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Let Us Be Heard!
Oct. 20th, 2019 02:34 pmWith the Brexit process reaching a crescendo, the last two weeks in particular have been difficult. Mentally, things have started to deteriorate and this isn't helped by the fact that I feel unfilled at work and in my social life around the Leeds area. Indeed, it is noticeable just how many people have moved on - either to other cities or other friendship groups - leaving me feel somewhat adrift and unanchored in this city. Of course, this discomfort has been exacerbated by the Brexit process and the very real threat of No Deal, which threatened to shut the doors on my dream by the end of the month. This has been somewhat assuaged by recent events, but it is still a very real concern, along with the other opportunities we are set to lose.
Of course I am doing all I can to fight this and this included heading to London yesterday for the Let Us Be Heard march. Frustratingly for me, it again clashed with the Leeds Furmeet, which meant that Wolfie had to stay behind and organise that. This also dented the attendance from the Furs For Europe channel somewhat, although we did at least have Stonewolf, Patter and Geo there, which made a nice group. I was feeling a little rough on account of the Friday night drinking in which I had partaken - partly to enjoy some of the 69 beers as part of Brewdog's latest Collabfest and partly to celebrate Wolfie passing his latest set of exams, doing a qualification that is expected to take nine months in the space of five weeks. All of this saw us stay out incredibly late, meaning that I only had four and a half hours sleep before having to get up early for my train to London.
As expected, I wasn't feeling too hot as I made my way to Leeds railway station at 7:30am, getting there early enough to sample a McDonald's bacon McMuffin, shocked to discover that they had discontinued the bagel equivalent. After a beery shit, I noticed that the train on which I was due to embark was cancelled, which was somewhat frustrating. A quick chat with the helpful information team saw me board the earlier 08:15 service which was fortunately running twenty minutes late. It wasn't overly busy either on account of Carriage E not having any workable lighting so I sat in the dark and enjoyed the journey.
I met up with Patter outside Leicester Square Burger King, as is tradition, shortly after 11:30am. This was slightly later than intended as the train had been further delayed, plus I needed another shit. We hung around for Geo before heading over to our usual rendez-vous of the corner of Park Lane and Curzon Street to see who else would turn up. Initially, the march seemed quite underpopulated, but as we walked towards Green Park, we saw a far greater sea of EU blue ahead of us than is usual. This suggested to me that the parade route had been altered somewhat, and once we had reached our usual corner, we did notice the numbers swelling and swelling as time passed. Fortunately for me, the phone signal was working fine this time, meaning I could be regularly updated with events going on in Parliament, as they were debating the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill that very day. This proved to be priceless and I kept refereshing Twitter on a minute-by-minute basis, but at least this did enable me to announce to those around me when the vital Letwin Amendment passed. Cue much jubilation. In the end, despite my apprehension of what was going on in Parliament, there was nowhere else I would rather have been yesterday afternoon.
This was about 3pm, and we were still only on Piccadilly, far further back than we had been on other occasions. This highlighted the sheer numbers on this march with estimates putting it between 1.5 and 2.2 million. It was quite a party and we were very near one of the mobile rave booths which was blasting out a range of Eighties hits. The signing of a new Withdrawal Agreement on Thursday had taken us by surprise somewhat, but the atmosphere was not downhearted, instead being one of defiance. This was certainly the case once Letwin had been announced, with the defiance heightened by the speeches outside Parliament once MPs had disbanded. We didn't get that far though, hitting a screen near Trafalgar Square then breaking off. It had started to rain a little and Stonewolf again had come out in his deer suit, which was slipping about on the wet surface. Added to this was the paintbrushed eyes and his need to sit down after five hours of standing up, so we broke away from the main march shortly after 4pm.
After much deliberation, we headed over to Leicester Square, away from the crowds. Spotting a Byron Burger, this is where we went for some food, with the waitress quite perplexed about the presence of the deer for a short period of time. Still, she had soon gotten on board and we enjoyed a debrief over a burger, which was pretty tasty (their chipotle sauce was a tad too spicy mind). After the food, we then decided to go to a coffee, heading across to a local Cafe Nero opposite the tube station. It was here where I told Televassi to meet up with us, as he said he was free for a few early evening drinks, while we also spotted that Ninji was in the local area as he was taking photos of sex shops. He was headng to Spud-u-like in the Westfield Centre for some reason, but we tempted him with the promise of friends and tea. Alas, Patter had to split from us before the coffee shop as he needed to get his Manchester-bound train, but the coffee was a nice place to relax at the end of a tiring day and to see new friends too.
Geo and Stonewolf needed to head off shortly afterwards though, leaving Ninji, Televassi and myself behind. While I had an open return, I had a reservation on the 20:30 service out of Kings Cross so this gave me an hour and a half to kill. Seeing this, the three of us went to the local Brewdog at Seven Dials, miraculously finding a table on the sauna-like basement floor. This also enabled me to try two new collab beers - a Bakewell Tart Sour from Birmingham and a chocolate porter from Inverurie - and lament about how 69 beers over four days really is too much. Last year, there were only 45 and this was just about doable (indeed we did do it) but the incentive to get in Collabfest this year really has been lost as there is no way I am putting my body through all that. As it stands, I have currently had 16 and we may go for a few more tonight, depending how we feel. Either way, last night's drinks in Brewdog were most pleasant and it was great catching up with some friends with whom I don't get much chance to catch up, rounding off what had been an incredible day.
