"Excitement, adventure, and really wild things...."
Well, last night was a long one. I got to bed at 2am and woke up at 8:30 (I'd forgotten I had a nine o'clock hairdressers' appointment and couldn't be bothered to make another one). The reason why I went to bed at one was because, as mentioned in my last post, my friend and I went into Reading. Fair warning, the cut hides a bit of a rant.
The evening started normally enough. My friend got to my house around five, and we decided - after much dithering - that we would take the last bus into town (I am poor and incompetent and cannot drive) and go out for a meal before making our way to...where-ever we ended up. She had karaoke or a club in mind I....thought it would be fun to watch karaoke. Either way, it'd be something involving alcohol and dance-music. Not at all two of my favourite things, but we'd come to the mutual decision that it would be good to 'socialise' and that we were both better off doing so with like-minded people (i.e one another). Before we left, my friend asked if I'd read some of my "stories" to her. I insisted that only my fanfiction was even remotely fit for an audience, and she said that was fine. Somehow I ended up reading most of my latest stuff to a woman to whom 'fandom' is only a made-up word. It actually worked out well, because it was good to hear her feedback on how my stuff was written, even though she didn't understand the context. I have a RL friend telling me I write characters well. Yay me....
Normally when my friend and I go into town, we just see a film or eat a meal somewhere. After we finished eating, we went to Bar Med. Pretty empty. One karaoke guy singing the occasional song. This man was the organiser. After a bit we decided to look somewhere else for the night. After I realised I couldn't remember where the club I'd been to before was (a-ha you can tell I do this often) we ended up at another bar. The thing was I'd seen the place before and knew the area very well. There were security people on the door, the heavy-set man in the black suit kindly over-looking the fact I didn't have ID.
There was the drinking and music I had been expecting. Still quiet, it being only a Wednesday night (I wouldn't risk my sanity going out on a Friday or Saturday) but the people-watching and occasional attempts at dancing were entertaining. My friend and I chatted, talked about life and how this really was a 'good' thing for us to be doing. Neither of us are really into the 'partying' thing no matter what is said about "students these days".
All was going well until a man came along, trying to strike up a conversation. Upon first glance he seemed harmless enough. Snappily dressed, small-talk, wearing what he apparently took for a charming smile. I couldn't tell his age (again with the 'non-existent social life' thing) and was surprised to find he was considerably old than us. But I thought, well, he's only trying to be nice. He's drunk but the worst he's doing is leaning too close to me than I would normally tolerate from anyone, drunk or not (it's a 'thing' I have about physical contact). But I was too nervous to say anything, and just sort of shifted away. To no avail. My friend started getting worried, making an excuse for her and I to go away from this guy and explained that she thought he was creepy and wanted him to leave us alone. Whilst I could have put up with the git for a bit longer for the sake of politeness, I wasn't about to let him upset my friend. I tried to calm her down (not very good at that, I panic easily) and we headed for the door. We got outside, and lo and behold....slimy drunk bloke had followed us.
My friend confronted him, demanding to know why he had followed us. He claimed "coincidence". I thought "coincidence my arse" but didn't say anything, more worried that he didn't upset my friend further and frankly too panicked to do anything unless he did so. He started claiming that she shouldn't speak for me, that I "had [my]own mind" and in reply was told that he hadn't bothered to make eye-contact with me (no, the twat was staring elsewhere. And not subtly either). My friend got led aside by the bouncer and I could hear her explaining what had been going on. The man tried to explain that he didn't mean anything by his actions, that he was just 'socialising' and that if I didn't like that "so what". Or something.
I'm not sure what I said them, but it was some babbled mess about if we had told him we wanted to leave, he should have left us alone and shouldn't follow us out of the club (the point being that that should have told him we wanted to be on our own). I got the distinct sense the whole debacle was a real over-reaction, but I'd never been in such circumstances before, and well, things happened. There were probably a million other better ways to have handled the situation, and I ended up making a mess of it. It was an experience, I guess. Fortunately, the security man came back and told my friend and I to go back inside. We did so, and the man hassling us did not get let back in. The rest of the night was very nice, as we chatted some more, danced for a bit and all-in-all it was a good night. I just don't expect I'll be doing it again any time soon. Random males aside, it isn't quite my thing.
