Journeys

In celebration of my 25th birthday -- damn, I'm gettin' old! -- had a pub night (yeah, big surprise, I know) at the Maple Leaf, a Canadian-themed pub near Covent Garden.

Typical drunken night, tho there were some rather interesting journeys home post-bar.

Feeling tired and sick, Emma left early. She started walking to the tube but then, revived by the fresh(ish) air, decided to just walk to Waterloo and catch the Jubilee line there. Upon arriving at Waterloo, she decided to walk the rest of the way home. Not exactly a short walk, and at midnight in the rain, a rather strange choice.

Emily stumbled out shortly after Emma. Preth walked her to Charing Cross station, a good place for her to catch a direct tube up to Camden. Rather then do that, Emily irrationally/drunkenly/confusedly walked to Blackfriars (no short walk, that) where she caught a pair of buses back across town and up home. Why? No one knows, least of all her.

After a post-drinking curry (korma, of course) in Soho with Lauren and her Lincoln-based friend, I cycled home -- nothing strange about that. Tipsy and rather soaked from the rain, I didn't have my waterproofs --instead, I was wearing my long nice coat and work shoes, as I'd gone straight to work after Amsterdam. It wasn't raining hard, more misty, as I slid around corners, back down thru Covent Garden and over the Thames at Charing Cross bridge (normally I'd cross at Waterloo, but took a wrong street) before rolling home along the riverbank, admiring the reflecting lights in the wet cement.

Rainy night on the South Bank

I got soaked (as I'm sure Emma and Emily did), but it's nice to know there're options other than just taking the vomitoriums that are the Night Buses -- damp but refreshed and happy seems a better start to my second quarter century of life than huddled on a bus choking on the stench of puke...