Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

quirkybird is in the UK right now for her annual pilgrimage so naturally it was a moral imperative to organise a meet up. So it was that on Tuesday evening, 7 of us met up in London for food and booze and a very good evening it was too!

Present was quirkybird and Katie WNOLJ, thalinoviel, minmorton and Chris (who may have an LJ but I forgot to ask), thessalian and me. Five of us met at King’s X initially and decided (probably a mistake but never mind) to catch the rail connection to London Bridge rather than the Underground. If I’d known London Bridge was only 4 stops down from KX on the Northern Line, I might have vetoed this but never mind. We scampered over to St Pancras, where Chris caught up with us and then we headed to LB. Sadly we got on the wrong train and had to spend 20 minutes waiting at London Blackfriars for a connection. But we got there eventually!

After a mazy walk around parts of London I didn’t know existed (note to self: go back and be a tourist sometime), we arrived at The George Inn, where thessalian had been ensconced for the best part of half an hour (her new job is near Oxford St so she went straight from work to the George) and had thoughtfully bagged us a table, bless her. Alcohol was duly purchased from the world’s busiest and smallest bar – although it did give me a chance to get to know Katie, whom I’d not met before – and the yakking began in earnest.

It’s always a risk, getting a group of disparate people together, but I’m happy to say everyone got along splendidly and the conversation didn’t lag at all, and there was lots of hysterical laughter as the stories flowed. Eventually we got hungry and decided to abandon The George, which only served snack bar food, and find somewhere that served fish and chips.

Well, m’dears, we tried but the places we went to had either run out of fish or closed the kitchens. I should point out it wasn’t that late, maybe 8.30pm at this point? Either the tourists had cleaned everyone out or we just picked the wrong places, I dunno. We did find one place, which I think was called The Thameside Inn that I am DEFINITELY going back to because the view of the river was amazing and the fish and chips menu was positively droolworthy. Hopefully the next time I go, they’ll still be serving food. Anyway, we finally found The Anchor Bar, a huge, maze-twisty place, that wasn’t serving fish and chips any more but was willing to serve a party of 7 without advance warning. So we stayed :)

There was food – I don’t know how everyone else’s meals came out, but my chicken calvados was absolutely gorgeous – and some more booze, although I switched to cola at this point, and the yakking picked up right where it left off. thessalian wasn’t feeling very well, so skipped the food and headed home early, poor thing. The rest of us finally wound down around 10.30 and headed off. (Worth pointing out that food and booze for six of us came to £20 a head – impressive for central London, I may go back there.) We wended our way back to London Bridge and said our goodbyes.

It was fabulous seeing quirkybird again. Considering she lives in Portland, Oregon, we’re doing amazingly well to have seen each other 3 times in a year :) Her other half, Katie, was lovely too and the whole evening was great fun. So thank you to all who came and …..same time, next year? :D