Hypocrisy

The thing about writing rubbish on the internet is that it is far too easy.

In theory.

But what do I write about? I mean, what is there really to say that hasn't already been said a million times? What boring detail of my life is mundane enough for this blog? Should I tell you about the restaurant booking I made today? About the train tickets I bought this morning? About the drunk lads I saw on my way to the supermarket at lunchtime?

The drunk lads. I'm going to write about the drunk lads, because there isn't enough written about cheery drunk people and too much about aggressive or stupid drunk people.

I was walking towards an underpass near my house when I became aware that I could hear a familiar scene behind me. I thought nothing of it for a second or two, then I realised that it wasn't all that familiar for a Monday lunchtime at all. It went a little like this:

"YEEEAAAARRAAAHHHH"

"chuckle!"

"FAMINAFRAMINNNAAAAMAAA"

[slight scuffle]

[silly giggling]

I was a little perturbed by this and decided to 'tie my shoelace' to allow them to pass by before going down into the subway, in case I was forced to interact with an unknown number of unpredictable drunks for a reasonably prolonged stretch of time.

So, having tied - and untied, then retied; the drunkards were unpredictable remember... - both of my shoelaces, they eventually passed.

They were older than I'd assumed.

They must have been in their late twenties/early thirties, which to me is far to old to be pissed on a Monday afternoon.

They were also in higher spirits than I'd imagined.

Rather than behaving like threatening adolescents who were all trying to prove their dominance to passers by because they had anaesthetised all but the basest of brain function, they were behaving like 8-year-olds on their way home from school.

They were clearly celebrating something very important (to them) and I felt bad for thinking that they were in any way threatening. Not bad because I'm a prejudiced idiot (I've come to terms with that) but because my attitude seemed like a slight on their good nature.

Then one of them walked up to a truck at a junction and calmly opened the driver's door before offering the driver his hand to shake. Audacious, but simple!

And do you know what the driver did?

He scowled and shut his door.

And I thought "what a joyless fucker" and walked on.