Late Night Drinking in London

Well, it has been a while- how you doing? I want to say that I have had a hectic week but I know that compared to people that work full time, I really have had a whole lot of time doing nothing. I haven't worked full time for over seven months, nearly eight now, but I did start my new part time job on Friday.

So before I was stuck working five days a week I thought that it would be a good idea to get away for a wee bout of visiting. Wednesday saw me getting a train to Paddington Station to get over to Reading to see my cousin. She had sent me the train time to co-ordinate with her own homecoming. I arrived at Paddington about an hour early in my eagerness.

I walked around and admired all the Paddington Bear stuff, read loads of books in Waterstones and waited for my train to appear on the board.

Which it duly did. Well, kind of. The 16.50 appeared on the board but on closer inspection it didn't seem to be going where I needed to go. Hum, time for some more investigation which uncovered the fact that I was at the wrong station, twenty minutes before my train was due to depart WATERLOO Station on the other side of town.

Bummer.

Ah well, got a train to Reading from Paddington and changed there to get to Winnersh Triangle- which sounds like the kind of place that drunk racing punters might end up in.

I was met by my cousin's family and we did a bit of catching up with everyone before me and Liz departed to the pub. We had a great pub meal and a few pints but it was the end of an era here in the UK- yes, Wednesday night was the last night that the pubs would have to close so early. As of midnight, we would have the choice to act like grown ups and stay out until the wee small hours.

We didn't do so that night though since we were going to Owen and Dylan's school the next day to sit in on the afternoon lessons. It is always a little weird for me to be around kids that can speak English but we had a good time, practicing for the Christmas concert and being read to by the little 'uns. It was almost a shame when it was time to go home.

After school, we barely had time for a pizza before it was time for me to head back to London. I fell asleep on the train and woke up to the annoucement 'everyone will have to get off the train now as it is no longer safe to travel on'. I don't know what happened but we just had to wait for about quarter of an hour before being rescued by the next train.

Then on Friday I had to go to work for my induction. Basically I met more people than I could possibly remember the names of, was shown around the school and had loads of things told to me which I instantly forgot! I sat in on the class that I am taking over today and panicked myself by knowing less grammar than the students, this always seems to happen with my adult classes but I have always got away with it so far.

So I really should be doing some homework ready for the class this afternoon. The class only had eight people in it and they all seemed very nice but again it was weird that they didn't look Korean! There was one Korean girl there and I intend to find out more about her today but I bet she is from Seoul.

The best thing about the school is the location- it is literally behind these lights

On Saturday I went into Greenwich to meet Russ, who I know from Gangneung. We fulfilled one of my long term dreams, we went to a comedy club. I haven't been to one for ages and it was as much fun as I remembered. Then, because the pubs are open later, we were able to carry on drinking! We went to the Gipsey Moth and then Russ wanted to go to The Venue in New Cross- a club I haven't been to in about a decade and I felt old then.

I managed to get the taxi driver to take us to Lewisham on the way and saw my old local. Not able to resist we went up to the doors of the Fox and Firkin, only to be told that we weren't allowed in after midnight- which seemed to make a bit of a nonsense of the later opening hours.

I got all misty eyed with memories though and rather than listen to me going on about the 'old days' the woman let us in after all.

I was just looking around in wonder at the pub that was my local for many years but I had been told had closed down sometime in the last seven years when I glanced across the bar and saw a familiar face... Carl! He might still be in the bar but some things had changed I realised when he told me that he was married. Another one of my mates joins the list!

After catching up with someone from my 'old life' for a while, we only had time for a kebab before getting a mini cab home. On Sunday we went out for a sausage baguette and looked around Greenwich Market until my throbbing head sent me home.

Now it is Monday. Ah well. Only five more days until the weekend.