Norfolk Terrace, Day 36. 23:59. The Post-Midnight Blockade
It was one of those days you spend at home, simply doing a few activities and recovering from days before. I got up at 12:20, finally broke into a good workout session of ab work and a run outside (FINALLY) on the half-melted, slushy snow. A fair bit of the pathways were entirely devoid of snow so I was actually able to stride and get into a faster pace for some of the run. I ended the run at the on-campus UFO (Union Food Outlet) to pick up bread for sandwiches. The next thing I did was make those sandwiches, while watching an episode of Dr Who. I fell asleep soon after covering 30 pages of Wuthering Heights.
I skyped Katya for two hours, fixed a dinner of tomato-sauced mince meat and spaghetti pasta, and then skyped my fellow Labyrinthians back home in Berkeley. We talked about the renewal to our lease and fortunately, I’ll be living with them again when I return. Labyrinthian Shirtless Sundays through skype are just not as good as the real thing.
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| An hour into the blockade.. |
The best part of the day actually occurred at 2am today, right after putting up the blog of Friday and Saturday. I walked out into the hallway to get water and there I saw the majority of my flatmates in front of Alvin’s door. A purple sheet was taped up and apparently the first hour of this elaborate scheme was spent putting newspapers all over his door, with the centrepiece picture being of Justin Bieber’s head attached to a female body. At this stage, Charlie and Jen were hiding behind the purple veil and Dan, Stephen, Marie, Ash (friend of the flat who accompanied us to The White Lion for Matt’s birthday on Day 13) and Matt were all standing guard from the outside.
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| An hour and fifteen... |
The whole plan started up, I believe, when Alvin ended up being the only one from the flat who went out to party at the LCR tonight (er, this morning). Since he is utterly hilarious drunk, I think the plan was to confuse him with this spider web of tape and pictures during his attempt to get to his room.
The wait was exciting at first, as more fabrications were added to the scheme (picture 1). But little by little, the minutes passed and the wait grew interminable (picture 2). Alvin texted that he might go to a house party after LCR, and our vigil grew ever more exhausting, as our eyes yearned for precious sleep (picture 3).
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| An hour and thirty... |
Charlie said that the minute he steps into his room, Alvin would probably show up. Well, it actually turned out that the second I walked into my room, his footsteps in the stairwell were audible. Everyone scrambled to the bathrooms or to the lights-out kitchen (in my case, the latter). Alvin walked around to see the tape and responded in a rational manner. Damn it, he was sober. Everyone soon came out and the two-hour vigil and blockade was destroyed in a few seconds. Alvin asked if we had infiltrated his room—we left him in mystery. He opened the door and…yeah, there was no surprise waiting for him.
Nonetheless, all this was worth staying up for. Oh but Gemma did wake up once Alvin had arrived and the level of hallway noise had escalated to a peak. If the goal was to keep everyone up or woken up, I think the blockade was a success after all.
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