Spike finds a scooter

I've been lost many times in my life. Sometimes I have been sober and sometimes I have been drunk. On this recent occasion I was very drunk.
I went to my friend Cloddys barbeque in Muswell Hill. As I can get a train direct to Alexandra Palace and am never checked for tickets on that route, I decided to jump the train and walk from there. Unfortunately it was a bit further than I thought, and walking there took a good half an hour.
The barbeque was ok, but most people left reasonably early. My last direct train was around 1am, so I decided to wait until then. Cloddy was however very ill after drinking quite a lot of wine and Sambuca, so she went to bed and I was left chatting to her housemate Baz.
I knew that I had to give myself half an hour to walk back, so I left the house at around 12:20 and made my way back. Unfortunately I don't know where I went wrong, but I soon noticed that where I was walking didn't look like the road I had walked along earlier that day. I then passed some shops and saw laying on the ground a little push scooter. It looked in pretty new condition so I decided I should take it. I knew that time was ticking and I needed to get to the station to catch my last train and I figured that this mode of transport would help me get there quicker. It was amazingly good fun as there were lots of hills around that area which I was able to scoot down. It was a bit wobbly though and I had to keep putting my foot on the ground to steady myself incase I fell off.
As much fun as riding this scooter was though I was still unsure where exaclty I was, then I saw two young girls. I asked them if they knew the way to Alexandra Palace station, to which they told me to go through a park. I knew I'd not been that way earlier and was feeling quite lost. I carried on anyway and walked through some woods, but had no idea where I was. I tried calling a few people such as Alex and Sarah, to which I had no reply so I just left them voicemails. Milky actually answered, but didn't seem to be much help, and Maddie did try to give me directions, but they weren't much use with me not knowing where I was.

I decided to walk back the way I came, now knowing that I was very unlikely to make my train. The two girls I had originally asked for directions from had now gone, so I was actually getting quite worried.
I then decided I needed to take drastic action and tried flagging down cars who might be able to drive me to the station in time. I must have attempted to flag down about six or seven, but not one of them stopped. Maybe the scooter put them off and they decided to ignore me. I now knew I had no chance of making it to my train in time, so I decided to scoot around the streets on my new toy, as I didn't know what else to do. Then I noticed an amazingly cute girl called Lisa walking towards me. Pulling up on my scooter I asked her for directions. She informed me that I was nowhere near where I thought, but said she'd walk with me some of the way so I could find my way. I chatted to her for a bit and showed her some magic, which in my drunken state still seemed to go smoothly. We finally made it to the road I knew and we said goodbye, but not before asking for her Facebook.
I scooted my way back to the station whereby I knew I had a very long wait for the first train. I decided to call Maddie again to tell her I made it to the station, to which she told me to get in a taxi and I could crash there.

Maddie sent me a text with the number of a local taxi firm and I ordered one. A few minutes later a taxi pulled up, but I was unsure if it was a real taxi, it certainly didn't look like it. I spent some time talking to him asking if he was the cab I had ordered, and he insisted that he was. So I got in the car and started the journey to Walthamstow. He insisted that I paid him £25 straight up, which I found odd and was now seriously doubting if he was the taxi I'd ordered.
I then received a phonecall from a taxi driver asking where I was and that he was waiting for me outside the station. I then knew I must have been in an illegal minicab and was actually quite frightened. What if he'd planned to kidnap me or murder me?
He then asked me what I did, to which I told him I was a magician. He was then insisting I show him some magic, which was a bit hard considering he was driving, but he was very insistant. So I told him when we stopped I'd show him a trick.
We finally arrived at Maddies road and I then showed him some magic. I did try to get some money back for doing so, but he didn't agree to it. He was amazed by the trick and actually thought magic was real. He was then asking me if his family would be ok, and if his sons would get good jobs etc. I told him that I had to go, and promptly left the cab. Phew, I was almost safe!
I made it to Maddies place and we sat up chatting for a few hours whilst drinking some rum.
here are some pictures of me riding my scooter :)

Spikes Grandad

Apart from my immediate family, the rest of the family I don't consider myself to bond with all that well. I get on with them, and I still love them, but I am very different to them and as a child was so shy that I'd barely speak to any of them. There was one exception though, and that was my Grandad on Dads side. He died about eight years ago now, but it really doesn't seem that long.
He'd had a stroke and was taken to hospital. That was the last time I saw him. He hated it there, and one night he had gotten up to try to escape, but he fell over and hit his head. A nurse attended him by putting a plaster on his head, but didn't report it in an incident book, and didn't check for concussion. That night he died. After the postmortem it was revealed that it's very likely concussion was the cause of death.

Quite a few people attended the funeral which was at his local church, but it was only Dad and myself who went with the coffin to the crematorium. It was a very strange feeling there. I didn't cry at the church or crematorium, as I find it very hard to cry.
I certainly felt a stronger bond between Dad and myself, and I did like the fact that it was just us two who saw him off properly. I know Dad was very upset, and it was a strange feeling knowing that after all the years, it was now me who was there for him.

I have to admit, I was still often very shy around Grandad, but I did look up to him a lot. Mainly because he was totally bonkers. He would sit in a corner smoking a pipe and not really say much, but when he did talk, he'd pretend to be stupid for laughs, which always worked.
He had some odd ways, and in later life the main thing he'd eat would be Jam sandwiches while he sat and watched 'Home and Away'.
Although he's dead, and I don't believe in an afterlife, I like to think that he still lives on through me in a way. I guess I am now the nutty one in the family, and now that my confidence has grown, they all seem to be aware of that. He was always one for the ladies as well as being silly. I think I've certainly taken on some of his traits though, which although others may not, I consider to be a good thing.
I do miss Grandad, and I do wish I'd spoken to him more and gotten to know him better. It was very rare I saw a serious side to him, although I know there must have been. I know he was at the battle of Dunkirk, and then went off to Burma to fight against the Japanese. He never spoke about it though.
I hope he knew that he was someone I looked up to. I never really showed that I did though, but I know Grandma now knows that I did, which I guess is a good thing.