Friday funtimes

Friday, finally! My brain has been playing cruel tricks on me this week, well since Wednesday when I had to wake up at the crack of dawn for a call with the US that was cancelled once I was already in the office and waiting on the line for the organiser to join. Nightmare.

For the past few days I’ve woken up with that fabulous, lazy, cosy, what-shall-we-do-today Saturday vibe, only to be repeatedly slammed back to earth with a bump when I realise that there is still more work to be done. I never used to get this before – it’s only started since I’ve lived here. Perhaps it’s because I don’t force myself to get up at the crack of dawn to go swimming anymore, or maybe it’s the warm sunshine that starts streaming through the windows from early on in the day, making me think it’s later than it really is. The sun puts me straight into holiday mode – dangerous when it’s going to be like this every day for the foreseeable future, very dangerous!

Either way, it’s not a great way to start the day during the week, especially when my Saturday morning sleep will be disrupted by Nick pack up and heading off to the airport at the crack of dawn! Still, when I realised that it was at least Friday, if not Saturday this morning, that was good enough for me!

Having met up with a couple of clients for meetings over the past few weeks, I lucked out by finding an ex-Londoner who, like me, missed the London client-lunch-Friday tradition, where you leave the office at one and you don’t return until the following Monday. Sadly, with numerous meetings in the diary, I couldn’t get out until around four, but as soon as I was done with work I was out the door and over to Club Street for a couple of drinks in the sun.

Club Street does exactly what it says on the tin – the road is lined with bars and clubs, and from seven each Friday and Saturday evening they close off the road so that drinkers at all of the bars can mingle and mix in the fresh air out on the street. It’s a bit mental there sometimes, but it’s a great spot to spend a few hours recovering from work on a Friday night.

Following a few drinks with the client (and absolutely no chat about work) I crossed from the bar I was in to the one directly opposite, where a group was starting to gather for Flash’s birthday drinks.

The group grew slowly from five girls up to around twenty people, mostly men, mostly horribly drunk – it was great fun! Sadly, with my laptop under my arm and Nick at home feeling rotten, I didn’t actually stay out much past eleven, but as I was sneaking out the back door, not mentioning to anyone that I was planning to disappear, it looked like the night was just about to kick off. I think it’s probably for the best that I missed out on the rest of that adventure.