The evening started normally enough. My friend got to my house around five, and we decided - after much dithering - that we would take the last bus into town (I am poor and incompetent and cannot drive) and go out for a meal before making our way to...where-ever we ended up. She had karaoke or a club in mind I....thought it would be fun to watch karaoke. Either way, it'd be something involving alcohol and dance-music. Not at all two of my favourite things, but we'd come to the mutual decision that it would be good to 'socialise' and that we were both better off doing so with like-minded people (i.e one another). Before we left, my friend asked if I'd read some of my "stories" to her. I insisted that only my fanfiction was even remotely fit for an audience, and she said that was fine. Somehow I ended up reading most of my latest stuff to a woman to whom 'fandom' is only a made-up word. It actually worked out well, because it was good to hear her feedback on how my stuff was written, even though she didn't understand the context. I have a RL friend telling me I write characters well. Yay me....
Normally when my friend and I go into town, we just see a film or eat a meal somewhere. After we finished eating, we went to Bar Med. Pretty empty. One karaoke guy singing the occasional song. This man was the organiser. After a bit we decided to look somewhere else for the night. After I realised I couldn't remember where the club I'd been to before was (a-ha you can tell I do this often) we ended up at another bar. The thing was I'd seen the place before and knew the area very well. There were security people on the door, the heavy-set man in the black suit kindly over-looking the fact I didn't have ID.
There was the drinking and music I had been expecting. Still quiet, it being only a Wednesday night (I wouldn't risk my sanity going out on a Friday or Saturday) but the people-watching and occasional attempts at dancing were entertaining. My friend and I chatted, talked about life and how this really was a 'good' thing for us to be doing. Neither of us are really into the 'partying' thing no matter what is said about "students these days".
All was going well until a man came along, trying to strike up a conversation. Upon first glance he seemed harmless enough. Snappily dressed, small-talk, wearing what he apparently took for a charming smile. I couldn't tell his age (again with the 'non-existent social life' thing) and was surprised to find he was considerably old than us. But I thought, well, he's only trying to be nice. He's drunk but the worst he's doing is leaning too close to me than I would normally tolerate from anyone, drunk or not (it's a 'thing' I have about physical contact). But I was too nervous to say anything, and just sort of shifted away. To no avail. My friend started getting worried, making an excuse for her and I to go away from this guy and explained that she thought he was creepy and wanted him to leave us alone. Whilst I could have put up with the git for a bit longer for the sake of politeness, I wasn't about to let him upset my friend. I tried to calm her down (not very good at that, I panic easily) and we headed for the door. We got outside, and lo and behold....slimy drunk bloke had followed us.
My friend confronted him, demanding to know why he had followed us. He claimed "coincidence". I thought "coincidence my arse" but didn't say anything, more worried that he didn't upset my friend further and frankly too panicked to do anything unless he did so. He started claiming that she shouldn't speak for me, that I "had [my]own mind" and in reply was told that he hadn't bothered to make eye-contact with me (no, the twat was staring elsewhere. And not subtly either). My friend got led aside by the bouncer and I could hear her explaining what had been going on. The man tried to explain that he didn't mean anything by his actions, that he was just 'socialising' and that if I didn't like that "so what". Or something.
I'm not sure what I said them, but it was some babbled mess about if we had told him we wanted to leave, he should have left us alone and shouldn't follow us out of the club (the point being that that should have told him we wanted to be on our own). I got the distinct sense the whole debacle was a real over-reaction, but I'd never been in such circumstances before, and well, things happened. There were probably a million other better ways to have handled the situation, and I ended up making a mess of it. It was an experience, I guess. Fortunately, the security man came back and told my friend and I to go back inside. We did so, and the man hassling us did not get let back in. The rest of the night was very nice, as we chatted some more, danced for a bit and all-in-all it was a good night. I just don't expect I'll be doing it again any time soon. Random males aside, it isn't quite my thing.