The Walk

North Greenwich Tube, my walk hasn't officially started yet. It won't start until I walk through the "O". But I have already got that physical nervousness in my stomach, this is pain. Oh! the "O" isn't even open, I have to go through side doors, and that "O" was such an important part of the whole O2 experience, they said...
I walk through the doors and my walk begins. The security guard notice my insecurity; Hello, how are you? Yea good. Can I, er, help you with something? You notice straight away he is doing something he has been told to, I know, I was at the O2 introduction too. I have to put my bag through that X-ray thing.
It buzzes as I walk through, a guy with a detector-stick, the phone in my pocket, no worries... I am now on hostile land, that’s how it feels, this is not public space in the way that the streets are, I have no particular right to be here and do as I please, this is cooperate land. own by AEG. I am here in an act of art, they just do not know...
Walking towards what they call "the entertainment avenue" the place is massive, it is made to impress, the decor is art deco, it looks shit, like an airport, or like any entertainment venue anywhere in the world, I could be in LA, or Japan. They said this was unique, my arse.
I really don't want to meet anyone that I used to work with, least of all him, the biggest cunt I met in my life. But as soon as I turn in to the "avenue" I see him coming towards me, together with some guy I never met. I'm looking around, mostly upwards, (that's what you're suppose to here) as I'm waiting for us to get closer, close enough, we are acknowledging each other for half a second before I say:
-Hello Richard. A proper hello, not hi or anything, and the name, I am proud of this.
-Hi, how are you? He even smiles, he is a rock.
-I'm fine thanks, you?
-Good
Whoosh, we have past each others. So weird, that two people can act so cool, when the last time they saw each other, it was so hostile. The conversation lasted as we met and were in talk able distance. It didn't cost anyone of us anything, but still... He must wonder what I'm doing here, because I have a hung-up on what happened, he must understand that, embarrassing, yes. But it actually make no difference what he thinks, I realise to my delight I even believe it. Because he is the biggest cunt I met in my life. That statement is effective, it is my shield... my walk continuous.
Passing bars restaurants, some of the bars I don't remember, but they must have been here then, three months ago, when we were carrying stools and tables, passing that sculptural thingie I'm just passing right now, thought I would hit the furniture in that thing. I got so agitated when the guys wouldn't let me carry anything heavy, there are weak guys to, I go to the gym.
The last bit is passing the big open space, where they are going to do the Ice later. In the summer it's going to become an indoor beach, yeah, I thought I was going to puke when he said that. Some workers lie on their knee's on the floor, probably preparing for the ice. There is really nothing left to see here now, but I have decided to walk to the very end, rounding a big palm like it was a mark in a race. It got to look strange. I'm now heading the same way back, the worst scenario that could happen did happen on the way here, so I'm not worried anymore, but my knees are still weak.
Those people that work here, how do they put up, perhaps they are just as stupid as all those people, god knows who they are, but they obviously exist. Those security guards who look at me suspiciously, or those people talking behind the bar, perhaps some of them look at the art-deco decor with the same disgust as me, just that they can keep their faces straight. Because even I could have put up with this shit, but I couldn't keep my face straight.
Walking past that bar, I feel an urge to walk in, meet some of the people I worked with, some of which I actually liked. But that is not what this walk is about. Have to continue, just out and leave, by tube. As I walk out of the dome, I see the 'cunt' in the corner of my eye, smoking. I'm finished here now.