St. Patrick’s Day 2006
Ok! This story begins the same as most stories, about the search for an oversized Guinness hat.
The quest began at 3:30 in the afternoon, Me, Andy and Mark caught the first half of our lecture then decided that seem as how we had no notes or pens it was a bit pointless to attend the second half. He headed over to the student union for food and beverages before we intended to set out to Manchester for the rest of the evening.
The union was surprisingly quiet for St. Paddy’s especially when you could get a free t-shirt with a double Jameson and ginger. A Dean Tower burger (chicken burger with cheese), a swift pint of Guinness and a double Jameson and ginger later, Stu and Dan decided to join us and we were ready to head off into Manchester. Grabbed the train at around 6:30 and arrived at Oxford road at around 7.
We then headed to the student union and began collecting our hat tokens by drinking pint after pint of Guinness only to find out that when we were each 1 pint away they had run out of hats. On this disastrous note we decided to drink up and head out into town in search of another place that will take our tokens and give us the hats we need. We glanced in KOR2 directly next to the union and then ended up in a pub right next to the station called The Saislbary? Or something like that, they had no hats so who cares? We then ended up in Central Station, a pub that is also right next the station (the may be some clue in the name). Finally we found a place that was stocked a plenty with hats and the group had never been so happy with themselves. However, this was just the beginning of the night for the lads of Gilnow Grove.
Me, Dan and Stu decided to head back to Bolton following an 11 o’clock Subway and after singing a couple of songs with some drunk ladies on the train we arrived in Bolton station at about 11:45. Once got off the train we walked as part of a big group up the stairs and outside. Stu was on the phone to Homeless Dave about the possibility of a flat party we could join in the halls of residence when I overheard two lads behind us say simply:
“1, 2, 3!”
And BAM! My hat flew off in one direction and Stus hat flew off in the other. The two muggers and their 3 friends ran off and out of site before we had time to do anything but shout “Fucking wankers!!” at them. On that downer it seemed like the fun of the evening might be over, but we headed to the flat party at Dave’s to see what it was like.
We arrived to find a small group sitting in a pitch black kitchen because one of the group was dying of too much light or something. But they had some cold beers and a warm kitchen so we stayed for as long as possible. Unfortunately Dave headed off to his girl friend’s flat after about half an hour and none of get on too well with his flatmates, probably because they were being pretty boring and wanted to go to bed at around 1:30.
Me and Stu thought we’d introduce them to some Halls pranks we used to play on people last year and decided to swap their flat number round with someone else’s, however, in our slightly tipsy state, the fact we were using our keys as screwdrivers and the fact that people for the flat kept opening the door to see what we were doing, we were unable to switch the flat numbers round.
While we were doing this, Dan was on the stairwell turning the lights on and off and drawing attention to the flats block. When me and Stu had given up on the flat door we joined Dan on the lightless stairwell and started walking up and down the stairs to see if anyone else was around, suddenly the lights flicked back on. Dan turned them off again and then they came back on again, and again, and again. Dan thought it was me or Stu but I glanced down the stairs and saw the security guard waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs.
We ran back to Dave’s flat and banged on the door until they let us in. I hung round in the corridor for a minute and then walked into the kitchen just in time to see Stu hanging outside the kitchen window and then jumping 1 floor down to the muddy ground. Then Dan copied the same move and after his safe landing I decided it did seem like a safer option to taking the stairs and soon found myself hanging from a window sill and soon enough letting go of it. We then walked quickly to the outer perimeter of the halls just in time to see the security guard walking back out to his office and we just had time to give him a quick wave before we left for good and headed to the casino for a night cap.
At the casino we found that the same offer was happening, drink 4 pints of Guinness and get a free hat, unfortunately none of us felt like paying out for another 4 pints we didn’t really want to drink, we just wanted some free coffees and a nice chat with the bar staff. But at the end of the night we did a quick walk around the casino and found 4 tokens and an abandoned hat. Stu helped himself to the hat and I traded in the tokens meaning that once again the 3 of us were fully hat-ed!
Hats in tow we headed home to sit around talking about the night and then watching a couple of episodes of Smallville that Stu bought off eBay. Finally it was time to go to bed at the nice and early time of 5 o’clock.
