Sun
04-Mar-2007

bethnal green working men's club for abbie's birthday

Forging on from our decadent night at Fiction, everyone gathered in Bethnal Green Working Men's Club for Abbie's birthday. It was 1950s in theme with lots of rock'n'roll hits, a jive band and a glorious semi-naked air hostess burlesque act with little red stars on their nipples and table tennis bat coyness!

Lots of us headed over to Abbie and Jim's afterwards and from about 2am to 5am indulged in a "play your most shameful guilty pleasure song" session, using YouTube. Kate and I cried to Two Little Boys. Abbie and I had a shared moment when we both realised that we both really needed Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. James G, James A and Andy had more manly guilty songs. Alex and Matt passed out, occasionly stirring to wonder what was going on...

Mon
25-Apr-2005

rage against the dying of the light

When we got back from Devon, the streets of London were busy, the air was warm after a hot Sunday, and we had to go out to reclaim the evening from the ravages of the dying weekend. We went to GAY Bar on Old Compton's Street, which was packed and buzzing with the defiant joy of being out and drunk on a Sunday night, even as the dull stroke of 12am Monday morning approached. Everyone was dressed up in their best clothes, the music was trashy and poppy, and the air was thick with sideways glances and wanton cruising.

We met up with Wesley, bumped into Peter and Jamie, and were soon quite wasted on Fosters, missing the last tube and taking a bus back to our drunken bed.

Mon
24-May-2004

rupert street bar

On our way back from Delia and Russell's, we met Antonio in Soho Square, bumped into Michal briefly, and then joined up with Jamie, Rob and Peter and went to Rupert Street for a drink. Old Compton Street was generally heaving, as always on Sunday nights. I sometimes wonder about the gay Sunday night tradition. Kaz Bar down in Clapham was always buzzing on a Sunday, more so than any other night I think. Is this perhaps the gay world's reaction to the traditional family and church focus of Sundays, an assertion of alternative family values and a refutation of Christian morality? Or maybe it's just a good chance to have the town to ourselves after the heterosexual madness of Saturday nights? It vaguely fits into the hedonistic, bars and clubs ideologies of the scene, announcing an unashamed devotion to the heady pleasures of the night, even in the face of the chilling horror of Monday morning.

Mon
29-Mar-2004

trailer happiness

My first visit to the famous Trailer Happiness on Portobello Road. There was Alex, Matt, me, Kayla, Gina, Steve and Kate. Great place, though shockingly expensive. A classy kitsch lounge bar supposed to invoke the feel of a 1950s bachelor pad. Probably the best cocktails I've ever tasted, particularly in the Cuban spicy rum vein...

matt and steve and gordon's wine bar

Having sent Kayla off to Heathrow to meet her friend who was flying over from Newfoundland to London, I went to Belitha Villas to get Steve C and we went for a drink with Matt W from Zimbabwe in Gordon's Wine Bar by Charing Cross. I had just happened to bump into Matt the day before in the lobby of the House of Lords, having not seen him for about three years. We were both very surprised by this, as neither of us had been in the House of Lords before anyway and were quite freaked out by the gentlemen's club atmosphere of the whole place. We arranged to have this drink though, and I'd been wanting to see Gordon's Wine Bar for a while.

Gordon's is an interesting place, underground off Villiers Street, with low arched ceilings and rickety candlelit tables and the smell of old French caves. Lovely place for an intimate bottle of wine, friendly rather than romantic though.

Mon
27-Oct-2003

mike w's birthday

Mike W's birthday today. Me and Matt went to Camden to buy various things, including a bottle of juniper gin for him. Alas, at Waterloo disaster struck and the bottle fell through the flimsy paper bag it was in, smashing all over the steps leading up from an underground platform. The smell of gin wafted up around us as a teenager tripped up on the wet steps, the skateboard he was carrying clattering down into a family whose small children scattered in panic. Disaster!

We got to Mike's house in the end though, and presented him with no gin (and a desirable A&F catalogue!). Then we dropped in on Tom P's house, before dashing on to Mike's birthday party at Sway Bar, in Holborn. This was the kind of bar/club filled with people from the provinces who had journeyed into central London for a night of getting pissed and dancing. Very straight indeed, which made Mike's crowd of gay friends stand out in a very amusing way. Well, it made us all stand out really. Great fun though.

mojitos and grass

Popped into Cuba Libre after work and had a couple of mojitos with Matt. Cycling home on two cocktails was lovely. It made me laugh out loud to be enjoying such a warm London night. Later, I went with Jim to Abbie's place and we drank champagne, smoked some of her brother's lovely light home-grown marijuana and talked till three or four in the morning.

Tue
07-Oct-2003

vertiginous anniversaries

Yesterday was our anniversary! It's been three years since Matt and I first met in an office in Oxford. Amazing.

We went up Tower 42 in the City to Vertigo, the tallest bar in London, for swish clean glass panorama of London by night champagne cocktails and little bits of salmon and foie gras! We had a couple of outrageously expensive glasses and then got the ingredients to have a couple more when we got home. We're putting cognac back in the champagne cocktails - it's definitely the way ahead! At some point, I started making them with only sugar cubes and angostura ... the brandy helps give it a kick though!