c9 | A Weekend in London, Third Part

Whew! After all that sightseeing (30 minutes round trip on the Eye) it was time for a break: ice cream, specifically. They had a lovely soft-serve truck parked conspicuously by the exit ramp of the Eye, so we grabbed ourselves a quick pre-dinner snack. After that, a tiny nap before heading for supper at Fifteen, Jamie Oliver's charity restaurant (www.fifteenrestaurant.com). Slightly delayed, we rushed in to discover that

gotwoody was also running a bit late. We held off as long as we could on ordering and eating appetizers, but in the end hunger got the best of us. Murphy's Law then kicked in, as Woody showed up presently.

Fifteen's food was fancy, the service reasonable, the prices not completely eye-bleeding. Very tasty, that's for sure. Recommended if you want something fancy while in London. We even got entertainment: a guy asked his chickie to marry him at the very next table!

After dinner we agreed that going out was clearly the next order of business, but that drinks couldn't wait. Woody took us to a corner store on the way to PopStarz (gay night at bar), and we all experienced the thrill of drinking while walking down the street. Felt very odd. It's also weird not having twistoff caps, and so trying to open a bottle on a crumbling fencepost!

People drink in the street everywhere in London. They do in Las Vegas too, plus other places, but in London there's a bigger danger: stupid tourists looking the wrong way while crossing the street. Luckily, when I drink I overthink *everything*, so I would very carefully inspect the painted "LOOK RIGHT-->" sign on the street before even considering taking a step. Most of the time.

PopStarz takes place in a bar I forget the name of, just one night a week in an old theatre thankfully repurposed rather than abandoned. High cover, and several dancefloors -- pretty neat space! The downstairs (orchestra, stage) was playing very loud (ouch) rock, the mid balcony (enclosed) was playing more bassy beats (and choking us on the smoke) and the upstairs played cheesy pop and top 40. One nice bit: a curtain separated the upper balcony from the upstairs cheesy pop room, so you could escape the noise (slightly) and relax a bit. There are several couches near the curtain (on the dark, less-populated side) which apparently are popular for more than just resting. Not much of a show for us this night though.

Eventually, the music and alcohol and smoke are getting to us, so we consider changing levels and/or venues. It takes over 20 minutes just to get all four of us back into one spot! That's a sign of a fun club, I guess.

While in the stairwell,

leapfish is accosted by a hot guy claiming he looks familiar. Even after being informed of the unlikelihood of this, he sticks around, clearly amused by the four polite Canadians. While Vinny is being chatted up by the tweaking Australian, Stuart gives us his version of the Spanish Inquisition, question after question, occasionally interspersed with a punch of Vinny's arm or my stomach when he dislikes the answers. Based on our friendliness (or possibly his own projection), he quickly decided that we all had a sexual history.

leapfish and I playfully half-answered his questions,

skaughty mostly remained mute out of bemused fear maybe? And

gotwoody answered in his cute teasing, unhelpful, circular fashion. This seemed to amuse Stuart the most, as his focus seemed to move to Woody alone. Oh well -- I'm nothing if not used to hotties paying attention to my friends instead of me. :)

...to be continued...