Now! Time to get some work done!
The quest began at 3:30 in the afternoon, Me, Andy and Mark caught the first half of our lecture then decided that seem as how we had no notes or pens it was a bit pointless to attend the second half. He headed over to the student union for food and beverages before we intended to set out to Manchester for the rest of the evening.
The union was surprisingly quiet for St. Paddy’s especially when you could get a free t-shirt with a double Jameson and ginger. A Dean Tower burger (chicken burger with cheese), a swift pint of Guinness and a double Jameson and ginger later, Stu and Dan decided to join us and we were ready to head off into Manchester. Grabbed the train at around 6:30 and arrived at Oxford road at around 7.
We then headed to the student union and began collecting our hat tokens by drinking pint after pint of Guinness only to find out that when we were each 1 pint away they had run out of hats. On this disastrous note we decided to drink up and head out into town in search of another place that will take our tokens and give us the hats we need. We glanced in KOR2 directly next to the union and then ended up in a pub right next to the station called The Saislbary? Or something like that, they had no hats so who cares? We then ended up in Central Station, a pub that is also right next the station (the may be some clue in the name). Finally we found a place that was stocked a plenty with hats and the group had never been so happy with themselves. However, this was just the beginning of the night for the lads of Gilnow Grove.
Me, Dan and Stu decided to head back to Bolton following an 11 o’clock Subway and after singing a couple of songs with some drunk ladies on the train we arrived in Bolton station at about 11:45. Once got off the train we walked as part of a big group up the stairs and outside. Stu was on the phone to Homeless Dave about the possibility of a flat party we could join in the halls of residence when I overheard two lads behind us say simply:
“1, 2, 3!”
And BAM! My hat flew off in one direction and Stus hat flew off in the other. The two muggers and their 3 friends ran off and out of site before we had time to do anything but shout “Fucking wankers!!” at them. On that downer it seemed like the fun of the evening might be over, but we headed to the flat party at Dave’s to see what it was like.
We arrived to find a small group sitting in a pitch black kitchen because one of the group was dying of too much light or something. But they had some cold beers and a warm kitchen so we stayed for as long as possible. Unfortunately Dave headed off to his girl friend’s flat after about half an hour and none of get on too well with his flatmates, probably because they were being pretty boring and wanted to go to bed at around 1:30.
Me and Stu thought we’d introduce them to some Halls pranks we used to play on people last year and decided to swap their flat number round with someone else’s, however, in our slightly tipsy state, the fact we were using our keys as screwdrivers and the fact that people for the flat kept opening the door to see what we were doing, we were unable to switch the flat numbers round.
While we were doing this, Dan was on the stairwell turning the lights on and off and drawing attention to the flats block. When me and Stu had given up on the flat door we joined Dan on the lightless stairwell and started walking up and down the stairs to see if anyone else was around, suddenly the lights flicked back on. Dan turned them off again and then they came back on again, and again, and again. Dan thought it was me or Stu but I glanced down the stairs and saw the security guard waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs.
We ran back to Dave’s flat and banged on the door until they let us in. I hung round in the corridor for a minute and then walked into the kitchen just in time to see Stu hanging outside the kitchen window and then jumping 1 floor down to the muddy ground. Then Dan copied the same move and after his safe landing I decided it did seem like a safer option to taking the stairs and soon found myself hanging from a window sill and soon enough letting go of it. We then walked quickly to the outer perimeter of the halls just in time to see the security guard walking back out to his office and we just had time to give him a quick wave before we left for good and headed to the casino for a night cap.
At the casino we found that the same offer was happening, drink 4 pints of Guinness and get a free hat, unfortunately none of us felt like paying out for another 4 pints we didn’t really want to drink, we just wanted some free coffees and a nice chat with the bar staff. But at the end of the night we did a quick walk around the casino and found 4 tokens and an abandoned hat. Stu helped himself to the hat and I traded in the tokens meaning that once again the 3 of us were fully hat-ed!
Hats in tow we headed home to sit around talking about the night and then watching a couple of episodes of Smallville that Stu bought off eBay. Finally it was time to go to bed at the nice and early time of 5 o’clock.
Now! Time to get some work done!