I went out with
my friend Stephen tonight, on one of our famous Old Man Pub Crawls.
It could be a
sign of maturity that these days, little in the way of alcohol is imbibed.
Actually, it’s more likely to do with the fact that Steve works in Hitchin but
lives in Stevenage and has to drive home afterwards and I can no longer drink
to excess (or INXS) without feeling sick in the night. I’m not sure what
happened to me to bring about this change, but it’s probably for the best;
no-one wants to see a rowdy inebriated Ephgrave roaming the streets.
You’d think that
this many years into our relationship – around twenty-three - we would have
covered just about every possible topic of conversation we could. In
many ways, you’d be right. We long ago reached the stage where we’d prefigure
each story with “I may have told you before, but…”. Yet tonight I learnt that
he can’t solve Magic Eye pictures (if 'solve' is the right word) and I told him bizarre
mental trick I used to use to counteract my shy bladder. Of the
two anecdotes, he drew the short straw.
For two Kings of
Social Awkwardness, we had a good evening. I felt less self-conscious than
usual, which was surprising considering I hadn’t been out all day, save a trip
to the shop over the road to buy some chocolate buttons. Any calories burnt on
my journey were no doubt replaced as soon as I consumed them. That’s not to say
that today was wasted, as I started booking acts for Mostly Comedy’s New Year
dates. Plus I ate the buttons, which was time well spent. Tasty, tasty time
well spent.