Out in the world again...

It felt like forever since I left the house! With the bridge on the harbour closed for repairs this week (and the walk around too long to do by foot - in the winter months anyway) I didn't leave the house for a week and was starting to feel like a recluse!
Yesterday, we ran some errands (I have to wait until the weekend to run a lot of errands since I don't drive) and then went into town to look around in the shops. I didn't need to buy anything, but was glad to be amongst the living!
Last night we walked to the harbour (a few minute walk from our house) to try a new Italian restaurant and have a few drinks at the pub. I needed a night out and really enjoyed it. Dinner was excellent and I couldn't believe how reasonable - 40 pounds for dinner with starters, a bottle of wine, coffee and desert! Where in England can you do that?? The service was good to except, the waitress was checking out my husband all night. It's shocking how often woman openly do that sort of thing in this country - regardless of the woman sitting with him wearing the ring! I try not to let it bother me - I mean I find him attractive too, but do they have to be so blatant about it?
After dinner, we went upstairs to the pub for some drinks and ended up playing one of the casino type games they have in pubs here (some are slot machines & others are trivia type games that you can win money on). We spent about 10 pounds won 10 but put 5 back in before leaving. We had a really good time, but I could see my husbands competitive nature would not get us out of a casino easily!
We called a taxi to go into town and do the usual people watching we do when we go out drinking, but our taxi took forever and we ended up just coming home to entertain ourselves. I'm glad we did because I hate a hangover on a Sunday. We always end up spending the day suffering, getting nothing done and wasting one of the only days we get to just hang out together.
While standing outside waiting for the taxi, we watched all the drunken people shuffle past us (after all drinking is the national past time in this country) and I was reminded of an experience I forgot to blog about the last time we went out (one of the other down sides to a hangover the next day). One of the pub/clubs we go to in town, has a unisex bathroom. I think this is a crazy notion for a place that's main business is done with providing large amounts of alcohol to people! It just doesn't seem like a safe thing to do - case in point - While out with the guys one night (it's always me and the guys), I ventured off on my own to use the bathroom. It's setup that the men and woman share the sinks, but the stalls are separated on each side of the sinks (but easily accessible to any sex). I was washing my hands in the empty bathroom, when a very intoxicated man staggered in. He stopped about 20 feet from me, swayed from side to side, took his penis out of his pants and said, 'I'm pissed as a fart' (for all you Americans this translates into: I'm stupid drunk) and then stood there as if I was supposed to respond with something like - Wow, that was the best pickup like I've heard in a while, take me now! I calmly looked for an escape route, said 'apparently so' and promptly left the deserted bathroom leaving the drunken man holding his penis alone.
Slightly shaken by my experience, I went to my husband and friends to tell them what happened. Dan & Doug were angered and probably would have pummelled him if I was their wife, but my husband laughed. He finds drunken behaviour moronically entertaining. He hugged me and said the guy probably didn't even know he had it out. That's when drunken penis man walked up to us starring at me just as he did in the bathroom. The fact that I was standing in the arms of another man seemed to have no effect on this guy. I looked at him, pointed to Wayne and said, 'This is my husband' It took about 30 second for him to register what I said and then he looked at Wayne with surprise as if he didn't see him standing there when he arrived. Wayne gave him a push in the other direction and he stumbled off and didn't bother me again. Looking back, I can finally find humor in what happened, but I still think it's a really bad idea to have unisex bathrooms in any public place.