Friday, October 10, 2003
Getting lost and getting pissed
My brother has a policy in London of getting off the main streets and navigating by dead reckoning. I'm adopting that, and have already found a better route from the tube to school and back. There's a small, non-chain sandwich shop en route, and the avocado sandwich I ordered this afternoon only cost £1 instead of the £1.45 it was supposed to. I'm not sure if the guy behind the counter was being nice because I looked particularly hungry, or if there's a discount after two, but it was a good sandwich.
This navigational policy also leads to being lost quite a bit, with all the non-right angle intersections and the streets that bend slowly and subtly. I'll be walking along StreetA quite certain it's parallel to StreetB, and suddenly it intersects with StreetB. When it's an intersection I know but haven't been down the StreetA branch of before, there's a strange moment of confusion resolving to joy, like when you run into a friend unexpectedly. Either that, or the following starts going through my head:
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
I'm gaining more understanding for all the lost souls in Bloomsbury who keep asking for directions to the British Museum. Four years ago I spent my first few nights here in the hostel across the street from the museum. It's one of my main reference points and I can actually help out the tourists.
I was walking about in Bloomsbury this afternoon, getting my fourth student card (one for LSE, one for ULU, one for the National Union of Students, and one for a discount on buses/trains/underground). On the way back to LSE, some guy ran into some other guy he knew:
"Hey, you pissed?"
"Mumble mumble, How you doing?"
"Good, are you pissed yet?"
"A bit."
It must be Friday evening.
Last night my American roommate, Future Think Tanker, convinced me when I got home that since the pub down the road had a Thursday night special of 3 shots for £2, we had to check it out. Ow, ow, my rubber arm, twisted.
We did not, in fact, get pissed. We were both tired, and if you avoided the dirty and/or gross sounding shots there were only a few options, and they were apparently 3 for £4.50 not £2. But the local crowd seemed good, so we'll probably be back, drinking not quite so girly drinks. Tonight, we're thinking about going to Crush if I'm not feeling too old for all this.
Unrelated to all the above, Tukul wrote:
I think you're missing something though - i.e. the "About" page which updates us on the story so far - okay, so you're at school but for what? why? what's your motivation? what were you doing before? Your stalkers...er..readers want to know!
Which I might do this weekend after I'm caught up on reading and assignments and putting together the £15 bookshelf I got at Argos, that has 70 goddamn screws and not enough pre-drilled holes. Why oh why did I leave my power drill in Canada?
