As this was the last time we’d all get a chance to see Irish Johnny before he flies off to China for a year and a bit, most of the old Loughborough crew descended upon London this weekend for the football, the rugby and a couple of nights out.
I travelled down on Friday evening and met up with Swan, Duffy, Johnny, Johnny’s sister and her mate at a bar in Covent Garden. We had a few cocktails and then went back to Duffy’s for some food and to get ready to go down to Old Street.
Ambrose arrived mid-evening and we left for a bar and pool at some local pub. Johnny rejoined us after having food in Covent Garden and we then spent the rest of night making a nuisance of ourselves and visiting several nameless bars, pubs and clubs.
On the way home there was plenty of amusement provided one ‘horrible man in a hat’ who looked like a slightly lost pirate wondering around Dalston in a bowler hat. He turned out not to be that horrible at all, and was quite chatty, but his nickname stuck.
The next morning we went to watch the football over the road from Duffy’s then went back to his flat to watch the rugby. The score was wider than I thought it might be (and if you think that if Wilkinson’s try had been disallowed, it wouldn’t have been), and I think it was a little unfortunate the shining stars were the old schoolers. Clearly I wanted nothing more than a sparkling return by them, but it was obvious without them England would have been lost.
The Face had joined us by now and of course all the usual banter was returning. We caught the bus to Liverpool Street managing to keep a few of the passengers amused, and met up with Danny, Fish, Greg, Seany and Geordie. Mike and Noel arrived later. By now the full complement of Towers massive had arrived, and so we went to the night’s final destination; Leicester Square.
Needless to say, it was one of the more interesting nights I’ve had a in a long while, and it was really good to see everyone out together somewhere that wasn’t Loughborough. It’s also the first and last time I want to be doing Sudoku, left handed, at 3am in the morning on a night out.
The next day Mike managed to wake me up when he kicked me in the head thinking I was a pile of clothes, when in fact it was me rolled up in a deflated air bed. Probably not the best start to the day.
About midday I arranged to meet with John outside St Mary’s for some food and we ended up going for a curry. Sammi and I were going to meet up to discuss travel plans, but she ended up getting stuck in East London and so I took the early train home which thanks to the wonders of modern transport arrangement, took me to Bicester and Banbury before it got anywhere near Birmingham, let alone home. The delights of travelling on a Sunday.
Today hasn’t really worked out as intended. I’m hoping tomorrow is a little more successful.