Part Five – London’s Burning

We ‘only’ had a week in London, so we were going to make the most of it. This started as soon as we got into London on Friday night. Quickly dropping off our gear back in Putney, we meet up with Todd & Nic for dinner before heading out to meet some of the crew on the other side of town in Shoreditch. Somehow, after a few drinks at a pub, we found ourselves in cabs heading to a pub called the Birdcage. Sold to us as a real East London pub, it didn’t disappoint on that front. It was karaoke night and it was a big hit with the locals. I’m not sure we fitted in – conversation was pretty tough as I could hardly understand them – but they were certainly having a good time. The night carried on, as they do, and Anna, Kellie and I found ourselves coming home in a taxi at 6am in the morning!

Not surprisingly Saturday was a bit slow. We managed to pull ourselves out of bed eventually, as we were meeting at the pub to watch the All Blacks game. It was also meant to be a big night, but after the night before that was no longer on the cards, but we still manage to stay up until 11pm before crawling off to a much needed sleep.

Well rested (or at least better rested), we organised what we thought would be a lazy Sunday at another old favourite – The White Horse on Parsons Green. But again we had forgot what a Sunday Session in London can turn into. Lunch and drinks turns into lunch and lots of drinks, and we didn’t leave The White Horse until 10pm. Well, the others left, as I went to the toilet and found that everyone had left. I had to follow them back to Todd & Nic’s on my lonesome! Sensibly, being a Sunday of course, we decided to have a few more drinks at Todd & Nic’s, and didn’t end up leaving until 2am. That was OK for us, we didn’t have to go to work the next day. But we were woken up in the Monday by the first lot of hate texts we got that week…

We had talked up making the most of everyday we had before we left. But in the interests of lasting the week, we called a truce and let everyone have the night off. And it was the Great British Beer Festival the next night, and I wanted to make sure I was in form for that. It also meant that I could feel good enough to go for a few runs during the week, along the old stomping group of the Thames path.

To say that it was just by chance that the Great British Beer festival was on when we were in London would obviously be a big fat lie. I decided I wanted to go on the first night to make sure I had a good chance of getting to the ales I wanted. And the strategy didn’t disappoint, getting to try the Champion Beer of Britain – the Rudgate Ruby Mild – and it didn’t disappoint! Nor did “Britain’s Biggest Bratwurst. Jabs and I had gone in search of the sausages we saw people eating and were about to order the 9” Bratwursts when we saw them throw onto the grill these massive 20” Bratwursts. It was a challenge too good to refuse and we promptly changed our order. Si got a bit of a shock when we arrived back, and it probably took us a good half an hour to finish them. And being the healthy event that is a beer festival, we had already devoured a few bags of pork scratchings and pork pies. It was definitely our night. Earlier in the evening someone had given us a good of vouchers for free beers, and then just as we were thinking of earning, someone came over and gave us £20 worth of vouchers. Score!

After a bit of shopping on the Wednesday, it was one last trip to the Bricklayers Arms and a few Timothy Taylors. Jabs took me out for lunch in Soho on Thursday, and Thursday night we had organised for our final dinner at the Queen Adelaide. True to form, London put on a stunning last night for us, stunningly wet. It was a massive downpour all night, which acted as a lock in. We only left the pub by midnight, and sensibly again stop in at Todd & Nic’s on the way home. A 2am finish again, and again hate texts in the morning. But we knew everyone would miss us, just maybe not their livers…

Our livers were certainly looking forward to a holiday, though we were not looking forward to ours ending. Being in London again was awesome, and wandering around Putney (and even riding the tube) just felt like being home. It’s just so much fun!