east end pub drunkenness
Sunday, January 20th, 2008Matt and I headed eastwards last night with Dan M to the Shoreditch environs. Walking from Old Street, the thing I always notice about this bit of town is how dark it is, why is it so dark? It always makes me a bit depressed. It’s edgy and cool I guess. But more light would be good.
Anyhow, we went to the camp spectacle of the George and Dragon, an old pub adorned with kitsch objets all over the walls, including an animatronic horse’s head, heaving with gays and their admirers. After one drink, we moved down the road to the more traditional East End style gay pub, the Joiner’s Arms, a no-frills pool table boozer that smells – at least it did last night – of bleach. Dan was on good form, we gradually became extremely drunk, there was a fairly excrutiating period where the three of us played pool, long drawn out matches because we were so bad at actually potting anything, as crowds of people stood around watching our cheerful ineptitude.
We ended up bringing back John, a very nice architect, to the flat, with the unexpected bonus that he provided some great post-threesome political conversation this morning. It can sometimes be quite awkward when you actually start chatting, bereft of the comforting drunken lust that kept whatever conversation you had last night going and dogged by an insistent hangover headache and mild nausea, but today’s breakfast talk with John the Architect was marvellous.