by the time i staggered into basecamp i was destroyed. it took me a couple of minutes to fumble myself free of all the odds and ends i've found myself wearing or carrying on a daily basis, most of which i managed to do before i fell into bed, although this didn't make me feel much better. i'd got about 3 hours of sleep the night before after sitting around until past 6 in the morning waiting to get tired, then being awoken by my phone ringing again and again and again starting at about 9. it didn't stop ringing or beeping or buzzing until just before 6 that evening. somehow wednesday was the day that half the pimps in London woke up, looked at their calendars and decided that today was the day they'd finally get me a job, or drive me to the brink of exhaustion trying. by the end of it i had 2 interviews lined up for today, plus a phone hookup and a TBA potentially later in the afternoon. good news, except that they all to call at the same bloody time, getting more and more insistent that i forsake all others in favor of them and their pet underpaying client.
finally i had it all straightened out and headed back to base where louise and i had planned on grabbing tea down at the nearby bar/restaurant, a semi-swish little place called the Oval Lounge. i was about half-way there when my phone beeped again, but this time it was a Canadian, not a pimp:
"Grab a drink?"
where and when?
"Dunno... Any ideas?"
i gave her a call rather than bounce messages back and forth and we agreed on Euston which was easy enough for us both to get to. since i needed to catch the tube up there i maintained my base-ward course anyway to let louise know i was going to ditch her for the evening, threw my book in my bag for the train ride and bolted. she was nice enough to lend me her Oyster upon which is aTtravelcard: pay a fee, get free travel for the time period, which saved me a stack in fares for the evening.
by the time i hit Euston Laura had already done a recon and decreed that there was nothing much in the immediate area, so we headed for Kings Cross instead where we found a nifty little place called The Big Chill with groovy music and comfortable wing-back chairs by the heater. i was still running on adrenaline - i'd been banned from speaking for 2 minutes back at Euston because i wasn't making any sense, but my cider and a nice sit down calmed me nicely.
we wound up sitting around there having an odd, but interesting chat over a couple of pints - my job opportunities, her trip to Amsterdam and so on, although at one point we were discussing personality profiling and i was accused of being "too smart for [my] own good", and knowing it. this is the second time my relative intelligence has come up in conversation (the word "genius" was used the first time, which i loudly refuted), and it's made me a little uncomfortable both times. i can't help but feel that she's either winding me up, or buttering me up, i'm just not understanding the motivation. certainly, i'm unsure as to the relevance. i know i'm brighter than the average monkey and i'm partial to keeping similar company. Sandra used to remark that i have no time for fools and with this i wholeheartedly agree, but going into it smells too much of the arrogance that i generally try (although often fail) to avoid. i get the feeling that there's something i'm supposed to prove, i just haven't worked out for sure what that is. still, it was good company in a nice pub and i'm finding her to be great value... although still something of an enigma.
i hadn't eaten in some time and i really needed to get back to base before i fell asleep somewhere inconvenient, so we ducked out, grabbed a quick bite to eat and yawned farewells as we hit our respective train lines, soon after which i can afoul of Oval Station's 10:30PM closing time and wound up walking back from Stockwell. now, you'd anticipate that i'd make use of the Travelcard and catch a bus, but i was in no mood for this so i legged it instead, enjoying the crisp feeling of the wind blowing off the wet streets, letting it clear my head a little while my legs threatened revolt.
this is where a sensible person would talk about how they fell into bed and went straight to sleep, but then i've proven time and again that i'm not, which is why i wound up reading my book until 1AM or a little past. suddenly it was 8AM and louise was yelling at me to wake up while i opened my eyes and tried to breathe mattress. i'd looked up the maps for where i had to be today the night before, so i took the time to memorise the turns i needed to take and write down the directions in my notebook before i jumped through the shower (literally - i get about 2 minutes of warmth from the thing most mornings before it's spent), got dressed up in my interview-best and hit the street. it took about an hour to get to Woolwich Arsenal for the first one, which went as well as i could expect, then another to get to Green Park for the second which went almost as nicely, grabbing a tax-deductible lunch and coffee at the station while i waited for the train. the serious work of the day done, i fetched up at my usual haunt in Leicester Square and talked tech with Daniel and a new bloke from Melbourne.
the afternoon passed slowly while i chased down my contacts and waited for feedback that never came while my ephemeral energy waned, and i was back in comfortable, around-the-house attire at a little past 5. most of the evening was spent chatting online while re-watching half of the first season of Dexter. i wasn't in the mood to pay too much attention - i just wanted something on in the background and after reading the books i was keen to remind myself of what they changed for TV. now it's nearly 2 and i really should be sleeping. i know, however, that i won't wind up sleeping until after the clock strikes 3 so i figured i'd waste some of the time blogging. i'm getting through my book too fast and when it's done i'll just need to get another one, so the longer i can draw it out the better. i might try my luck at he 2nd-hand bookshops down Tottenham Court Road though. there's some Camus i've been meaning to read (especially his anti-nihilist essays), and i should probably wrap my brain about Thus Spoke Zarathustra at some point before i die. i might be able to get some of that cheap...
i'm very much looking forward to the coming weekend - tomorrow night's movie should be good and there are plans to grab a coffee or a beer afterwards, then Brighton on Saturday. i'm still sketchy on what i'll get up to on Sunday, but i have do have some ideas in mind so we'll just have to see how they pan out. at some point i should sleep, and try to do so about 3 hours earlier than normal. the tireder i get the less i concentrate, and the poorer my decision-making becomes. i was lucky today that i've got most of my responses to interview questions well-rehearsed, so i was able to come across as bright, enthusiastic and confident but i know i can't keep up the pretense forever. of course, i completely refuse to schedule in sensible sleep when my body point-blank refuses to play the game so we'll just have to keep punishing each other until one of us submits. there's always the possibility of sleeping through half of Sunday, but i'll be damned if i do that when i could be out having fun elsewhere. i'll sort something out. i usually do in the end... or, you know, i fall in a screaming heap and have it forced upon me. one way or the other i'll get some sort of resolution, i'm sure...
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