after running an errand and picking things up from king’s cross, i cycled around the russell square area out of nostalgia for commie hall and the russelll rip-off, the greasy spoon(s) and brunswick square.

while mostly everything else has remained the same, brunswick square has changed beyond recognition.

it used to be run-down and dodgy, now it’s all waitrose and carluccio’s, fancyschmancy boutiques and starbucks coffee. it looks nice, but i miss the old place, with it’s 5 pound shoe store, charity shop and little venice and its student discount takeaway pizzas for £3.95.

it’s odd the things we miss.

but it’s really more like i miss my first year of university, when everything was still new and curious, when i was still new and curious. when we’d all troop down before 11 to get takeouts and have all-night poker sessions, when we’d sit in cartwright gardens and while the days away, when we’d go to the greasy spoon for brunch after a heavy night out.

when we’d all go to 5s at the UCL union on saturdays and get smashed on snakebite, then walk unsteadily on to the rocket on euston road for even more cheap alcohol and shite music. when we’d converge onto and into bedrooms and do nothing and everything - the guardian quick crossword every afternoon, tea for 2 or 10, solutions to every existential crisis that existed, guitar picking and electro-rocking. when everything was so easy.

cycling around that area last friday evening, it made me melancholy. it made my heart ache for the people i know and love but don’t see anymore. for all that time we spent together.