I feel I have to get something written down, maybe the first glimmer of creativity this month!
I've been so busy enjoying myself and thinking of things to do that I've not had the time to actually put pen to paper, or fingers to keys if you want to be a smart arse.
I say enjoying myself but what I actually mean is that I've just been really busy, both at work and out of work. I'm not quite sure whether I like my social life at the moment, especially after recent events and certain things coming to light, not all of which is bad might I add.
I rarely have high expectations when I leave the house on a night out. Pin-balling between pubs and the occasional club in a tired, run down town doesn't really do it for me anymore. Maybe I've reached the age where nightclubs are for the younger, reckless types and a quiet drink in a wine bar is for older, more settled folk. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood or I'm a grumpy git, who knows?
The weekend...
At the weekend I went to visit my old uni flatmates in Nottingham. I hadn't seen them for at least six months and it was well overdue for us to catch up. We met up and found ourselves in the local very quickly. The local pub of my university life hadn't changed in character, but everyone seemed just a little bit different, like the place was missing something. The regulars in this particular public house are not young folk like ourselves; they're mostly above 50, have very colourful pasts and carry a beer gut. This is a fact that I always happened to love about the place.
Anyway, it turned out that it was missing something; a couple of the old regulars, 'the old guard' as one drunkard chose to describe them, had moved on (one had died, the other had just had enough of the place). Aside from this sad difference in the place (and the fact that the closing hours were earlier for some reason) I was genuinely glad to be there spending time with old friends, having a few beers and a few laughs, whilst enjoying a rare weekend away from a sleepy village and a comatose town.
Between the 3 of us we'd had a completely different 6 months in terms of what we'd been up to and I think we enjoyed each-others company for the most part. I couldn't wait to get down there and see what was happening and what had changed, but after 2 nights in that city I honestly couldn't wait to get back home and back to my own little world.
One thing caught me off guard when I finally got home after a somewhat rushed, albeit drowsy drive north: apart from us 3 catching up, nothing major had changed. Everyone in the pub was the same, had the same drinks, clothes, attitudes, sense of humour, nothing had ultimately changed. This, although twas what I had originally hoped on the way down, unsettled me.
I'm well aware of how it reads: someone writing about a pub like it's of huge importance, but it's one of the few places I actually enjoyed being and it really puts things into perspective, whether in a good way or not...
Loui
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