The long goodbye

Wednesday night was a more-than-usually strange one for me in my local, Room 101. I was stuck there on my sad old lonesome for a couple of hours at the start of the evening, with only the prospect of a game of Chinese chess with the barman to distract me.

Then, all of a sudden, a whole bunch of my friends turned up, and we had quite a jolly time for a couple of hours or so. But then they all abruptly left again.

But then a whole bunch of other people I knew appeared. It was getting on for midnight by now, so I was trying to extract myself, but...... well, it just took me so long to say hello & goodbye to these three or four separate acquaintances, probably a good 20 minutes or so. And I'd finished my last drink before I embarked on this farewell tour of the bar. As soon as I finally hit the night air, I realised that I was by now furiously thirsty again, and I'd only made it a few yards up the street before I turned automatically on my heel and strode back into the bar to order one final glass of Stella.

Well, it might have been two. And then the boss bought me another one...... just as everyone was finally about to leave; so I found myself chugging my last beer, once again all alone, just as I had been for my first few.

Strange indeed, but mostly fun.

Anyway, I can't recall ever before having realised that I haven't finished drinking for the night seconds after departing for home - hence this week's haiku.