Weekend and Scumbags

This weekend was a good one. It involved a bit of something different to the norm, combined with a lot of booze. On Thursday a few of us went to the R.E. Bar in Eastcote and had a few of their mouth-watering Kronenburgs (which have now sadly increased in price to £3). Towards the end of the night Lawrence and Alex both mentioned that they would be going to London the following evening. I wanted in on the action.

I woke up feeling tired on Friday morning, and was slightly worried that I didn't have the inclination to go to London in the evening. After speaking to Alex I decided to bite the bullet and go anyway and hope for a second wind. We arrived at Guanabara at about 8.45pm with the intention of getting in before 9pm, after which you have to pay £10 to get in. Much to our annoyance the queue was massive. It stretched all the way down the road, round the corner and quite a way down Drury Lane. After half an hour of patiently waiting and ignoring Gary's constant requests to go somewhere else, we got in - a tenner down. I won't go into details about the evening too much as Alex and Chopper have already given accurate versions of events in their blogs, but suffice to say it was the best night i've had in ages - one of those nights where the whole vibe of the place is good and everyone seems to be having a good time.

The journey home was also quite funny. We walked back down from Drury Lane to Kingsway to find ourselves a cab, and after a couple of ridiculous offers from cabbies trying it on we found a guy that was willing to do it for £50. I tried my best to get it down to £45, but he was refusing to budge. We told him to forget it and walked off hoping he would lower his price, but he'd obviously never seen shows like the Apprentice or Dragon's Den as he didn't chase after us with a better price. In fact, after walking off I only then realised that £50 for six of us going back to Eastcote was a damn good price. I went back to the car with my tail between my legs, but managed to get him down to £49 to secure the moral victory. I win. Sort of.

As it turned out that was actually quite a good price, considering it involved two drop-offs and Gary making the guy pull over to the hard shoulder of the A40 so he could be sick.

On Saturday, having been on an artificial high the night before, I was ridiculously tired. During the afternoon the Bottler talked me in to going to the park and lying down on the grass to enjoy the weather. It was just what I needed to relax and I'd like to get a big group of us down there the next time the weather is good enough. I ended up trying to jump off the swings, but something went terribly wrong and I ended up doing a face plant - it was hilarious and I wish someone had been filming it.

On Saturday evening I resisted temptation to go out with Alex and Simon, and had an evening at home watching 24. The next day I heard from Alex that whilst sitting on a bench in Eastcote, some scumbag had decided it would be a good idea to creep up behind Simon and punch him in the face in a completely unprovoked assault. These type of incidents really make my blood boil. The very thought that people go out and do these things for fun is completely beyond me. The guy apparently crept up behind the bench before he hit him, which smacks of cowardice.

Related to the point above, a few weeks ago I saw two teenagers squaring up outside the Underground station in Pinner. One was clearly not very up for it and the other seemed to be just showing off in front of his mate. It seemed like nothing was going to come of the incident until one of the guys had turned to walk away. Then, and only then, did the other guy decide to hit him; when the other guy was totally off-guard. Now, if two people do get into a physical fight to sort their differences then I have no problem with this, as long as it's a fair fight; this certainly was not, and was just plain cowardly.

On Sunday evening most the boys came round to my house to drink, watch football, eat pizza and danish pastries, watch my holiday videos and then watch loads of Gladiators and vintage WWE. We then had a lengthy discussion about how we could incorporate scripted drama into our darts league. Watch this space.

I anticipate that today's daytime activities will involve darts. J has just sent me a message to see if I fancy a practice 'first to 16'. That might take a while.