London 2 - Clubbing

Funny when I think back that I actually had about 6 months off alcohol in London. It started after the night I woke up in a hotel room with a stranger sleeping on the floor. He was lovely actually, his name was Ed, he was Irish and working as a contractor at Barclays (or one of the big banks, maybe NatWest). After I had gone home and been rejected by the ex I had rung a friend and met her for lunch instead. It was the first time I'd been to Liverpool St station so it was only a month or so in to my time in London. It was enough time though that my two best friends were back from travelling around Europe. I had met one the night before for drinks. She had sensibly gone home at around 11pm, while I, of course well drunk by this time had stayed in the bar with some guys. One of which thankfully looked after me and took me back to his hotel - which may have been an ulterior motive but honestly in the state I'd have been in I probably never would have made it home alone. Anyway, I digress. After this night I met my friend for lunch and for the first time ever said the words "I think I'm an alcoholic". It's easy to say them to yourself. It's not so easy to say them to someone else. I was probably still drunk when I said them which is what gave me the guts to do so. But it definitely got me thinking. I went out the next Friday night to the pub and didn't drink! Irish guy Ed met me there. Lovely guy. But there was no spark. The interesting thing was I didn't just stop drinking myself, but I also couldn't stand being around drunk people. I had started to go clubbing and take e. I loved it. The first night was amazing. I went to a club with 2 girls I had only just met (through a friend) and for the first time in my life actually felt connected and able to communicate. Losing the inhibition of not being able to open up to people without being slurring drunk was life changing. Needless to say those girls are still my friends now, one my absolute bestie. It was a revelation being able to empathise, talk to people, dance and stay awake all night without drunkenness. Guys on e weren't the creepy. slurring messes they were on alcohol. Rightly or wrongly a club felt like a safer environment than a pub. People on e cared about each other, talked, connected. Whereas people who were drunk just wanted to get off and ended up falling over and throwing up. That was my impression at that time anyway. During those first few months I met and got dumped by a nice young English man. It ended up that my BFF and me swore off not only alcohol but men as well. We went out all weekend, dancing in clubs until 6am before going to after parties to continue or chill out. And then we discovered coke...