London Baby!

Posted by on Monday 20th October 2003. 9 comments.

Our trip to London started a little later than planned, we were meant to be going around 12 but ended up getting on the 2.35 coach to Reading.  I wasn't too fussed though as it meant I got to watch my 'The Office: Series 2' DVD that had arrived in the post that morning.

We got to Reading in about 45 minutes and there was a train to London almost straight away, so we were in London by about 4ish.  

We had forgot to call Elliott and tell him we were nearly there, so Jim called him just as we were pulling into Paddington.  We went and got a Burger King and sat on the floor like tramps and ate our food whilst we waited!  

After a while Elliott still hadn't arrived, so Jim called him again and he was stuck in traffic so we went and got our day travel tickets.  Andy ending up buying the wrong ticket on his card and then the machine wouldn't let him use his card again, but a nice old couple gave us their day tickets that they didn't need anymore, so we all just chipped in and bought one on my card.

Elliott arrived shortly after - he had a lot more hair than when I last saw him - he has a beard!

We went to the bus stop and immediately got pestered by a tramp asking for 20 pence.  He was wearing a rather fetching brown 'winnie the pooh' coat though - wonder who he mugged for that?!  

I thought we would be getting a traditional London red bus back to Ell's in Camberwell, but I had the new experience of getting on a 'Bendy Bus', which is basically like the buses in Swindon but with an extra bit added on and it has a bendy bit in-between to get round the corners better.  I found the buses in London quite intimidating!  Without sounding racist, it really was like 'spot the white person'!!!

It was a long walk to Ell's and my arms were aching by the time we got there!  Their house is very nice for a student house - one of those 3 storey town house types with high ceilings and large rooms.  We also met 2 of his house mates - one of the girls and the other guy who lives there and they were both very nice too.

We then went off to the nearest supermarket to get some alcohol - a Lidl in Peckham - very scary! I must have heard at least 2 police cars on the journey there and the local school looks like a prison!!  The family in the queue in front of us bought a pair of shoes - who on earth buys their shoes in Lidl!?!?!

We then got drinking back at El's - me on the vodka & orange juice, the others on cheap beer.  We watched Pop Idol whilst getting drunk.  I put my foot in it by exclaiming 'what a gay!' about my ex who was texting me - whilst sitting next to Ell's gay housemate.  Whoops!

We left the house around 10.30 - we were all pretty drunk by then and I made a really stupid statement which I can't remember now (Jim?) and Ell was singing that Rachel Stevens song.  We got the bus and tube to Kings Cross, continuing to drink all along.  We then got lost trying to find the club we were going to!  Some girl (think she was a hooker!) stopped Ell and asked if he wanted to buy any cocaine!  For some reason he stopped to chat to her - we don't know why as he didn't buy any substances/services.  If he bought her services, he was flipping quick!  Ell then took us down a wrong road which led to a building site - the locals were no help, even the cab drivers didn't know where they were going!

Eventually we found the club - The Cross - and were greeted with a nice big queue to get in!  Everyone apart from me got a burger, I had some of Jims - it was very nice.  Jim fell in love with the kebab lady and wanted to go and see her afterwards! Some unhelpful lady was trying to make us sign up for their mailing list and we wouldn't have to queue next time - she should have known from our country bumpkin accents that we weren't local! Another lady with crazy hair asked if she could push infront of us, but Jim wouldn't let her and she got into a conversation with Ell on how to do a roll up properly!  It took about 50 mins of standing in the cold before we got in and I think we were lucky as we were very near the front when a bouncer said it was going to be '1 in 1 out' very soon.

It was £15 to get in which is atrocious, but it was a pretty cool club - it reminded me of being in Ibiza.  There were about 5 different rooms playing different music and a nice garden thing with decking and loads of sofas and seats. The drinks weren't too bad - £4 a bottle, expensive but not bad for London I thought!  I thought it was a nice club, but not worth £15.

At one point in the hard-house room there was a DJ who looked a lot like Judge Jules, but was too fat to be him and had big tattoos on his arms. People were shouting 'come on Julesy!' and taking pictures on their camera phones.  Hard house and all that scene isn't really my thing, but even I knew it wasn't him.  Mind you, most of these people were on drugs so I'm not surprised they thought it was him.  Don't think the judge himself would be too impressed.  I do quite like Judge Jules - he said that the Brunel Rooms are responsible for kick starting his career, so as a Swindon person you have to give him some respect.  I did forgive the Julesy impersonator when he played 'Lost Tribe - Gamemaster' which is an absolutely wicked tune!

We decided to leave about 3.30 and momentarily lost Elliott.  It was a long walk to the bus stop and we had to get 2 buses.  We were in Oxford Circus at 4am waiting for the second bus and there were so many people about and there was a traffic jam too, it was bizarre!  Andy and I are also convinced that we saw Jason off of Pop Idol walking down the street!!  I wouldn't like to live in London and have to do that all the time though - plenty of weird people about.

We got back around 5 and Jim suddenly became obsessed with deep fat frying things!  Jim and Ell drank Ouzo and started cooking things in the deep fat fryer, Andy and I went to sleep.  I was half-expecting to be woke up by the fire alarm!

We were all awake around 11 and sat around having toast and tea and watched the telly.  Jim wanted to deep fat fry some pork and ham, but Ell wouldn't let him.

We left around 2 and got on a bus that took us a really long way round to Paddington and had a stupid rude bus driver. Andy sat next to some Turks and sat in a wet patch and got a wet bum!  He moved and then another Turkish guy got on and the other Turks told him it was wet - how racist! Let the white bloke sit in the wet patch!

We got a Subway (baguettes) in Paddington before getting on our train.  Instead of getting a train to Reading and then a coach to Swindon like we were supposed to we got on a stupid train took 2 hours and went to Chippenham before Swindon!!!. I panicked at one point when I thought we were in trowbridge, but we weren't.

Overall, a good trip but next time we should go to MOS as Elliott's housemate can get us in for free!

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