Drinks with Stevie

What is it with train guards? Why do they feel the need to use incorrect words when they make announcements? It drives me mad the way they say ‘myself’ instead of ‘me’. I’m never sure whether to feel sorry for them because they clearly didn’t have classes in basic English or if I should just figure they’re stupid and don’t know any better.

I guess they feel it makes them sound more intelligent than they feel they are. It’s silly. They should just say what they mean rather than what they think the passengers expect. “Just contact the driver or me…” is perfectly correct and doesn’t sound in the least pompous. Go on, train guards, give it a go.

Leaving train guards for the moment… I went for a drink with Stevie tonight, after work. It’s been about four years since I last saw him and while a lot has happened in both our lives, it was like we’d just met up a week ago. That’s one of things I love about our relationship, the fact that we just take up from where we left off. It’s brilliant.

He and Lara have moved. They sold the flat they had in Woking and now have a semi a bit closer to London. It originally had two massive ponds in the garden (with equally massive coi carp swimming around them) which Stevie spent quite a few weekends filling in and flattening out.

There was also quite a lot of indoor DIY for them to do and, would you believe it, the previous owners left the place in a disgusting mess when they left. By that I mean they didn’t bother cleaning anything or making any sort of effort. The realo reckoned they were very pressed for time and didn’t get round to it. Round to it? I exclaimed. Surely it’s just the thing you do.

Anyway, it’s all lovely now and Stevie can sit back and know he did most of it, something he gets a lot of joy from.

Another great source of joy is Little Stevie, or Fraser, to give him his proper name. He’s now three and a lovely, cheerful chap. He runs rings around Stevie when it comes to technology…which is really saying something.

We spent the night talking almost constantly, moving from bar to bar around the Southbank starting off at the Festival Hall then moving on to All Bar One…which, being a Friday, was pretty crowded but not too bad.

Eventually we wound up eating Mexican street food courtesy of the Wahaca van. There was quite a funny exchange at the van when I insisted I was having a burrito without beans.

Stevie, backed up by the couple in front of us, insisted that you couldn’t have a burrito without beans because it wasn’t optional. I explained what would happen if I digested beans, telling them they wouldn’t remain digested for very long but they insisted I’d have to have beans on my burrito.

When it was my turn to be served I asked for a pulled pork burrito with guacomole and no beans. Without a flicker, the guy made it for me.

Then came Stevie. He wanted every kind of meat on his, double beans and a massive spoonful of guacamole. The guy was a bit stunned, asking his colleague how he charged for a burrito that had chicken, pork and beef on it. As Stevie said to me as we ate, why couldn’t the guy just charge the normal amount for the same amount of meat, regardless of the animal(s) involved. Fortunately they’d run out of squirrel.

Suffice it to say, against all expectations to the contrary, my order caused considerably less fuss than his. More important than this small victory over beans was the fact that the burritos were delicious.

From the burrito van we headed down to the National (so I could use the toilets) and then to the Understudy, a lovely bar neither of us had known of before. An unknown period time later, sitting outside the Understudy, I checked my phone to find a text from Mirinda asking when I was coming home because she was going to bed. The text was sent an hour before and it was then I suddenly realised it was quite late and we’d have to hightail it to Waterloo for the final train home.

After a splendid night, I walked into the house at 1:30am, the first time I’ve had a night on the tiles for ages. And it was such an enjoyable night.