Random Updateyness.
Haven't posted anything of any real significance for a while. Haven't really done anything of any real significance for a while. But then, I got to thinking, and actually, a few things have happened that are, I suppose, worth sharing.
Last Friday was Trina's last day, Trina being a mutual colleague of mara_sho and I, and (more importantly) one of my oldest friends at the drudgefest we call work. Many's the lunchtime we spent talking utter bollocks and swapping random geekiness back and forth across the filthy tables of the Student Refectory. (a truly awful place - looked like a giant brick and smelt like a public toilet)
Of the... five or six or so of us that used to eat there regularly (and of the twenty or so of us that used to brave it out in the upstairs coffee bar to the sound of the serving wenches bellowing CHEEZY-BEEEEEANOOOOOO!!!!!!!)¹, there's now only me and mara_sho left. The rest? All moved on. Found better jobs. Gone back to studying. Been promoted and stopped talking to the rest of the scum. Started families, and disappeared off the face of the Earth. Would I could say the same. (apart from not talking to people - I just don't do that)
So... Friday was a bit odd. It could have been really depressing, a right old sobfest, but it wasn't. We had a great laugh - and a lot of that was down to being amongst friends that I hadn't seen out like that for ages. Particularly Angie and engelsteorra (more former colleagues) - but it was also good to see mara_sho out as well. Doesn't happen often enough. A great night all round, and I wasn't even that pissed, which is unusual for me when I go straight out on the lash after work. Usually, I forget to eat until it's far too fecking late, and then I'm just a big slobbery mess of beer.
But that wasn't the case this time. Made the last train home and everything, which meant getting in to my local in time for last orders (i.e., a lock-in and two or three more pints and a couple of nips...). It was after that it all went a bit weird.
Our pious, elderly next-door-neighbour-but-one's son invited himself back to the house, and spent the next two and a half hours pouring his heart out at me. I don't want to sound too unsympathetic, but it was quarter to four in the fecking morning before he left. Welcome to the joys of being a relative stranger in the neighbourhood. Because he can't talk openly to anyone around here, suddenly muggins here becomes a free councellor/sympathetic shoulder/psychiatrist. Which, frankly, I'm not. I gave him the best advice I could, tried to make him more aware of why he was making the judgements about people that he was, and sent him on his way in as well-intentioned but ultimately 'feck off to bed and let me get some sleep' way as I could. Not much more I could reasonably have done.
Hard end to a great night, all the same.
Anyways, looking ahead, I've gone and bought some exercise gear - shorts, trainers, shuttlecocks - 'cos I'm going to be playing badminton again tomorrow!!!!! (I know - get me! I'll be drinking Pimms next, and everything!!) I'm really rather crap at badminton, but I enjoy it. And I suppose it's as good a way of getting some exercise as is allowed in a public place with all your clothes on. Think I'm going to have to go and make a Pimms icon.
ETA:
¹Cheesy Beanos. The premier Epicurean delight of the Hub refectory - a combination of grilled panini, cheese and yes, you've guessed it - baked beans. Delightful, I'm sure. I was never brave enough to try one.
Last Friday was Trina's last day, Trina being a mutual colleague of mara_sho and I, and (more importantly) one of my oldest friends at the drudgefest we call work. Many's the lunchtime we spent talking utter bollocks and swapping random geekiness back and forth across the filthy tables of the Student Refectory. (a truly awful place - looked like a giant brick and smelt like a public toilet)
Of the... five or six or so of us that used to eat there regularly (and of the twenty or so of us that used to brave it out in the upstairs coffee bar to the sound of the serving wenches bellowing CHEEZY-BEEEEEANOOOOOO!!!!!!!)¹, there's now only me and mara_sho left. The rest? All moved on. Found better jobs. Gone back to studying. Been promoted and stopped talking to the rest of the scum. Started families, and disappeared off the face of the Earth. Would I could say the same. (apart from not talking to people - I just don't do that)
So... Friday was a bit odd. It could have been really depressing, a right old sobfest, but it wasn't. We had a great laugh - and a lot of that was down to being amongst friends that I hadn't seen out like that for ages. Particularly Angie and engelsteorra (more former colleagues) - but it was also good to see mara_sho out as well. Doesn't happen often enough. A great night all round, and I wasn't even that pissed, which is unusual for me when I go straight out on the lash after work. Usually, I forget to eat until it's far too fecking late, and then I'm just a big slobbery mess of beer.
But that wasn't the case this time. Made the last train home and everything, which meant getting in to my local in time for last orders (i.e., a lock-in and two or three more pints and a couple of nips...). It was after that it all went a bit weird.
Our pious, elderly next-door-neighbour-but-one's son invited himself back to the house, and spent the next two and a half hours pouring his heart out at me. I don't want to sound too unsympathetic, but it was quarter to four in the fecking morning before he left. Welcome to the joys of being a relative stranger in the neighbourhood. Because he can't talk openly to anyone around here, suddenly muggins here becomes a free councellor/sympathetic shoulder/psychiatrist. Which, frankly, I'm not. I gave him the best advice I could, tried to make him more aware of why he was making the judgements about people that he was, and sent him on his way in as well-intentioned but ultimately 'feck off to bed and let me get some sleep' way as I could. Not much more I could reasonably have done.
Hard end to a great night, all the same.
Anyways, looking ahead, I've gone and bought some exercise gear - shorts, trainers, shuttlecocks - 'cos I'm going to be playing badminton again tomorrow!!!!! (I know - get me! I'll be drinking Pimms next, and everything!!) I'm really rather crap at badminton, but I enjoy it. And I suppose it's as good a way of getting some exercise as is allowed in a public place with all your clothes on. Think I'm going to have to go and make a Pimms icon.
ETA:
¹Cheesy Beanos. The premier Epicurean delight of the Hub refectory - a combination of grilled panini, cheese and yes, you've guessed it - baked beans. Delightful, I'm sure. I was never brave enough to try one.