Day 6 – A Sleep In, and Werewolves Night

Today I slept in. We all slept in. In fact, the whole of London slept in. No one got out of bed until 11am at the very earliest. No really, it was a nation-wide event. Someone said Europe joined in as a show of solidarity.

Okay, maybe we just had a late one and we all paid the price. We started the day late, we ate a big breakfast and took the day sloowwwwly. This was also because we had an appointment to catch up with some of D's friends, who lived in various parts of England, Lorna and Ben. The five of us met at Holborn, a place I had previously grown to know as an interchange for various Tube lines, but apparently also has above-ground civilization – who knew? We met and trolled off to a nearby bar.

The night was a good one, drinking at most every place we came across that supplied alcohol, which in London means at least once every street block. The style and layout of pubs here seems to be an entire artform of it's own. Some follow the very straight-forward, front-door-big-space-long-bar, which seems to be the favoured form. But others, such as “The Princess Grace” (I think – I was a little worse for wear) are very different. This place had four front doors, each which led to a seperate segment of the room, with the circular bar in the centre. Each segment was seperated by glass and carved wood panels, giving a very cosy and private feel to what otherwise was a pretty bustling establishment. I liked this, not somewhere I'd go every friday, but it was different.

Soon, conversation turned to food. We wanted food, and we wanted it NOW. A few people suggested chinese. I grinned, and J suggested none other than the Mecca of Zevon. (Lee Ho Fook's), and so we did.

I was very quiet, and approached the front door as one would a place of worship. The wooden floor did not give away my presence, the door did not have a bell or chime to signal an entrance – I was standing on the hallowed ground previously trod by werewolves. The place was almost full, waiters doing that particular fast walk they do, clink of plate-on-plate as dishes are arranged on to an already jammed table-top, the distant riff based on a D to C to G pattern...

So we ate dinner. I ordered a “big dish of beef chowmein”, which really was the only choice I could have. The others had a variety of dishes, all were happy with the choices and quality, but i have to say that using the phrase “big dish” might have been a tactical error, as it was a BIG dish. We ate and drank, it was all good, until on the way I tried to buy a menu (it's a souvenir, honest!)

thenick: I'd like to buy a menu, thank you.
maitre'd: I'm sorry?
thenick: I'd like to buy one of the menu's, please.
maitre'd: The menu's? But...we need them. (she gestured behind her, looking dismayed as she realised the bustling restaurant still left a big stack of the menu's behind her)
thenick: so how much would one cost?
maitre'd: ah...20 pounds! the leather...it's expensive. (she looked like this would dissuade me)
thenick: sounds good. I'll have one, thank you. (she hadn't expected that)

Finally, another waiter came over, heard what was going on, and he gave me a look. He then said “you want a menu, huh?” I nodded, and he reached for a back-up supply of menu's, and passed it over with a hairy-hand, flashing a smile. A toothy, little-old-lady-got-mutiliated-late-last-night smile. He obviously was in on it, and so was the pile of menu's on the shelf. I thanked them and left.

We went outside. It was raining, I was carrying a chinese menu, I had found the place. I'm pretty impressed with how this all came together! We spent the rest of the night drinking in various places, imbibing a blue almost luminous liquid named “aftershock” and stumbling into a Tube station just in time to catch the last Central line train.

I think tomorrow will require another sleep-in. And plans to hunt down Trader Vic's.

New Thing Learnt Today – Missing the last Central line train is exponentially worse than missing the last Craigieburn train