Henry’s Big Weekend.
Friday.
The weekend began like most do, on a Friday evening. Earlier in the day I had made plans with some friends to go to the casino for a night of cocktails and casual gambling. This plan, however, never came to fruition. I had also made plans to meet with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while; the two events were to be combined into one occasion.
Just as I had finished eating my dinner I received a text message from a friend (Dale) informing me that the plan to go to the casino had been exchanged with a more affordable one of a meal out. This did not please me as I had just eaten, but I thought to myself I could just have a few drinks while everyone else ate. So a new plan formulated around me. I was to meet a friend (Adam) down the road from my house, his sister provided us with a lift into the next town. After a quick pit stop at the Co-op so that Adam could purchase smoking supplies we went to the pub over the road. I had often visited this pub, it being one of my favourites due to its luxurious décor. It was quite busy this night, it being a Friday after all. After about thirty minutes of slow sipping at our drinks and talking and laughing and sharing stories the rest of the group arrived.
There was me, that is Henry, Adam, Dale, Naomi and Rosh (Dale and Rosh being in a relationship together). Not being able to find a place to sit inside, we moved outdoors to the smoking area after securing ourselves some drinks. I found out from Dale the table at the Indian restaurant was booked for ten thirty, quite late to be eating I thought to myself, but seeing as I was not eating anyway this did not affect me. Whilst sitting outside, drinking and smoking we were joined by a rather amusing chap named Sam who took it upon himself to be a provider of jokes and amusing anecdotes for about ten minutes. It was almost as if he was an amateur stand-up comedian and he was testing out his material on my group of friends and I. I found him quite funny, as did the rest of us, with the exception of Dale who had grown weary of this intruder’s humorous tales. Sam the stand-up made his way back inside. We stayed there for a little while longer and finished our drinks, then decided to move on to a different pub before getting a taxi to the Indian.
We walked a few minutes down the road to a pub called the Green Dragon. I’m not too sure why we decided to go to the Green Dragon; our reason for leaving the Griffin was that there wasn’t anywhere to sit inside, yet we all knew that the Green Dragon was half the size and twice as busy. But there we went. As expected the pub was heaving and again we were forced to sit outside, but it wasn’t overly cold so I didn’t mind really. By this point I was drink something called Desperados; a delicious concoction of Mexican beer and Tequila, one of my favourite alcoholic beverages weighing in at a mighty six percent proof. Once again we sat drinking, talking and joking, sharing stories and memories past until it was time to leave and wait for our taxi to the restaurant.
We arrived at the restaurant just after half past ten and were sat at our table. The five of us were each handed a menu, I didn’t bother looking at mine as I had already had dinner and instead began to peruse the wine list. I was in the market for a bottle of soft rose wine to share with Adam. I had recently enjoyed a bottle of White Zinfandel and wanted something similar. What I got was drinkable, but nowhere near as nice as the Zinfandel. The others looked through the menu and made their orders. It was an enjoyable night, although I could sense a bit of an awkward atmosphere coming from certain members of our group. I think it was because Adam, Dale and myself were in a somewhat silly mood the two females did not appreciate our laughing and joking while out to dinner. I think they thought we were being immature but I just thought they should lighten up a bit, although that is what I think about most people, probably because I’m so laid back I’m virtually horizontal! A bottle of wine and four meals later we were leaving the restaurant (at roughly midnight) and moving on to one of the few bars in the town that were still open.
We found a bar called ‘Cheers’, named after the television show, it had about as much class as you would expect. We ordered some drinks and sat down to watch the terrible karaoke performances that were taking place before us. Adam and I wanted to get up and sing a homo-erotic version of a David Bowie song but decided against it as it might upset the small minded patrons of the bar, and we didn’t feel like getting beaten up. It got to about quarter to two and after many drinks and cigarettes we decided to call it a night, it had, after all, been a long and eventful night full of excitement and interesting characters. But sleep was what we needed now, peaceful time to process the happenings of the day. So we all jumped in a taxi and headed to our homes. Slumber was calling, and some of us (mainly me) had much on our plate the next day.
