Crossline
Friday nights at Crossline the Soup Kitchen are my least favourite. There's not a proper meal served, it's more a social thing, so the homeless have somewhere warm to sit and something to do other than get drunk somewhere.
Having said that, this evening was awesome. I was just chatting to John and Anthony, and John was more cheerful than I've ever seen him. You get some guys that come in and sit there, and don't say anything, eat their food, and leave. I thought John was gonna be one of those, but we were talking for ages about places we'd travelled to. He's been to New York and Niagara Falls, and wants to cycle down the west coast of America.
Of course my initial reaction would have been "You can't have visited 21 countries, you're a homeless guy!" - if I hadn't been doing this three years now. Alan has a chemistry degree from Cambridge, and he sleeps under a bridge. DJ Dave was discussing the literature on my course with me, in the same discussion as complaining about the people who lived above his squat.
We talked travel for ages, it's open 3 hours on Friday. "Until 10? I'll get locked out," John said. "My bench will be shut." Then he laughed. It's pretty cool to meet guys who are sleeping rough, and can laugh about it.
Anthony though, that was an interesting conversation. First we were talking ancient history - which is a nerdy passion of mine. I didn't tell him it was impossible that the Romans built the pyramids, because I didn't want to crush the conversation. Or come over all superior because I'm at university. We covered the second world war, and slipped into his belief that humankind is naturally anarchistic, and without the police force everyone would go and shoot their next-door neighbours.
Yeah, well, it was interesting, if mildly concerning. I look forward to a follow-up conversation.