And now to relax...

PHEW!! Sunday night’s here at last and hopefully a quieter week to come. And now to catch up with things...

Backtracking a bit to Thursday week ago, which is near enough to where I left things here, and when the chaos of the last week and a half kicked off. Although, I say ‘chaos’ it’s been far from it - it has just been VERY full on...
Okay, so last Thursday week, it was finish work then head over to a pub just off Oxford St to catch up with Sue, Wil n Dave for the evening. After a pleasant night together, it was back home to pack for Friday.

Friday for me finished early so that I could meet Shar at Liverpool St station where we caught the Stansted express to Stansted airport. A two hour flight followed shortly thereafter and we were in Rome for the weekend. An evening and two fantastic days of sun and 25C weather! But, more on this later. Leaving Rome on a 6.30am flight Monday morning and it was straight back to work after touching down, customs and the train back to Liverpool St.

Tuesday night was the Monkey Shoulder Appreciation do with free cocktails all night and the guest speaker being the author of the Hedonist Travel Guides. Naturally, hedonism was his topic - the do’s, the don’ts and quite a few ‘how to’s as well. Tim, Belinda, John, Sam and myself then moved to the restaurant downstairs for what turned out to be a very nice (although late) dinner.

Wednesday, and after a very convincing win playing 5-a-side on a snow affected pitch, (did I mention that it was getting colder here now?) it was off to a pub near Angel to meet up with Husky n Kel. Husky had managed to score tickets to the Arsenal v Spurs game at arsenal’s home ground. Arsenal ‘away’ is one of the biggest games of the season regardless of where either side is in the league (the other being at ‘home’). The north London rivalry goes back almost a century now and it is still VERY fierce.
On my way to the pub, I got a text from Husky saying that Graham Roberts was at the pub waiting to meet me again (as you’ll recall from my meeting him up in Newcastle about a month ago). I thought Husky was pulling my leg on this one, only to walk into the pub and be greeted by Graham himself!!
A couple of beers later, and we all set off to the Emirates Stadium for the game. The atmosphere outside the ground was seriously buzzing, and it really felt like something was about to go off despite the massive presence of police. Inside the ground, and despite the highly likely prospect that Spurs would lose, the fans were in fine voice from the start. This was greatly assisted by Spurs scoring early on in the first half, as you can well imagine. Either side of the half time break and arsenal scored to make it 2-1. Not long after and it was 3-1, with the usual effect of the arsenal fans then “giving it the biggun”. 3-2 and things were looking better for Spurs as they still weren’t out of it, and our turn to make some noise. 4-2 and things weren’t looking good at all with the arsenal lot singing “one nil and you f*cked it up!”...
With 5 minutes to go and people starting to leave, it all happened. Within the space of 2 minutes, Tottenham scored twice to level the game at 4-4 - cue pandemonium in the stands amongst the small contingent of Spurs fans, chants of “4-2 and you f*cked it up!” and the end to an amazing night. Even if it actually ended several hours later after around 60,000 people all trying to go home at the same time!

Thursday night was the work Halloween party, and my plan of heading along for one or two pints before calling it for a much needed early night went out the window. After quite some time there, a few of us headed out for some more drinks as one of the guys was finishing up that day.
Halloween itself was actually on the Friday night, and it was time to join Karyn, Marty, Row, Mark, Suki n Troy for the RBS Halloween party. This one was more of a proper Halloween party being complete with costumes. I did Uncle Fester of the Addams Family. The pics are Karyn, Marty n Row (left - and yes, that is his moustache that has emigrated to his forehead!), and then on the right is Row, Mark, Suki, ‘gatecrasher’ n Troy. We kicked on through the night with many of the other RBS staff before ending up in another bar where we were the only ones in costume. This had a rather interesting effect, and one that certainly had its moments! A top night out all round, and another ‘new friend’ as well - don’t you just love it!!

A slow start to Saturday (as you can imagine) and upon reading a certain email to discover that I had a very important day marked in my calendar in the wrong month, it was off to Hamley’s in Regent St to find a special little fellow. The Hamley’s toy store is an amazing place extending through six floors, and well worth poking around for a few hours.
Upon leaving Hamley’s to discover that it was pouring outside, it was a quick trip round the corner into Carnaby Rd to find a pub to wait out the rain. Pub found, and it was time to settle in with a pint to watch the football with the rest that had gathered there. Good thing it was Tottenham v Liverpool too. Rather amazing the way something like this brings people together because in no time, I was practically best mates with a small group of about six people directly around me.
Part way through the second half and it was time to head off to Oxford Circus tube to meet Shar who’d just finished work. I met her and one of her workmates, Kiersten, then proceeded to a nearby pub for a few quiet drinks together. Quiet probably isn’t the right word as this pub was gearing up for its own Halloween do during our stay there.

Sunday also had a slow start, as keeping up with the current week was taking its toll. Still, it didn’t mean that the day was spent doing nothing. In the early afternoon, I met up with Karyn and we spent the afternoon at Camden Market. My purpose was to find a cheap overcoat that could be left in the office at work for use during the cold winter months, and at £20 for one that I’ve seen in the retail stores for well over £150, who was I to argue. We found several other bargains throughout the afternoon as we both managed to find some Xmas bits as well.
Marty joined us as evening closed in, and we proceeded to move through the area to find somewhere for a few drinks, then dinner to round out the day...