Men Behaving Badly August 20, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Overseas Travel , trackbackI’d been really looking forward to having a very select high-school reunion in Milton Keynes. Tik and I travelled from London by train where we met up with; Barry Price, Dan Morrison and Mike Ranson.
I’m in regular contact with Barry who’s been twice to stay with me in Thailand already, and he is a close procrastination buddy. I’ve not had much contact with Dan or with Mike for at least 6 years so I was excited to meet up again.
What was refreshing is that there was no feeling of one-upmanship, competitiveness or a need to impress amongst our exclusive group. Despite the environments that have pushed our lives so far apart there was still much common ground to enjoy. We spent our time pub-hopping in Stony, a quaint village a few miles from Milton Keynes which is far too pleasant for the residents to have let Barry pollute its streets.
I knew exactly what to expect of Mike despite it being so long since I’d seen him. Mike was always destined to be a Lawyer and his body has finally begun to catch up with his vocabulary. The pauses before him saying a word and us working out what he actually meant have gotten much shorter than I remember.
Dan scrubbed up impressively well. I’ve had the privilege of seeing a number of videos and photos of quite alcoholified Dans from Barrys website. I’d been playing the scenario through my mind many times before introducing Tik to him ..
“Hi this is my friend Dan .. but don’t worry you can hide behind me”
“Tik, I’d like you to meet Dan, please just smile for a second and he won’t talk to you much”
“Tik, this is Dan, but please try your best to forget about him”
“Dear, when you meet Dan, try not to scream as you don’t want to provoke any unpredictable movements from him”
… Although I’d certainly not let him get within a kilometre of my sister, (or of anything not machine-washable) he was looking much less bad than I’d prepared myself for. Dan’s doing very well working as a programmer - and despite probably having more alcohol flowing through his body than blood and water, he looked remarkably healthy.
It was exciting to spend the night in the listed building Barry is living in. Having spent time that previous week walking around a National Heritage property, the reality of Barry’s listed building wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
The front of Barry’s house is beautifully ornate and tasteful but it becomes apparent that the rest of the house is certainly not quite in keeping with the frontage as soon as one opens the door. Actually Barry has a great place, although it takes a lot of rearranging beer cans and used teabags around before it really becomes obvious.
We spent an alcoholic night reminiscing about the old teachers, old pranks and rambunctioties we used to enjoy so much. It is sad how much I’d forgotten about the good old days and it’s always great to be reminded of them.
Tik and I said our farewells the following morning and the next time I’ll see Barry and Dan again will be when they come to visit me for a couple more weeks next year.
N.B. On returning to Thailand and watching some old downloads I realized just how similar Barry and Dan’s lifestyle is to Gary and Tony’s in the much-missed “Men Behaving Badly” comedy series.
I was polite enough not to draw character comparisons but Barry and I both agreed that both of them share Tony characteristic … erm … ok, best to leave this sentence unfinished.
Comments»
First of all, i liked your site theme… Sure after reading this i feel men behaving very badly…
Don Lapre Watcher
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