Pints after work, Kids these days, $75 hamburger meal
Sheffield Shuffle No. 19
Waiting at the train station, 8pm Friday.
It's around 8pm at the train station in Sheffield, UK. It's lonely, it's cold, and I am totally not even supposed to be here right now. But back to that in a moment.
We quit work around 5:30, or "half five" as the Brits say. Knowing that my train out of Sheffield wasn't until 7:32pm I invited my teammates to join me for a round or two at the Sheffield Tap, the pub adjacent to the train station across the street from our office (see last Friday's blog).
I was impressed with how readily most of my colleagues agreed to join me. Back in the US I haven't experienced camraderie like that since... well... possibly ever. People always have their own lives they're eager to get to after the workday ends.
Part of the difference here is that my team is young. My boss is the same age as me, but the next most senior person is 13 years younger. Patrick, the youngest, is still in his mid-20s.
Our differences in age came up this afternoon when we were talking about bands and Patrick mentioned he likes Iron Maiden. I asked if he thinks metal has anywhere near the relevance today that it did against the sociopolitical backdrop of the 1980s (the heyday of Iron Maiden and heavy metal rock music in general) as a reaction to authoritarian fear-mongering in the late years of the Cold War.
"I wouldn't know," he said. "I was only born in 1988. What was the Cold War like?" 😳
So anyway, the bunch of us left the office together and walked over to the Sheffield Tap. We knocked back a few pints and talked trash about each other. Liam shared that he's now up to 208 unique beers on his beer tracker. In three months.
We said our goodbyes and I left just in time to make my train next door at 7:32pm.... Except it wasn't at 7:32pm. It was at 7:29. "7:32pm" was printed on my ticket as the time I bought it. Printed in smaller print was "7:29pm", the time of departure. So instead of being 3 minutes early for my train I was just seconds too late. Just as I arrived at the platform it was pulling away.
I missed the train. I can't fucking believe I missed the train!
I'm an experienced traveler, I scolded myself. I organize my travel like a tight conducted symphony and I don't make mistakes this like. But there I was, ticket in hand, watching the tail lights of the train disappear into the distance.
Buying a ticket for the next train made this an expensive mistake. Here's how I related it to my boss, Sam:
On the positive side, missing this train and not being able to catch the next until 8:49pm means I have time for dinner. Lemons, lemonade, etc.
So, here I am at Burger King- everything else in the station was closing up, and I'm not fucking eating at Subway anymore this week!- enjoying a $75 double cheeseburger combo. That's $7 for the food and $68 for the privilege of being here to eat it.