Sunday, 18 June 2023
Feeling tired after a bad night’s sleep where I felt I spent most of it awake listening to thunder in the distance and trying to get comfortable with an aching back. I managed to get off to sleep at some point and had my usual weird dreams, one involved a security guard with a metal arm taking my whiskey off me in a supermarket! Where do our minds go when we’re asleep? I got up eventually even though the idea of stopping in bed for the rest of the morning was more appealing. Breakfast done and it looks like it might be a good day in many ways. Most of the jobs I have to do, I have done, so I’m hoping to get to the club this afternoon for a few lagers and some dominoes. I’m looking forward to a steady Sunday with no drama.
Importantly, I have confirmed to my university that I accept their offer to resolve my complaint and I email everyone I need to, and now waiting replies from them which may come tomorrow, but knowing how universities work, will probably come next week.
I get to the club, and it is quiet, but the people I know are there. I order a lager and whilst waiting for it I text my friend to ask about a website she knows about for plane times, as I’m picking up her mother-in-law tomorrow morning. Or at least I thought I was. I have got the date wrong by about a month, much to the amusement of my friend. I now know the correct time and date and will be there on the day not a month before!
Before I can sit down my dominoes partner, has told me to setup the table as he always does when I come in. I’m used to it now, so I’ve got past being offended. We play against two old lads who we always play against, and we lose. It’s give and take. Some weeks we win, others, like this one we lose. Another old lad turns up with his granddaughter and her partner and they ‘knock on’ to play next. And that’s how the afternoon plays out. Beer, banter, and dominoes and lots of stories about the good old days, which seems to be an ever-increasing theme these days, reminiscing about times gone by.
We play again, losing one game to a ‘dry rubbing’ a 5-0 loss, and winning one game against the old lad and his granddaughter’s partner. My partner goes home, another lad steps in to take his place, and before I know it, it’s 5:00pm and the dominoes are over for another week. I should have gone home then as I have already spent all my money I have brought out for beer and dominoes and I am conscious of the need to cutback on my spending and save more money, but I am having a great time, so, unwisely, I get my debit card out and get more beers on it when I really shouldn’t.
I’m sat with two mates of mine who are quite a bit older then me, and I’m listening to their tales of the old days and who lived where, who went out with who and who worked for who, when all of a sudden they start arguing about one man and where he lived. To me it sounds like they are both agreeing on where he lived, and I cannot understand why they are arguing. This goes on for around ten minutes, much to everyone’s amusement, before they run out of steam and go for a cigarette and to calm down.
A couple of my mates buy me a lager for Father’s Day, and by then I’ve had more than enough. I leave the club, but instead of going home I go to the Co-op and get a pizza and a bottle of wine, spending more money I haven’t got. I’m finally home and I have the pizza but no more alcohol, as I physically cannot drink anymore. The rest of the evening is a blur. I go on the laptop, I’ve no idea what I’m watching on TV, nor do I have any idea what time I go to bed, but at some point I do and it’s the end to a good, if drunken and blurry, day.
The Autistic FellRunner 