4:29 from Liverpool Street

Yet another early low-cost airlines flight to somewhere in europe. After last week's germany it's Eindhoven, NL this time. I am meant to give a talk to some MA students at the university and hopefully meet up with some Philips people.
Lucky enough my new flat is only 10min from the station from the stanstedt express from the airport, so I walk. Curiosity always gets the better of me at times when everyone should be at home (it's just about wednesday) and experience tells me that by now London literally is closed. Even the traffic on Shoreditch High Street thins out and metal blinds replace glass fronts. Who is still up? There is a party kid in Camden-trouser look waiting to get in to some place, hands-in-pockets gambling from one foot to another. Then there is the threesome of some brothers, who want some change(their words, not mine) getting fashionably close(their fashion not mine). Other side of the street I see what is probably the first ever hooker I have seen around Old Street trying to get into the Sports Club across the gas station, but it is closed as basically everything. Her high heels echo behind me for a while till a guy at a bus station wrestles for my attention. He's got a story. He's been drinking, lost his wallet just wants to get home. His eyes look the deal, I give him what he needs for the £1.20/1.50(?Don't remember they just upped the prices again) for the bus ride. I am nearly at the station now, passing the bus option of Stanstedt Express, which is crammed with people. I get my travel costs paid, so I walk on , first train is at 4.55, I am early, I start to write despite the humming and hissing and peeping of cleaning machines and electric current resonating within the structure of the main train hall of Liverpool Street Station. It's 4:43 and the smell of nearby coffee is comforting.