far away _in_ the cold night air

It was a relatively easy decision to make when I decided not to go to this year's departmental christmas meal/night out as I considered barely one-third of one dish from the £30 set menu edible, the entertainment consisted of a disco rather than last year's comedy and any medium-to-large-scale social event makes me feel sick. I feel I should sometimes make an effort to attend these sorts of thing but walking past several similar pub/cafe/bistro/restaurant/venue places hosting similar festive-season exuberance and alleged bonhomie on the roundabout way home certainly reassured me that I wouldn't have enjoyed myself on the other side of the window. I'd have just ended up sitting uncomfortably, feeling disconnected from the people I couldn't hear because of the volume of chatter and music, the music I couldn't listen to properly for worrying about my hearing and feeling that I ought to be speaking to people more and disconnected from my own thoughts because of the chatter, the music and the effect of the alcohol if I'd had more than a couple of pints. Better to just walk past the outside of the pub where most of the noise is trapped inside and the people inside become the ones disconnected from the rest of the world; the little bit of inside that that leaks out just accentuates the relative tranquility of the outside and emphasises how much more comfortable I feel there.