i've never been anywhere it was easier to do a spur-of-the-moment pub crawl than here. i crawled Brunswick St in Fitzroy, Melbourne once, many years ago. i got lucky and there were plenty of bars, although some of them were crappy Old Man bars. i crawled The Rocks in Sydney and was bored by the end. Daniel and i crawled Leicester Square/Covent Garden on Friday night and had an awesome time. we were skipping places because they were too crowded and were still spoiled for choice. i didn't drink the same beer twice that night and by the time we jumped tubes out from Embankment at 11PM we were both staggering.
we met at the Bear & Staff on Charing Cross Rd because it's easy for us to find, as well as being a bit of a haunt for us now and meandered from there - out for a night on the piss for no better reason than that we're both working at the moment, it was a Friday night and we could. i'd like to say that it was the start of a great weekend, but to be honest i spent most of it in bed. the flu i'd started coming down with on Tuesday had lain dormant for the last 3 days and jumped on my back like a deranged monkey come Saturday morning screaming "SUBMIT," so i did. the previous week or so had left me more than a little fucked up and by the afternoon i'd come crashing down into a ditch and the dam burst, releasing a flood of disappointment and self-loathing. i had a nap in the afternoon hoping that i'd feel up to going out with Louise and her friends that night but woke up feeling worse and said fuck it, so she left me to my Stargate and my blanket and went out on the town.
Sunday came and with it an invitation to go see Watchmen down in Stockwell and i wasn't missing that for the world, illness or no. sitting around a nearby pub afterwards stuffing myself with the Sunday Roast and pint after pint of water, it seems like everyone's having problems finding or keeping work. contracts not extending, roles being made redundant, the party's over and the hangover's just starting to set in. the Children of The Southern Cross have a reputation around here as being here for a good time, not a long time and these folks are no different. Louise is great friends with them, but while i enjoy going out partying with them i know i'll never be. honestly, i appreciate being invited along when they're heading out for a fun night out, hearing people who seem to have all the introspection of an lobotomised otaku with a penchant for high-school romantic comedy talk about how they came to London to "find themselves" sounds shallower than kiddie's paddling pool, and almost as full of shit. as Shadow has been wont to say over the time i've known him: "The problem with going somewhere to get away from your problems is that no matter where you go, there you are." still, these guys DO know how to party so they're obviously onto something. i think perhaps i may still have much to learn from these people.
spin forwards and by the time i was standing at the bus stop on my way back to Heathrow i was already counting down the number of times i'd have to make that trip again. the job's fun enough and i'm glad to have it, but the percentage of my waking hours that i'm spending on public transport at the moment is ridiculous. i'm just thinking of the money and the trip i'll be up to the eyeballs in a fortnight from now and getting the work done.
the next few days are going to be quiet, i think. i need to get over this illness. Louise has come down with it as well and we've both been coughing up a lung. this is the third time she's been knocked for 6 since we came here - this is the first time i've got sick since the flu that laid me out right before we flew out of Sydney - and i'm a bit worried about her to be honest. i'm already starting to get over it and she's still going. the first one had her in bed for a fortnight. the second one lingered for almost as long, although she managed to keep going to work through it. she seems to get every bug that comes round (except for the vomiting-flu that did the rounds back in December/January - we both managed to miss that). i'm not her mum or anything, but it's still a bit of a worry.
London's the sort of place that invites an epidemic though. pack half the population onto the tubes, then into offices in town every day of the week and any airborne or sneeze/cough-transmitted pathogen is going to spread faster than a nymphomaniac student's knees after 4 litres of Fruity Lexia at a toga party. back in Canberra i saw how a cold could wipe out an office. here it could lay waste to suburbs as people infect and reinfect each other with every packed train they hop on, the public transport system becoming a machine of Mass Rapid Infection. when the Umbrella Corporation release the Resident Evil virus, all they'd have to do is drop a canister at Leicester Square and watch as the Northern Line spreads it out through Kings Cross and Waterloo,and the Piccadilly takes it directly to Heathrow then from there: the world.
that sort of makes me wonder whether, if London became Zombie Central, anyone would actually notice. maybe the leaflet and free-newspaper touts would be a little more polite. watch the people on the tube at 6:30PM and you start getting protective of your head-meats because most of the people are standing there looking like something's eaten theirs.
whatever the case, i can afford to have a quiet week. sit around, watch some movies, build up my strength and gird my loins for Egypt. i've been invited to a Pi Party on Saturday night - by the american calendar the date will be 3.14.09 (also, Einstein's Birthday. Happy Birthday Albo!), so the evening promises to be full of IT and Maths geeks getting drunk and eating pie. i'm missing out on going to The Car Wash (70's theme, with a foam canon) but i can't miss a geek gathering - it's been far too long since i've smelled my own kind. i'll go in with my 1337 hoodie, a six-pack of cider, a smile on my face and get my geek on. after that it's just one more week and i'll be getting a tan and trying not to let my pockets get picked or sand in my jocks. 3 weeks away to get some perspective and see whether, when i pull back up in Heathrow, i'm still wanting to hang around. with any luck Louise and i won't piss each other too much and i don't wind up feeding her to the crocodiles. as always, only time will tell, but i'm sure it'll be a whole lot of fun finding out...
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