shirt feeling two sizes too big, the song coming through my earphones on its 10th time past. i headed down to the kitchen and got a drink of water before slumping into a chair while it played through to number 11. eventually i headed upstairs and fell into bed, staring at the wall in the diffused light of my bedside lamp.
i'd spent an hour sitting in Piccadilly Circus drunkenly talking philosophy with Laura, the Canadian. we'd left the pub and wandered semi-aimlessly through the amusement-park currently in Leicester Square after i'd decided that it was time to leave lest i drink any more. i needed to sober up before i lost all coherence and possibly said something i'd rather not, and we wound up sitting on the some steps overlooking the madness of people coming and going and taking photos, the manic exuberance of people out on the town on a Friday night while we exchanged stories. somehow i'd started discussing my view of the world while she picked holes in it, keeping me on my toes. earlier in the evening we'd tested our abilities at profiling by explaining how the other had come to be the way they were and seemed surprisingly accurate, and this spurred an explaination which went on longer than i'd anticipated but which was none-the-less entertaining. come midnight she made her move, catching the tube home and i walked down to my usual bus stop past Trafalgar Square, turning my PSD on and starting the song by Inhale Exhale that had become stuck in my head the night before, feeling satisfied but somewhat depressed.
Lou took her leave at the pub, pissed as a fart, but fizzing with happy energy having organised a date for Sunday. Laura had showed up well after the three of us had got established with a table and some chairs, and i switched seats with Lou because she and Daniel were talking loudly and excitedly, leaving Laura out of the conversation. dividing the four of us into two pairs, Laura and i watched them as they moved closer and closer over the course of a bottle of wine, their body-language screaming of potential while we sunk pints and critiqued. i explained how i'd set the wheels in motion with a couple of choice comments here and there earlier in the evening and then left them to themselves and we chatted and watched them in our peripheral vision, running a constant commentary while they flirted, keeping each other appraised as to their progress since subtlety robbed us both of a decent view. she asked why i'd set this up and i explained that Lou needed to have some fun, so i'd kicked them off when i saw that they were attracted although i knew that i'd wear it from her later. we tried to predict the outcome while they danced around each other and i used the analogy that in particle physics you can either know the location of a particle or its direction, not both at once - a simplication of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. she argued this, more because she felt that it was required than because she disagreed, accusing me of having an unhealthy interest in semi-irrelevant minutia. me, i was of the opinion that it was the perfect way to describe our observations of what was happening on the other side of the table. as the bottle neared its end Lou and Dan disappeared for the toilets in a suspicious fashion, whereupon i attempted, in an increasingly drunken state to explain Schrodinger's Paradox, that while the situation is not observed it exists in a state of neither zero nor one, but that the observation of said inadvertantly changes its state from indefinite to definite. by request, i changed the cat to a rat, but pushed the point. Daniel reappeared shortly thereafter, and when he sat back down i said to him:
Schrodinger's cat is dead.
he replied after a pause, saying "Schrodinger's cat is alive!" and i gave him a high-five while Laura looked confused. Lou reappeared and proved his position by kissing him, and i turned to Laura looking more than slightly smug. Daniel left shortly thereafter to meet up with some people at Ministry of Sound and when i got back from the toilet Lou was in full form - a wingman with an itchy trigger, explaining at great length how Laura should sleep with me because i was desperate and apparently deserving of a sympathy fuck. i sat back and watched while this went on, generally feeling uncomfortable, and Lou finished her drink and announced that she was heading home, seemingly of the idea that if she left us to it we'd get on in the same way she and Daniel had. i tried to disuade her, saying that if she waited a minute or 5 i'd finish my drink and accompany with her but she was adamant and bolted for the door. Laura asked if i wanted to follow, but Lou knew at least 2 ways home so i figured she'd be fine. she obviously thought she was doing me a favour and i wasn't in the mood to deal with her any more - my patience had finally worn thin. Laura turned to me and said
"I see what you mean about you wearing it..."
Daniel and i had arrived at the pub after finishing up our afternoon of job-hunting at Bite. i'd organised an after-work drinks meetup on the Facebook group in the Bear & Staff downstairs, with the promise that i'd go a round for whoever was there when i showed up, starting at 6PM. getting there a little before 5 meant that my round consisted of me and Daniel. cunning plan, or selfish subterfuge? regardless, he was feeling a bit sick so i got him a Guinness citing the health benefits and after loitering around we managed to score a table before finding out that we couldn't get any food downstairs and headed up for the dining area where we ate fish and chips and discussed Australian politics for an hour before heading downstairs, running into Lou as she arrived. a pint of Guinness and a plate of great fish and chips had perked him up and out of his flu. we miraculously found a table without trying this time, and while Lou went off to get a drink i explained to Daniel briefly that she was still pining over her ex, but looking for distraction. we sat, sinking drinks and chatting until Laura found us, grabbing a beer and taking the seat next to Lou, opposite Daniel.
i knocked off work at 1:30, as instructed. i've taken a temp role providing IT support for a small Islamic Investment Bank during the xmas-holidays, but they only wanted me there from 8:30AM until 1:30. having nothing better to do and no desire to head home before being at the pub by 6, i headed into Leicester Square so that i could kill the rest of the day updating my CV and applying for a few more jobs. Daniel was already there - a British/Australian lad i'd met a week or so beforehand who, like i, had grown up in Perth. i'd shown him around a little and we were getting along nicely so on Tuesday i'd suggested that we grab some beers at the pub on Friday. i published my plans on the Facebook group i've been meeting up with since i'd promised to organise an event or two. there was very little happening on the job boards, so not long before 5 we headed down and grabbed a couple of pints. he had to head off to get to a gig at Ministry of Sound at 9:30, but we had plenty of time for a few drinks beforehand. Lou was due to meet us up at 6, with the likelihood of some of the Facebook crowd showing up as well, so we stood around near the bar and waited for someone to vacate a table...
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