Not often do I regret my actions enough that I think about it for longer than about five minutes, but when you’ve got 3 and a half hours sitting on benches, buses, tube stations, tube trains, normal trains, normal train stations all in about zero degree (celsius) temperature, it gives you some time to rethink the course of an evening.
Yes, what was supposed to be two drinks at the pub after work turned into an almost 15 hour journey of excessive drinking, expensive champagne, way too much public transport and pointless wandering and an insight into the horrible seedy underside of London. Well all except the seedy underside part, the only thing that was seedy (Yes, the slang word seedy is when you feel like s*&t from consumption, not a disgusting pervert) was me and the other revellers stupid enough to be out.
Course of evening:
4:00pm: Head to Henry’s Bar in Mayfair for quick farewell drinks for work peeps who can’t make it to Christmas party on Monday
4:30pm: Start training for the first leg of the Guiness Olympics (more to come at a later date)
5:00pm: Head to Samuel Peppy’s (The birth place of the Guiness Thursday tradition and various TMD evenings).
5:30pm+: Empty SP’s of remaining Havana Club Rum and Glen Fiddich Scotch
…
11:30pm: Head to unknown club
I’ll stop here, as it started to become hazy after this point, but there were several more drinks including two glasses from two bottles of £200 champage (that I thankfully took no part in purchasing) and some white Sambuca shots (ech). At this time I came to the realisation (a mistake) that it was one oclock and and there was no way I was getting home without shelling out a substantial amount (£60-75+) for a black cab home, which I definitely wasn’t prepared to do. So I went with the flow, until the club (like the Ambar in Perth) closed at 3:00am.
From here we’d run out of options, and wandered around aimlessly in the code before getting on a bus, that interestingly enough went absolutely nowhere, and we ended up not far from where we started. So after a bit more fart-assing around and an interesting trip to King’s Cross and a huge waste of time at McDonalds, I’d had enough and decided to call it a night and head home. By this point (4:30am), I was completely over the evening, and after already yearning for my bed for well over 2 hours, I looked forward to making my way home, as quick as possible. And then the fun (and my stupidity started):
4:30-5:00am: Wait for bus at King’s Cross, after missing the last night bus.
5:08am: Catch first bus headed toward town, not quite in the right direction though.
5:30am: Get off on Oxford Street, just near where the club was
5:45am: Walking away from Bond St Tube Station after deciding it wasn’t the station I wanted walk around aimlessly looking for Marble Arch
5:55am: Find Marble Arch station, only to realise I needed to go through Bond St to get home anyway, wait for tube to Bond St
6:05am: Change trains at Bond Street Station and wait 20 mins for train to Waterloo Station
6:25am: Arrive at Waterloo station, wait on Bench for first train to Twickenham
6:45am: Happy that first train is an express train and I’ll be home in no time at all
7:05am: Finally, at Richmond station one stop away from Twicks
7:15am: Wake up before arriving at Staines station (shit!!)
7:35am: Get on first train going back home
8:30am: Finally showered and in bed asleep.
So, it was a bit of an adventure, and 4 hours to sober up and wish I was at home in bed was enough for me, I’m too old for this! That’s the biggest cop-out for a 24 year old ever I know, but next time Cath definitely has to be there, and there has to be an exit strategy, or at least a good way to get home.
And how the hell did I manage to last without sleep until falling asleep on the train?
