I played Scrabble at Grub Smith's house tonight. I am sure Grub would like you to know that he finally beat me for the first time in a game (and I will let him have the pleasure of that victory and not go on about the fact that I got terrible and low scoring letters throughout), though I feel I have to point out that I finished the tournament in second place (as well as scoring the most points in one game and having the best points difference score), whilst he came last (I won't point out that there were only four people in the tournament, because it is more satisfying to say he was last and leave it at that). Emily who makes a lovely lunch when we play at her house, was the deserved winner. Grub bought us a curry which was nice, but not as good as the feast Emily lays on, but then Grub has just been to Africa and contracted another dose of rat syphillis (when will he learn to control his desires or at least be responsible enough to use a prophylactic?), so I suppose we shouldn't judge him too harshly.
Grub lives fairly locally so I had gone on my bike, which meant a late night cycle home.
Cycling in the day time can be a bit of an unpleasant experience with all the fumes to inhale and the blind idiots in their fancy cars (cycling not good enough for you is?) to avoid, but after 11pm the streets are fairly empty and it's a whole different experience.
I raced through the rain sodden streets, bombing along and I am sure some of the people I left standing in my wake must have thought I was probably Lance Armstrong and were envying my ability to have sex with Sheryl Crow before then splitting up with her. It was exhilirating to be so unencumbered by traffic and made me wish that some kind of terrible virus would descend on the city killing everyone except me (and any pedestrians who thought I might be Lance Armstrong) so I could get round the city like this all the time, even in the middle of the day. I suppose if everyone else was dead I might not have so many places to go (a night of Scrabble would be less enjoyable, though I could play against the old man on my Gameboy, but I don't know where he lives) but I think that would be a small price to pay for having the run of the city. You know as long as there were some robots who could keep the utilities going and the streets maintained and bury the diseased bodies of the dead, I would be quite happy to live here alone. The loss of all my friends and the painful deaths of millions of strangers would be more than made up for by the fact that I could feel the excitement of cycling fast at any time of the day (provided that all the motorists killed by the virus had considerately pulled over and parked as they were dying or the robots were capable of shifting the vehicles and bodies from the highways). I don't know if that is a selfish wish.
Alternatively I suppose it would be OK if the people all survived, but all cars were destroyed (apart from mine. I need it to get around to gigs and stuff), but then they'd all start buying bikes instead and so I'd probably have to chop their legs off or something. I don't mind them using the tube. I am not a total fascist.
