Locked Out

For the last few Friday nights I've been heading out for a few cheap cocktails and drinks with the girls from work which has been so much fun and the perfect way to the end the week. A couple of Fridays ago I decided to change it up though and went with my Pulborough crew to the greyhound races that were down at Wimbledon.

Fran had found us a deal where we got entry into the venue, a drink voucher, food voucher and betting voucher all for 10 quid which was an absolute bargain considering that entry is usually 5 quid. I've never been to the greyhound races so I wasn't sure what to expect but once we got in there and grabbed a drink and put on the first bet it wasn't long before I realised how much fun (and how addictive) betting on the dogs can be. We grabbed a possie up on the grandstand and sussed out the betting form trying to work out which ones to bet on. I used my voucher to bet on my first dog (1 pound each way - watch out high roller!) and he won! Yay! So I reinvested in a couple more races and each dog in those won too! After a pretty much free meal and drink thanks to the voucher I was pretty much coming out on top. I left the dogs with the same amount of money I went in with but managed to have a pretty great night. After a pit stop at a pub nearby to warm ourselves up before getting the bus home it was fairly early night with us getting in the door around midnight.

The next day I had my first day off in two weeks as the cafe had been kind enough to give me a bit of a break but instead of sleeping in I was up bright and early to have a conference call with my girls from home. It was well worth waking up early for even if I was slightly seedy. I didn't mind so much as I had all day to be lazy and what a day I had planned - get up do my washing/tidy my room, duck down to the shops to get a costume for an upcoming party, hit the library then head home to have several million cups of tea while I watched the Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth (soooo dreamy...). Pretty solid plan right? Good way to spend a lazy day and not spend much money.

There was a slight hitch though - after a quick trip down to the shop to find a Halloween costume and popping to the library and stocking up on books I arrived at my front door to realise I had forgotten my keys. Oh well I will just call my housemate who is out for lunch and go pick them up. Oh wait. I've left my phone at home too. F&%* What do I do?

So I ended up rumminging in my back for paper and pen and putting a note on the door basically saying ' please come find me I'm such a loser' and heading up to Starbucks to wait it out. I bought one hell of a massive drink and sat there and read. Luckily for me I had been to the library and do love a good read in a coffee shop. Unluckily for me my housemates still hadn't gotten home and Starbucks closed fairly early. So I trudged back down to my doorstep and decided to sit there and read because surely my housemates weren't going to be out that much longer?

About an hour an a half later (and most of a book) the sun was going down and they sky's opened and I got rained out. It was this stage after four and a bit hours of waiting I decided to abandon my shopping and the library books under cover of my stoop and make the walk down to the local tavern and drown my sorrows. Armed with a red wine, dinner and a book I sat and read in a comfy chair until my house mate came to save me. Around 7pm - five hours after I got home and realised I was locked out I was saved by Lance who came to get me and laugh at me. I got home and had a shower and sat down and ate chocolate, watched a girly movie and felt sorry for myself.

The worst part about a wasted day was that many of my London friends were away in Cardiff for a weekend away so I literally had no ones door I could turn up and hope they were home. They were lovely enough to call me and check in and tell me about their day and while I was happy they were having a great time I was like ' WHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY? MEEEEEE!' and got a little emo about it all(In fact I'm still fairly emo about it all). This was remedied by a girls night in with my house mate and her cousin which was basically tea and movies - just a few hour delayed on when I planned on doing it.

It was so depressing going to work the next day as I had no exciting stories to tell. No I didn't go out, no I didn't go away, no I didn't see any of London and no I didn't save any money. In fact I had to spend around 15 quid on food and drink just so I had somewhere warm to sit. My day was brightened though when Sam and Lance came down to work to visit me when I finished. After a quick browse through the shops with them we headed home to a promise of home made lasagna by Siobhan (I really do have awesome house mates)as we were turning up to the door I was like ' Don't worry guys! I've got my keys - totally learnt my lesson!' and after a prolonged rummage around in my back I discovered I didn't have them at all and yes in fact I hadn't learnt my lesson and I had left them sitting on my bookshelf. *sigh* Needless to say I am a bit more proactive about not leaving my keys behind but I really do need to sort out some kind of system. The upside is it could have been a lot worse. What if I had left my wallet AND my keys AND my phone at home? Or worst my OYSTER CARD? Thats what I tell myself anyways when I realize I will work the next 28 days straight!