Clocks

‘We don’t have as much money as you!’ Joey in Friends – The one with Five Steaks and an Eggplant

I didn’t want dinner to be hideous. I wanted to have a nice time with our friends. We don’t see them all that often, and I just wanted a nice Saturday evening. Hah! Duncan got stuck on call until 6.30, so the small window of time we had to get to Jesmond was suddenly even smaller when he didn’t get home until 6.50. We bust a gut to get there for 7.10 only to discover that they couldn’t wait 5 minutes (from when they called to see where we were and when we arrived) to order starters. So we sat and watched everyone else eat their starters, absolutely starving hungry. The meal itself was ok. They had more choice than my favourite Italian place and the prices weren’t that much more. But those of us at the left end of the table (all of Tony’s friends and pretty much ignored by Tony and Kelly all night) are all in low-paid jobs or are students. We don’t have that much money, so we’d ordered carefully, not overdone the drinks etc. We should have known better. The bill arrived and was £400 for 16 of us. I’ve been to cheaper London restaurants were all we did was pretty much order from the drinks menu. They sat there and split the bill between 16 of us – £25 each. Na-ah, no way, not gonna happen. There was no way I’d spent £25 on a not all that great seafood risotto, a small dessert and a couple of beers. Then we realised that the bill had been added to – horrendously. All this wine that no-one had had. So we argued with them and eventually they took off the wine we’d never had. But they still expected us to fork out for the starters, garlic bread, desserts and drinks that the other end of the table had ordered. We eventually caved, mainly as I didn’t want to drag on what was already a horrible night, any further. But I was annoyed with myself as well as them. Marcus is right to question why we attempt to maintain any kind of friendship with these people.

And the reason is sad really. I barely know anyone in Newcastle. Still, after 2 and a half years, I have not really added many new friends to my circle. There was no automatic friendship circle extension when I started dating Duncan as his friends were my friends. Does that make me sound pathetic? My friends are scattered around the globe. People I’ve met once or twice in real life, but spent hours online chatting to, I consider them better friends than some of the people I know in Newcastle. TO let go of the friendship would be to admit that we know no-one. But then we aren’t the kind of couple that goes out every night, or even every weekend. We can’t afford to, to start with. But even if we could, it just doesn’t interest me. I have no inclination to go drinking in town, and this is where it becomes harder to have a regular group of friends. Because going out drinking in the Bigg Market on a Friday and Saturday is such a huge part of growing up in Newcastle. I doubt I could even manage drinking heavily two nights in a row. I’m no lightweight, but up here, most would probably consider me so.

So does that make me old? I am 26 after all, mid to late twenties. By 26 my mum had been married, had me and my brother and was in the process of getting divorced. I’m not my mother and things have changed in the world, but have I got old before my time, or am I just normal? Is it me that has the problem, or the people I know, the people who want to drink away their troubles every weekend? Because the truth is, I don’t have any troubles. I mean, yeah I have no money and my current job is shitty (cross fingers btw, I went to a job interview yesterday as a subtitler. They have the contracts for Sky, Channel 5 and various ITV regions, so is a great job), but I’m not being bombed every day. As much as I detest what the government has dragged us into, we are a free country, and everyone deserves that right (I just don’t believe you have to kill, bomb and maim to get it). But I have no troubles to drink away, and the one concern I do have, the lack of money, isn’t going to be helped by heavy drinking, no matter how much cheaper alcohol is in the north. Am I old because I don’t want to sit in a smokey, loud environment, lip-reading what my friends say, when instead I could be at someone’s house, listening to music we all enjoy and enjoying their company?

Until there is a next time…

xx