happy smoking ban

I have been left feeling slightly cheated by the weekend. Friday night was the first in a long long time that I stayed in, despite an old flame having been out with some of my mates. I simply could not drag myself out of the house. Records, codeine, in bed by 10pm.

It might have been the fact that I was working overtime on Saturday, which nearly did my head in and threw my conception of space and time for the rest of the weekend. After a long day on Saturday, a coworker and I went for a few glasses of wine, I nicked fags of some guys at a nearby table, and counted down until the smoking ban - 12 hours to go. I rang E and miraculously he answered and we made plans to meet up at our local sometime after 11pm. Around 7:30 I staggered out of the pub, did some drunken grocery shopping, and headed home. Some friends were going to come around mine before going to our local.

More beer, I dressed to the nines, and again rang E's house, but got flat G. G and I had a gossip about whether he had or had not gotten laid the night of our party. I invited them around for pre-smoking-ban-party drinks, but G said they were going to Bethnal Green - well that was news to me, but hey, plans change. We staggered to the pub and I was already three sheets to the wind. We smoked, drank, chatted, had a boogie, but by 1:30 I was too drunk and had to go home and go to bed. The pub was open until 4am, and I didn't even make it to the usual closing time of 2.

Sunday: wake up at midday, ring T to make breakfast plans, and feel very alone. KT has gone to America, new flatmate hadn't come home the night before, and well, E certainly wasn't there. T's plan involved a Sunday roast at a nearby pub. I arrived at 2pm, he arrived at 2:30 with a new flatmate in tow. We lounged around, ate, chatted, read newspapers, I watched some girls at a nearby table down a bottle of red wine in the middle of the afternoon. We smoked in the new outdoor smoking section, and eventually - say about 3:30 - I hit the booze, T followed not long after.

We didn't leave the pub until after 10pm, after a gut-wrenchingly hilarious afternoon after we started talking to above-mentioned girls in the smoking section. Two bolshy and crude Australians, who were both utterly charming and clever. The five of us laughed rancorously all afternoon, downing bottle after bottle of wine. Stories and stories: T's new flatmate had been with a guy for five years and he just then stopped taking her calls - she therefore dumped him by text message with the following, "You clearly don't want to communicate with me, so take care and best wishes for the future." We learned the virtues of writing a text message and sleeping on it - if it seems like a good idea the next day, then it is. T just laughed hysterically and pointed at me, as though I should take this on board. I replied, "My problem is that usually when I'm sleeping on something to decide if it is a good idea in the morning, there tends to be someone else in bed with me."

We spent the best part of the day lounging around in the wee outside smoking area, where whenever anyone came back, a cheer went up and welcomes were all around. Many new friends were made with the local smokers, one of which had his name tattooed on the inside of hit bottom lip.

By half nine we ordered our second meal of the day in that pub. By the end of it all, T and I both had tabs of fifty quid each, and our new friends' mobile numbers. Incidentally, the reason they were getting pissed on a Sunday afternoon was because one of them had her wallet stolen on the tube - what does one do in that situation? Hit the pub and allow your friend to get you wrecked because you have no cash or cards.

Now Monday has rolled around again, tired, hungover, etc. I was meant to have a date with a girl from an online dating site, but canceled because I was tired and couldn't be bothered. So, a sex-less weekend has left me trying to figure out what I should do about the "E situation".