Three in one

Well, I'm relating what happened last weekend when I killed three birds with one stone (how good am I). I managed to catch up with three different branches of friends. This was despite the rail service to London being diverted to the slow route via Dartford (Network Rail = Network Shit), and then when getting to London finding half the Underground down, with the Central Line stopping abruptly at Liverpool Street, tiresomely requiring a bus when I needed to go to and from Bethnal Green.
First of all, I saw Jon Williams. We were off to see Fulham versus Arsenal as the latter usually ensure decent entertainment. In reality, the match rarely thrilled since Fulham never turned up. The Gunners were 2-0 up at the break. I whispered in Jon's ear "Game over?" (since we were in the home end) and he agreed. I posited then that Arsenal would score another goal and take it easy, which they did. A keepy-uppy between Arsenal's bench during half-time provided more fun than when Newcastle played Fulham last December. Apparently, during this playabout, I missed it but Jon saw one of the players slap Lehman who thereupon promptly blasted the ball at his attacker (that I did see) - an ominous sign of what was to come yesterday as Arsenal players fought each other. That 5-1 to Spurs in the second-leg of the League Cup semi-final is a repeat of their victory over Chelsea in 2002 in the same stage of the tournament and has added piquancy in that Chelsea then, like Arsenal now, had not been beaten by Spurs for years.
Well, back to Fulham. We were in the Johnny Haynes Stand, but unlike my experience on the other side of the Stand in December in plastic seats, these were old-school wooden flip ones. The more vocal elements of the fans voiced their discontent at the home players. I remember in 2002, Gerard Houllier pronouncing that Danny Murphy would become one of the best midfielders in the world and here he is now, struggling at Fulham and falling over the ball.
After the match finished, we went to get some money out and look for a bar showing Newcastle's Return of the King against Bolton. Some nil-nils are scintillating; this wasn't one of them. Keegan seemed so worried of defeat in his comeback game that he opted for a very conservative 4-1-3-2, with Rozenhal pushed forward as defensive midfielder. It made Newcastle hard to beat, but made the team narrow as well - unhelpful when at home against visitors keen to pull nine men behind the ball.
As the match progressed (and I use that word in a strictly literal sense) we got onto the subject of the new Batman movie and how Heath Ledger, star of Bonkback Mountain, really looked like his face had taken an acid bath, which was bold for a man so often portrayed as a hearthrob. It was a duanting task to step into the shoes of Jack Nicholson, not to mention Cesar Romero, but with the rectification of the dissonance between the end of Batman Begins and the start of Tim Burton's Batman, someone had to do it and was keenly looking forward to it. So my shock at learning of Heath Ledger's death last night was palpable. One radio commentator compared it in recent times to that of River Phoenix. Ledger was a likeable, young man, with some good performances to his name, who was on the threshold of greatness. How sad that he will never be able to fulfill it now.
After the game finished, I went to meet up with another set of uni friends. We were to meet 'near' Oxford Circus. I got there before everyone else. Eventually, Simon Savory turned up, in his new Amy Winehouse blonde dye look and he was just as befuddled as to where the Phoenix pub was (maybe because he had gone blond). So the two of us went to the Cock pub instead (it was a bird at least), sharing a pint, by which time more people had got to the orginal destination and we walked off along Bond Street, finding it swiftly. After drinks there, Simon, Lynsey, Tom, Claire and me ended up waiting for a bus outside Liverpool Street to take us to Bethnal Green. While waiting Simon saw a discarded ham and cheese subway sandwich on the floor and started pecking at it like a pigeon. Then it started getting thrown about. Simon sowed the wind so he reaped the whirlwind with the ham and cheese being deposited down his back. I can also remember intimidating Claire with a piece of ham in this food fight. Ridiculous times.
After getting to BG, Tom and Lynny headed home, while I, Simon and Claire popped off to this nearby swing club. The bouncers said coming at 1.15am we were quarter of an hour too late to get in, though the club closed at two. But then three people came out and the bouncers showed they were more than jobsworths, but actually quite decent people and let us in. We didn't even pay an entry fee. We didn't get too drunk inside, especially as Claire "didn't want to be propped up by anyone this time" (she had read my New Year's blog report. After some crazy dancing, we left at 2am and, bidding farewell to Claire, we bought a kebab each from the White Horse. It was only a small one, but quite substantial in spite of that and Simon got his weekly vegetable intake with the lettuce and onions.
Lynsey and Tom had kindly set up a bed and sleeping materials for me and Simon back at their place. In the morning, Lynsey woke us up at 10am, so I could go to church with her and Tom. After church, the three of us went to Baker Street and another Wetherspoons (after the one on New Year's Day). Here we met up with Mark and the others. Mel had a big suitcase of vegetables with her from the market, but with her outfit, she looked like an air hostess. Following lunch, the others made their way to a coffee shop, but I was going to make my rendevous with a third branch of uni friends.
I met Harry Hin Lai Ching at Covent Garden tube station. We went to a cheap, good Chinese restaurant he knew, since he was famished. I had some soft, pork fried noodles, while he ate some more substantial yellow stuff (something marine) that arrived after I had devoured my meal. We then went on to Picadilly Circus and near to Green Park, we went up White Horse Avenue and relaxed in the well-upholstered and welcoming King's Arms, where we caught up some more. I left Harry at 7.15pm at Green Park. It was to take another four hours before I finally arrived back in Gillingham. The first hour was spent getting back to Lynny's, collecting my stuff and having a bit of a chinwag with her and Tom. The scond hour was spent waiting for a bus from Bethnal Green and then staying on it all the way to Victoria, given all the tube complications. The next forty-five minutes was spent waiting in Victoria yrain station for the only train of the hour and then another hour and twenty on the train. To top it all, I got back home to find one of the cats had been sick in my room. Four hours of travel at night is not so pleasant but at least I was not short of reading material on me, which is something. Apart from that, it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.