Visitin' Leeds

Well, after one birthday celebration on Friday, I had another one on Sunday-in Leeds, as you may have gathered. It's my best friend's birthday, and though he's now another year older, he's still younger than me (never mind, eh!).

The plan was that I went up Sunday and stayed til Tuesday, and any other details would be worked out when I got there. Which is what happened, and seemed to work quite well. Apart from almost missing the coach-I got to the station with literally a couple of minutes to spare, but I got there, and once I was on the coach, it was plain sailing (or rather driving). I got there a little late, which was hardly a surprise, and phoned to find out where to go-which turned out to be a bar quite close to where he lives. A nice place with an interesting range of fruity beers. One of which I liked enough to have a whole half of, which, you know, is quite something, as I don't like beer. Well, to be absolutely clear, I can't stand it. Except, apparently, this one. Which I  can't remember the name of, and am never likely to see again anyway. When I got there, I was immediately despatched to buy a round, and then the presents were presented. I then joined in one of the strangest conversations I can remember for a long time. It was clear that the others had been at the bar for quite a while before I got there, as the topics of conversation ranged from soap to the dog's handwriting to food porn. Suffice it to say that some people have unusual suggestions as to what you can do with mushrooms.
After much laughter and a few more rounds, we left his friends and went to his house where we chatted long enough for me to stop feeling tipsy and start feeling a bit ill. Not drink related, but rather annoyingly, a bit of a head cold type thing. Still I didn't have to get up early the next day, so I rested. He was at work, not being able to get time off, so I gradually drifted awake, actually earlier that I would have done on a normal day off, and went into Leeds city centre. By myself. Which was alright, but for the slight problem I had in that my phone battery was almost dead. So I went around a bit-the German market was pretty good, and ended up in Waterstones. Where I texted him to say to meet me there. Which he did, a couple of hours later. So I was left to amuse myself among a host of books for a while-not the most difficult task in the world I've ever had. And then we went back for tea and chat and cards, and more tea-and doughnuts. And again were up until the early hours of the morning. It was a bit more important that I get up at a reasonable sort of time this time, as I had to catch my coach, so we arranged to meet for lunch. Which was nice. However, as far as catching the coach went, I didn't really need to be worried, as it was delayed by almost an hour, due to problems on the motorway. Which was annoying, and a little concerning, as I had to catch another coach at Brum. We actually ended up being even later getting there than when we had left, which I was puzzled by, as we cut one stop from the route; but, thankfully for those of us who did have to catch it, that coach was also delayed, due to problems on another motorway. And so I got home okay, just a little bit delayed in the end, as I didn't spend much time waiting at Brum. All in all, a great, relaxing few days. Nice. And the few things, which at the time, I thought were going to be real problems, turned out not to be really, after all-just minor inconveniences. And so there was no reason to worry. Maybe next time I'll remember, and not worry-and maybe even the time after that.