Saturday 21 June 2008

A night out

After Friday had finally done with me I was off to the City to meet some friends. I was pleased to find that neither the Victoria line nor the Metropolitan line presented me with any obstacles and it only took me about fifteen minutes to get from Mayfair to Moorgate. Finding the bar was a little harder, luckily the internet had told me that it was "in the bottom of an office block" so I just looked for office blocks near the station.

Eventually (and with some relief) I found the bar. I clearly hadn't quite managed to shake Friday as when introduced to someone I hadn't met before I shook hands! Oh dear, how formal! The bar was pleasant if crowded, and our seats outside gave us a delightful view of City Point (only if that sort of thing interests you I suppose).



The strangest thing was when we heard a helicopter and thought nothing of it (assuming it was the 'Eye in the Sky' traffic-copter or similar). Thought nothing of it until we noticed parachutists!


After this excitement we went to Wagamama for dinner. I'd never eaten much Japanese before (OK, none at all apart from sushi) but I'm quite determined to now eat Japanese food on a regular basis! Luckily one of my friends works for the restaurant chain so he's a total expert on what's best to eat. Noodles and some funny little bean things and salad and little parcels with pastry and meat. Oh so good!



After this we went to a rather loud bar nearby where cocktails were had (although unusually sensibly not by me!). I then realised the time and decided if I wanted to make the last Jubilee Line train I'd better motor. At this point events began to conspire against me. Moorgate station was shut, so no Northern line to London Bridge to pick up my tube.

Not to worry. I decided to get a cab to London Bridge. So did the rest of that bit of London. By the time I got to London Bridge it was too late. The tube was shut and the last train was gone. Two choices now remain. Night bus or cab. I've never got a night bus, and it wouldn't have been practical from there as I'd have had to change buses in New Cross (at 1am on my own, I don't think so). So, cab it was. The often stated "don't go south of the river" in reference to black cabs is sadly true. I decided I'd probably have better luck getting a cab away from the main station, so I walked along a bit. I managed to stop several cabs with varying reasons why they couldn't go to Charlton. I kept asking "don't suppose you go south of the river" which got an unequivocable 'no' apart from the one driver who pointed out we were already south of the river, so I elaborated to 'further south' which still go a no! I was getting a bit desperate by this point when finally my hopeless "don't suppose you'll go to Charlton" elicited a 'hop in love'. Hurrah!

The journey from London Bridge to Charlton at that time of night takes absolutely no time at all! I think I was home about fifteen minutes later! I don't usually tip cab drivers, but I gave that driver a tip... so glad was I to finally be home!