We arrived at The Hogshead reasonably on time, and so my worst fears were realised, what i'd spent all afternoon - Day in fact, fretting about had come true, we got there, sat down, and everyone else had someone to talk to, EzE was catching up with Gabs, Tom was catching up with someone else, & the rest of the table was too far away for me to try to start a conversation with. So I sat there. Feeling a little like a spare part, which I'd expected anyhow, so I busied myself with ppl watching, which passes time rather well. After a while we headed off to the restraunt, got ourselves seated and acquainted with whoever we were next to / opposite etc ..
I relaxed quite quickly here, partly helped by the fact that I had EzE on one side of me and Gabs on the other, seperating the two and allowing me to get a word in edgeways :p
As it happens I got on very well with Gabs & Tom, EzE's two closest mates, and by the end of the meal I was having a very good time. The food was OK too, the Fajitas were wonderful, altho I do confess to feeling a bit of a muppet when I realised that the beef came on a seperate dish to the chicken & vegetables, but my chicken & veg fajitas were nice, so I am happy........ Altho, the 'braised beef' was apparently wonderful... DOH!
After the meal we went back to The Hogshead, I got progressively drunker, and I think my navel was mentioned, and the special properties thereof, my toungue bar was also taken out and examined and the evening was going rather swimmingly well. :)
We went on to a late night place after that, then back to Tom's place, just him, his GF, Gabs, EzE & I, looked thru a few photos (heh heh heh, u should see some of the ones of EzE :p ) felt a little awkward again when i mistook a photo of Tom for EzE, but hey, i was slightly tiddly at the time.
We also met up at lunchtime today (Sunday) for a few drinks & a natter.
The upshot of it is I'm really glad I went, instead of opting out like I very almost did due to nerves. EzE hasn't said anything about it but I do hope I gave the right impression & didn't do anything wrong, they're his 'bestest buddies' after all & I wouldn't want to feel I was an embarrassment to him in any way.