Week 41 - Andrew - Dinner last Friday

Lunch

The day was bright and blue. As we passed over the Samuel Beckett bridge, I picked out the sunlight on the water. It is that memory I will take with me when I no longer work here. The taxi driver was giving me feedback on my directions. I could save myself money by taking a different route.

'If he stops talking' I thought 'I can save money by not vomiting on his taxi'.

I had been drinking, and heavily. There was prosecco, and cocktails, and whiskey, and vodka - straight, and a bottle of cider. and some champagne and lots of all of it. There wasn't much food, and even less thought as to how I would manage to survive.

The office was quiet with people, but loud otherwise. The noise was loud, even from the ground floor. The lift opened on my floor. There were maybe a hundred people there. Men and women, twenty five, thirty and forty years old.

It was eleven in the morning, and they were dancing and drinking. A sales manager had set up a PA system, and it was banging - LOUD. Two directors had set up a bar on a desk, and were racking up STRONG bloody marys in red solo cups.

I stepped backwards, and the lift doors shut, to take me away, to a toilet cubicle.

The rest of the morning passed in a sweaty montage of conversations, retching, solpadeine and Todd Terje's greatest hits.

Lunch was healing. Salty chips and hotdog sausages. We sat, the survivors, staring at each other. Asking the same questions - "Did that happen?" "Did we really see them do that?" With each second, with each grain of salt, everything became easier to handle.

Dinner

The clear day had given way to a freezing black evening.

Two hours face-down on the couch, I was surprised I couldn't see the imprint of the cushion etched red on my face. More Solpadeine fizzing through my blood, nominally curing my headache, but mostly acting as a security blanket against a harsh and unfeeling world.

Comfort was easy at dinner. Hot food, good company and clear, pure sparkling water. Soft music and easy conversation. Trust and fun, nonsense arguments and acceptance.





P.S. - Esprit de L'Escalier

People probably take drugs because they're fun.

There are probably points on the spectrum between 'no drugs are legal' and 'there is no law'. I am advocating in favour of one of these points.

People should take pride in their work, I enjoy restaurants, I have tremendous respect for the people who work there. It's just unusual to start cleaning away plates when someone at the table is still blatantly eating.

Just how many Solpadeine would I have to take for it to be an addiction? Fizzy water is massively improved by the addition of codeine.