Haha, not really.
Yesterday started off pretty good. I woke up at around 12pm, feeling excited and very much awake. It was the first time I'd felt so awake and alive in a very long time. My mum had asked me to go shopping, as you're well aware and I still had plans to. Thankfully, reinforcements arrived in the form of Paul, who I asked to come with me, since there is a fucking ton of shopping that I had no idea how I was going to carry. I was very appreciative of him coming as if i'm with someone there, then I don't feel as scared and anxious.
I hadn't eaten yet and I began to feel the effects of not doing so around 1pm. Very light headedness and feeling very tired, when only an hour ago I was feeling great. I debated whether to eat something or not, but my appetite wasn't there so I decided against it, hoping I'd be ok.
After writing out a list of things my mum needed, me and Paul went shopping. God I hate shopping. That is, shopping my mum's way, rather than mine. If it was me, I could get everything I need in one shop - 7 pizzas would do me! But we had to go to three or four. That's not the bad part, but it's all those people in such cramped aisles. It feels very claustrophobic. That sounds silly, I know. Coupled with the fact that I was feeling light headed and very tired, it really wasn't the best place for me to be. Regardless, after about an hour of shopping, we had gotten everything and by 2pm we were home. I packed away all of the shopping and decided that I was going to have a nap before getting up at 3pm in order to meet everyone at 3:45pm.
I called Claire, since she asked me to the night before last to make sure she was still coming.
"Hi Claire, it's Neil"
"Hi, how are you? Happy birthday!"
"Aw, thanks. I'm just ringing to see if you're still coming?"
"I dunno. I might not be able to make it. I've gotta babysit".
BAH. The disappointment hit me full on. Damn damn damn. Out of everyone, I had hoped that she would be turning up and to learn that she now wasn't was very shit. I knew nothing would actually happen with her even if she did come, but I wanted there because she's really nice company and I consider her just as much a friend as all of my other mates.
It's just that this mate I happen to fancy...
With the disappointing news now in my head, I went to bed for a while, trying to have a 20 minute nap, but didn't suceed. I did however manage to at least close my eyes for a little bit and rest as much as I could before getting up once more and getting to town at 3:30pm. As as I walked out of the station, I saw Jamie. That was a small relief.
We said hi and talked for a while. He was kind enough to buy me a card that was actually pretty funny. He introduced me to his friend, Mike and said that Danielle, his girlfriend couldn't make it. After a few minutes, Tony and his girlfriend Lucy showed up and I introduced everyone to everyone, before Stan showed up. Stan shook my hand and said happy birthday.
While we all waited for Fisher and Dave to turn up, Jamie and Mike decided to go get some munchies for the cinema. Since Tony/Lucy don't know my mates from college, neither 'group' talked to each other much at first, but I knew it'd be like that so I wasn't worried. After a while longer, Dave turned up with his friend Glenn and I again introduced everyone. Very shortly after, Fisher arrived and we were now just waiting for Jamie and Mike to get back from the shop.
As we waited and Fisher was talking to the group, what I forgot was that to anyone besides my group of mates - and especially people a little more sane than any of them, aka Tony/Lucy - Fisher is very hyper. Personally I think that due to the amount of drugs he does, he wouldn't need to ever take any again. He probably has ecstacy in powder form for blood now with a ton of weed thrown in for good measure. You could tell by the looks on Tony and Lucy's faces how put off they were by this, but I was hoping that the weirdness factor would wear off.
Jamie and Mike soon returned and we went the restaurant. Once there, I walked upstairs to where I usually sit when I go there, but it was dark so I came back down assuming that it was closed, but a waiter came and switched the lights on, ushering me to go up.
I was kind of confused by the fact that there was not one person up there. I mean literally empty up there. It was confusing because even though it was only 4pm, I would of thought there'd be at least one or two people in there. But no, completely empty.
We all sat down by the window, where there was already a long table waiting for us. Soon after the waiter came to take our orders. When the waiter asked me what I'd like to drink, I said lemonade. Jamie was shocked.
"Nooo!", he said, "Gotta get you pissed!"
You see, he's been absolutely intent on getting me drunk ever since well, pretty much the first weeks of college actually. I don't know why he and the rest too wanted to get me pissed so much.
I still ordered the lemonade.
We were all painfully aware of the 80's and early 90's music that was currently playing. I personally was also painfully aware of how fucking empty it was in there. There was no hustle and bustle and laughter and noise of a restaurant you'd expect. Just us 9 sitting at a table. It was very uncomfortable, personally.
The good news was that Tony and Lucy were much more ok with my friends by that point and Tony especially liked Fisher, since I think he found him quite amusing. All of us do!