P.S. Upon arriving at Leeds, I met up with Wolfie, who was still out and about after the Meet. He had gone to Little Tokyo with Stray and messaged me on the train as he was wondering whether he should stay out and wait for me, or just go home. He had an hour to kill and decided to spend it in Friends of Ham, where he met two gentlemen who had just been to a show at the Carriageworks. He introduced them to me as I entered and we chatted for a while, before they headed off. We, meanwhile, had a couple of drinks ourselves before getting a taxi home.
Of course I am doing all I can to fight this and this included heading to London yesterday for the Let Us Be Heard march. Frustratingly for me, it again clashed with the Leeds Furmeet, which meant that Wolfie had to stay behind and organise that. This also dented the attendance from the Furs For Europe channel somewhat, although we did at least have Stonewolf, Patter and Geo there, which made a nice group. I was feeling a little rough on account of the Friday night drinking in which I had partaken - partly to enjoy some of the 69 beers as part of Brewdog's latest Collabfest and partly to celebrate Wolfie passing his latest set of exams, doing a qualification that is expected to take nine months in the space of five weeks. All of this saw us stay out incredibly late, meaning that I only had four and a half hours sleep before having to get up early for my train to London.
As expected, I wasn't feeling too hot as I made my way to Leeds railway station at 7:30am, getting there early enough to sample a McDonald's bacon McMuffin, shocked to discover that they had discontinued the bagel equivalent. After a beery shit, I noticed that the train on which I was due to embark was cancelled, which was somewhat frustrating. A quick chat with the helpful information team saw me board the earlier 08:15 service which was fortunately running twenty minutes late. It wasn't overly busy either on account of Carriage E not having any workable lighting so I sat in the dark and enjoyed the journey.
I met up with Patter outside Leicester Square Burger King, as is tradition, shortly after 11:30am. This was slightly later than intended as the train had been further delayed, plus I needed another shit. We hung around for Geo before heading over to our usual rendez-vous of the corner of Park Lane and Curzon Street to see who else would turn up. Initially, the march seemed quite underpopulated, but as we walked towards Green Park, we saw a far greater sea of EU blue ahead of us than is usual. This suggested to me that the parade route had been altered somewhat, and once we had reached our usual corner, we did notice the numbers swelling and swelling as time passed. Fortunately for me, the phone signal was working fine this time, meaning I could be regularly updated with events going on in Parliament, as they were debating the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill that very day. This proved to be priceless and I kept refereshing Twitter on a minute-by-minute basis, but at least this did enable me to announce to those around me when the vital Letwin Amendment passed. Cue much jubilation. In the end, despite my apprehension of what was going on in Parliament, there was nowhere else I would rather have been yesterday afternoon.
This was about 3pm, and we were still only on Piccadilly, far further back than we had been on other occasions. This highlighted the sheer numbers on this march with estimates putting it between 1.5 and 2.2 million. It was quite a party and we were very near one of the mobile rave booths which was blasting out a range of Eighties hits. The signing of a new Withdrawal Agreement on Thursday had taken us by surprise somewhat, but the atmosphere was not downhearted, instead being one of defiance. This was certainly the case once Letwin had been announced, with the defiance heightened by the speeches outside Parliament once MPs had disbanded. We didn't get that far though, hitting a screen near Trafalgar Square then breaking off. It had started to rain a little and Stonewolf again had come out in his deer suit, which was slipping about on the wet surface. Added to this was the paintbrushed eyes and his need to sit down after five hours of standing up, so we broke away from the main march shortly after 4pm.
After much deliberation, we headed over to Leicester Square, away from the crowds. Spotting a Byron Burger, this is where we went for some food, with the waitress quite perplexed about the presence of the deer for a short period of time. Still, she had soon gotten on board and we enjoyed a debrief over a burger, which was pretty tasty (their chipotle sauce was a tad too spicy mind). After the food, we then decided to go to a coffee, heading across to a local Cafe Nero opposite the tube station. It was here where I told Televassi to meet up with us, as he said he was free for a few early evening drinks, while we also spotted that Ninji was in the local area as he was taking photos of sex shops. He was headng to Spud-u-like in the Westfield Centre for some reason, but we tempted him with the promise of friends and tea. Alas, Patter had to split from us before the coffee shop as he needed to get his Manchester-bound train, but the coffee was a nice place to relax at the end of a tiring day and to see new friends too.
Geo and Stonewolf needed to head off shortly afterwards though, leaving Ninji, Televassi and myself behind. While I had an open return, I had a reservation on the 20:30 service out of Kings Cross so this gave me an hour and a half to kill. Seeing this, the three of us went to the local Brewdog at Seven Dials, miraculously finding a table on the sauna-like basement floor. This also enabled me to try two new collab beers - a Bakewell Tart Sour from Birmingham and a chocolate porter from Inverurie - and lament about how 69 beers over four days really is too much. Last year, there were only 45 and this was just about doable (indeed we did do it) but the incentive to get in Collabfest this year really has been lost as there is no way I am putting my body through all that. As it stands, I have currently had 16 and we may go for a few more tonight, depending how we feel. Either way, last night's drinks in Brewdog were most pleasant and it was great catching up with some friends with whom I don't get much chance to catch up, rounding off what had been an incredible day.
P.S. Upon arriving at Leeds, I met up with Wolfie, who was still out and about after the Meet. He had gone to Little Tokyo with Stray and messaged me on the train as he was wondering whether he should stay out and wait for me, or just go home. He had an hour to kill and decided to spend it in Friends of Ham, where he met two gentlemen who had just been to a show at the Carriageworks. He introduced them to me as I entered and we chatted for a while, before they headed off. We, meanwhile, had a couple of drinks ourselves before getting a taxi home.
