This should make for (another) interesting post. I’m at a pub right now… sober? WHAT?!?
Picture this: bearded Indian dude (not too bad looking) of college-age, with his laptop, writing a paper (on South Korean development). People around him are drinking pints. He’s drinking a cup of coffee.
This isn’t Thursday night at the Mark II “lounge,” nor is it Sunday afternoon in the third floor of Deering. This is somewhere in between. Tuesday, to be exact.
It’s an odd blend of shit show venue meet Victorian furniture and fine china. A strange mixture of the feeling “I should be raging” and “this paper needs to get fucking done.” Of course, right now neither of those is happening (ahem NBN).
As to why I chose a pub to do my work, it’s quite a simple reason really. There is not in the entirety of London a single sober establishment open past 9 p.m. on any given day, not even the bloody library. (There is this one café open 24 hours a day actually, but it’s in Leicester Square. It’s a crime to be anything but shitfaced whilst in Leicester Square.)
Believe it or not, I’m not crazy. A pub (originally known as a “public house”) functions as your living room: A place where you can sit and relax, catch the match, read the paper, make out with a girl in the corner or catch up on some work late on a Tuesday night.
And it’s actually quite quiet in this pub. No rambunctious zealots of Chelsea or Arsenal, though there are a few weeping Man U fans consoling each other on the almost assured lost of Wayne Rooney next year. This is probably a weekday phenomenon, however.
I think I’m going to make this a thing. Who knew my replacement for Norbucks would be the Jeremy Bentham: the unofficial sponsor of UCL students’ academic achievement.
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