One thing that did make me cringe slightly was the fact that the likes of Fisher and Jamie were talking about things like the taste of pussy and exclaiming the delights of now knowing what smega is, after they explained it on Red Dwarf. That alone was pretty amusing. He learnt it from Red Dwarf! But, I did feel a little bad, because it's not like Lucy was enjoying these kind of conversations and I felt as if it was a bit disrespectful of her, personally.
"Sorry if you're like, uncomfortable with this", Fisher said to Lucy, "but this is what we usually talk about".
Lucy said it was fine, but I doubt she was ok with it.
I don't think the others were that bothered by the fact that no one else was there, although perhaps they just weren't showing it for my benefit but I did feel very awkward and embarassed I guess for doing this to them.
We asked the waiter to turn the music off after a while since none of us really wanted to hear Lionel Richie particularly and a bunch of crap songs from the 80's, although Fisher was singing away, saying he was growing to like all of them. The music was still on after ten minutes though.
The waiter came to take our orders and suddenly, the music got turned up TO THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Christ, that was fucking loud. We all shit ourselves for a second, before the waiter ran somewhere to shout at whoever was fiddling with the music to turn it off.
Come to think of it, anyone watch Eastenders? Our waiter looked a little like Tariq! Except this waiter didn't particularly understand English that well. Still, he took all of our orders and it was actually really nice having all of my friends around a table laughing and joking. I did want to take a picture of them all, but decided it'd be too silly to ask them all to let me do so. So there aren't any pictures.
Our meals came and we all tucked in. As Fisher was eating his burger and chips, we all found out that he has extremely strange eating habits. Apparantly, he doesn't like spiky chips. That is to say that he doesn't like chips with spiky ends and he simply won't eat them. Perhaps he thinks they're going to mess with his insides or something. He also won't eat chips that are too brown or have even a single piece of water cress on, as was proven by him by leaving half of the chips since they were..spiky.
Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meal though. Then it was time for dessert and I was quite intent on having not one, but two chocolate fudge cakes. You can't have one. One goes too quickly. You need two to continue the pleasure of eating such nice cake. When I ordered 2 of them, the waiter took it down without caring. He must of thought that it was for someone else, as when he brought them and gave me one, he was looking for another person to give the second one to. He got confused. I called to him, saying it was mine. He was still confused. Looking up and down the table, deciding who was supposed to have it. Eventually he realised it was mine and joked that I was greedy. I know I am, but I don't care, because that cake is too nice not to have as much as possible. Plus, I then realised that Tony had ordered two of the same of what I had.
"I learnt from you last time we were here", he said, referring to the fact that last time he and I where here was on my sister's 16th birthday, when I had three fudge cakes and he only had one and then regretted not having more.
When Jamie saw what I was having, he too regretted ordering ice cream and after having a taste of it as well, he agreed it was extremely nice, but had his ice cream anyway. It was this little mound of ice cream and he took great pleasure in taking careful slices out of the edge of it, all the way round. He took about three times as long to eat it as anyone else would and we all watched intently, as he got closer and closer to the centre.
Finally after everyone had finished, we went back downstairs to pay. It was about �10 each. Possibly cheaper for everyone else, since they didn't order two desserts.
Then it was on to the cinema. We still had 30 minutes to kill before the film was actually on so we walked slow. By this time, it was as if Tony if not Lucy was part of the group now and he was talking fluidly to Fisher in particular. When we got the cinema, it was pretty much time to go in so after getting our tickets, we took up a row at the very back on the right section, with Fisher nearest the wall, then Jamie, Mike, Stan, Dave and Glenn. I sat in front of them all, while Lucy sat next to me and Tony was sat next to her.
Jamie got all the munchies out and man, he bought a lot. He bought this bumper pack of Nik Naks and gave them out to everyone, then some Revels too and god knows what else.
Once the film started, they all quietened down and we began to watch Shaun of the Dead. Yes, that's right, SHAUN of the Dead. For those who have not heard of it, it's an English made comedy based on Dawn of the Dead - the old version, not the new one. It looked really good from the trailers, but as we watched, I found myself struggling to stifle a laugh and everyone else was like that too. It really wasn't that funny at all. So all in all a pretty crap film. Disappointed over that.
Half way through the film I had decided that I was going to skip going to the AJ's, which is the pub we usually go to at college lunchtimes. I told them this when we all came out of the cinema and they all wanted me to come, but I said no. I really didn't fancy it to be honest. They don't understand that for me, getting pissed really isn't as appealing as it is for them. Me, Tony, Lucy, Jamie and Mike caught our trains home, while Stan and Dave decided to go to the AJ's anyway. In retrospect, maybe I should of gone, but there's always another time.
Jamie and Mike's train came first so we said goodbye to them, before waiting for ours to come. We had to move at one point because there was this drunk guy standing right next to us which is kind of offputting. When the train came, as luck would have it, he decided to sit down on the seats next to us. Lovely. Then his drunk mate decided to join him too, along with his wife.
