| Monday, September 16, 2002 |
 | I had a lovely moment with Damian when, in conversation, we realised that, all unknowing, we shared a postcode in Brighton.
And, speaking of postcodes - the fringes, in particular the East and South, are frequently a fine stopping-place for the young or low-powered professional in London. At the moment living South is doing me very well. Then again, I tend to shun staying in town past midnight, so I don't have to deal with the nightmare of the night bus except on special occasions or when I am specially silly. The longer you live somewhere, the more attuned the short hairs on the back of your neck become to how late you can leave it, as an index of how drunk you are and how much you are carrying, and still get home without undue beastliness. Like the endless algorithms of return that the pampered fauntleroys of North and West need never consider.
If I get off here and walk fast, given that I'm carrying too much to run, I stand a good chance of catching a train that will get me home in ten minutes. But if I miss it I will have missed the last tube, and will have to take train b to location and get a minicab. If I stay on the tube, I can get off at Elephant and Castle and take a nightbus, which will take a lot longer - maybe an hour - but will not take as long as the train-then-minicab option, and will not involve extra expense, which would involve itself a stop at a cashpoint, which would take five minutes.....
And so on. If the transport system of South London were rationalised, the huge mental capacity we had all been devoting to how to get to the Vauxhall Tavern would be liberated and world conquest only a matter of time. So where do you live, and why? Tell me.
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