Laughter, Travel and Random Blokes

I decided not to go out Friday night, as I couldn't face the thought of getting up at 5 havign gone to bed at 2. As it was I might as well have gone and enjoyed myself; I tried to sleep at 930 and couldn't. I drifted off for a bit, only to be awoken by the male NFB howling along to his (amplified) acoustic guitar. I got a little sleep, adn got up at 5. After a bit of stumbling about and swearing, I made it to the coach station for the 0550 to London. I dozed on the coach and met Beth in Victoria coach station. We had an excellent time in Leeds with Clare. We went to an all you can eat chinese buffet, which was brilliant apart from the queing panic it instilled in me. The boss was lovely and managed to stay calm despite the relentless flood of hungry customers. We still obviously have the student mentality of taking 'all you can eat' literally, and eating until duck pancakes come out of our noses. We managed to break the ice cream machine, talked about sex and laughed until we were all crying and aching from it. Back at Clare's, we sat up until 430 drinking (me tea; Clare vodka). I didn't get mush sleep, since I was sharing a bed with a very fidgety and snotty Beth. We sat around drinking tea until it was time to go back into town for the return journey. Beth's coach was an hour before mine, so Clare and I walked around the closed and soggy shops for a while. My coach eventually turned up- but without a driver. We finally borded 30 mins late, by which tiem the first fluterings of a panic attack where stirring in my chest, making my heart thump and my hands shake. I was concerned, as the connection I needed to make was the last bus back to Southampton. The journey was fairly unplesent as I wsa sitting next to the toilet. The power was off so the lights and water pump didn't work. I managed to have a pee as I have a tourch on my keyring. The smell of fetid piss gradually became unbearably rank, as dozens of people discovered there was no way to flush the toilet. I chatted to Eugene for a few hours, a large African man who works in audits. We discussed everything from commitment and marriage to football. I phoned national express, and they said they would hold the coach fr me if I was late. I made it with a couple of minutes to spare, despite having allowed an hour to make the connection. I walked back with a guy who is a student at the institute. I wasn't much company as I was exhausted. It was worth going all that way though. Friends are worth making the effort for, and I haven't laughed so hard in years.