Diary of an up and coming sociopath

Last night the Tech Team at work celebrated the end of Q2 2005 by shooting some pool. At the end of each quarter, the higher ups give us budget for a social event and this time, it was decided that we should do something other than a meal for a change. We almost ended up going bowling, but luckily someone suggested we hire a pool club and thankfully that was the prevailing choice.

I’d walked past the particular pool club many a time, and I’ve no doubt people reading this have. The entrance is located in the subway besides TCR Tube station/The Astoria. It’s the one where the air is percolated with the stench of stale urine. It’s quite a dingy club in many ways. Actually, the smeel of the place reminded me of my childhood in Tachbrook social clubs and whatnot. Luckily, Pool’s not a game that requires a sophisticated environment and so it turned out pretty well. I stayed until half 10 and had 7 games in total, I think. I won 2 singles games, against Vince and Steven, but they also beat me in return. I played a doubles with Maarten, against Mike and Phong, the doubles team who eventually came first in the doubles tournament. We only lost that by one ball. A personal victory, if not a sporting one. Afterwards, Vince and I played Garry (new boss) and Ben (old boss) and received a righteous thrashing, though it was clearly an act of respectful deference on my part. Finally, at the end of the night, Steven and I played Gavin and Mike (lost that) and then Mike and I played Steven and Gavin (won that).

As you can see, I’m not the most accomplished player. I only remembered about halfway through the night how to hit the balls properly, when I discovered ou had to follow through on the cue strokes for best results and it all came flooding back. Unfortunately, I don’t get to play pool very often even though I quite enjoy it (even when I lose) so I was thinking that I’d buy a pool table when my mid-life crisis hits. I’ll add it to the overall life plan.

I finally got in at about half 11, having found the opportunity on that journey to start reading Lolita. I was kind of right about not being disturbed, but it’s fair to say it’s deeply uncomfortable. Compelling, but uncomfortable. It’s a far denser book that I’ve read for some time so it’s a nice change in style to read something a bit less contemporary. Maybe Nabokov was the Palahniuk of his time. i was doing quite well in reading books on the tube until today when, distracted by my new Alias TPB, I almost missed my stop on the way home. It’s a deeply difficult thing to do, retaining dignity while running for the tube doors. I’ve never actually gotten stuck in them, but it’s hard to pretend that you were intending to carry all your stuff around in a bundle instead of having it packed back into your bag. At least I didn’t fall over.