The best laid plans of mice and men... or not

You know how sometimes you really want to see people, and you really want to do something specific, and it's just great because it all fits in?
Last night was not one of those nights.
I'd talked two friends into going out for a drink, even though they had planned to go see Dead Man as one of them had never seen a Jim Jarmusch film, yet - I love disrupting plans. Then again, their plans had been disrupted way before I came barging in, as both guys were in fact supposed to be on a plane to Istanbul tonight but decided against it when they found out that the chartered plane belonged to a company with a long history of incidents, an airline which has been blacklisted in the UK and many other countries, but strangely enough not in France yet. So they cancelled at the last minute, spontaneous little devils that they are. Needless to say, I'm now religiously following the news to see if they were right or not to back out on what could have been a fabulous week-end. But that's just because I'm evil.
We opted for a small bar with an even smaller pool table. Of course it would have to be smaller to fit in, but what I meant was... oh forget it.
We had agreed to meet at 8:30. The bar being a 7.5 minutes' walk from my flat (and I walk slowly), I thought leaving at 8:22 would be fine. (Hey, I learned today that according to Freud, neuroses stem from frustration. Funny, no?) Wrong again! Coming down the stairs, I heard my groundfloor neighbour, a little old lady who lives alone and likes to speak when she sees people. Right there, I knew my timing was screwed. It was all worth it, though. Apparently, there's a giant monstrous leak in the basement. Woo-hoo! It's just never-ending, this, isn't it? I need to change countries badly, now, if only so I can get rid of this troubling bit of brick and mortar.
Managed to extricate myself from a plumbing talk that was threatening to take all evening, rushed at breakneck speed (aye right, walked leisurely, more like) to the bar, only to find my friends standing with their heads hanging low: bar is no more! No more pool games at a moment's notice! Honestly, what is the world I live in coming to?