And then the real fun started...
A few young lads got on the train. There were three of them I think, about 15 and they were messing around a lot. Shouting, messing about with the train itself, and basically being complete idiots. This itself was annoying, but at least it was manageable. Two stops later they were still at it and you could see everyone, including me, Tony and Lucy were getting fed up of it.
A load of young 14/15 year old girls got on at the third stop. A lot. God knows why there was so many. And of course, those three lads decided to go up to some of them and begin talking to them. Or rather, talking at them. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they obviously offended at least two of them, before they came back down the carriage to their little play pit, where no one was sitting.
The drunk guy decided to turn round, as the train started moving again and tell them to shut up. But since they're idiots and think they can take on the world, they talked back, which in turn made this drunk guy talk back to them and so began an argument. While the the guy was having the argument, one of the lads decided to ask the drunk guy's mate for a light. The drunk guy told his mate not to give him a light and thus began another arguement with this man and a lad. Of course, everyone in the carriage and then some could hear what was going on.
Suddenly, out of nowhere comes another, sober man looking very pissed off, storming up the train. He began telling the argumentative lad (the one who was asking for a light) to sit down and shut up and the lad began talking back to this man too. But this man was seriously pissed off and as the lad was talking back to him, the man decided to move onto the next two further down the train, literally pushing the lad out of the way, making him fall between the two drunks. You could see the shock in the lad's eyes.
"You can't do that to me!", he shouted. You could hear the slight fear in his voice. The shock of the man pushing him to the ground.
The man then began to have a go at the other two lads, swearing at them, them swearing back. By now, the entire carriage was looking towards the end of the carriage to see what was going on, as another man got involved and began arguing with the lads too.
Suddenly, one of the lads was on the floor, and the man was hitting him. A few of the women on the train saw this and began running to the back of the train, shouting at him to stop. I felt helpless and wanted to do something so I told Tony and Lucy that I was gonna go speak to the driver. I walked through all three carriages to get to the driver's compartment. There was one right by where we were, but since there was a war going on right outside that door, I didn't want to go anywhere near there.
I knocked on the driver's door. No answer. I knocked again and shouted to see if there was anyone there. No answer. To be honest, I was fucking scared, because it felt like I was in the position I was two years ago when I was headbutted on the train for no reason at all and it was me then too who knocked on the driver's door.
"All hell's breaking loose down there", I said to someone who was sitting next to the door. I don't know why I said it, but I guess I just wanted a little help. There were another few older lads sitting by her and they overheard and I explained to them what was happening. They asked me how old they were and then they happily decided that they were gonna come back to the end of the train with me to sort them out. Christ, when I got back to the end of the train, there were a ton of people crowing the back of the train. The boy who was on the floor a minute ago was now at the other end of the carriage, crying, while the two men were now sitting at the back of the train. I sat down again next to Tony and Lucy.
"What's happened?", I asked.
"That fella's just been hitting that lad and the train driver's been out (so there must of only been one driver, where the fighting had been taking place) and he's called the police. And, the lad who was hit and his mate's have called the police too".
At the beginning of this journey, there were twenty people in the carriage. There were now at least 50.
Finally we reached Kirkby station. As we walked out of the station, we once again heard shouting and then we seen another fight commence in the station, as the crowds of girls and other passengers tried to scramble out. One man ended up of the floor, looking as if he'd passed out.
"Tony, ring the police", I said to him. Others were saying things like "Just leave it, nothing you can do", but I hate that. I don't want to just leave it. I want to help. I knew that Tony did too so he rang the police, but couldn't get through to them. What fucking use is that? How can 999 not be available? Because that's what he said he was getting when he called.
We got in a cab together and he and Lucy got out at his house and then I went home.
After the little event on the train, I was feeling pretty shook up. I don't know why exactly, since nothing directly happened to me, but it just really scared me. Yes, i'm a wimp, I know.
I then began to feel really lonely for some reason. And I definitely don't have any idea where that come from. I just had this overwhelming sense of emptiness inside me. Perhaps it was the fact that I'd been having fun since 3:30pm till around 8pm and this was the comedown. I was knackered by 9:30pm so I went to bed for a while, before getting up at around 1am and doing various things, including making a diary layout for Mimi. I then decided to make a surprise layout for someone who I'd already picked out. He's a complete stranger, but I like giving surprises. He doesn't know about it yet. I'll message him later.
So, that was my birthday. Not as good as I had imagined, but still a lot of fun. I appreciated all of my mates turning up so much, and my only regret is that Claire didn't. Dave's birthday is next month so who knows, maybe something like this will happen all over again too.
Roll on blackjack.
