Be Excellent To Each Other

We have just booked flights to London for the end of the month (August, obviously). We are arriving on Thursday 26th and leaving on Tuesday 31st.

Would anyone like to go out for a drink, preferably on Friday 27th? It would be Jen and I plus her sister Ange again and her boyfriend. We might even manage to find a mojito this time.

DETAILS!

Table for 10, booked at All bar One London Bridge from 5.30pm this evening, in the name of William Preston.

Address: Fielden House, 28-30 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG

Grow a beard, FFS. Wait, what? Um, should be around, yes.

I go to a foreign land on the 25th and aren't back til the 3rd.
Since I can't come.
I'm out.

I'll be moving house

Gill and Jen are going to a foreign land too and it's not stopping them from being there is it?

We'll make it a theme and all help you move!

Oh, no, hang on. Just remembered it's pubs I like and moving I hate. Sorry
Although, finally moving yay! Hope it's stress free and that's rubbish you can't come. Leave the wife to do the moving and bring Grimlet to the pub? No? Just an idea!



You really need to get back online on your Xbox you're obviously watching too much telly. Rubbish you can't come either, Jen actually asked me last night to ask you if you could make a trip over.



I could get a pretend boyfriend and get him to come with us, then I would have a beard!

Quite possibly. I have mislaid my keeper of the diaries but she is back tonight. It is her birthday wednesday, have potential plans thursday, and a friends birthday saturday, plus we may be going to her parents that weekend. But seeing you guys is kinda important.

I fear the weekend.

I'll be back on live when I can find a job, I do fear my current subscription will have run out by then however.

Have we decided where we want to go for this?

Don't mind as long as it's not too loud to talk and the drink isn't too pricey. Can't wait!

Scotland then.

There's a lovely Wetherspoon's around the corner from my office...

So long as it's not the weekend, I should be able to attend.

Well we're suggesting the Friday night although if it meant we had more attendees we could move to either the Saturday or Sunday night. It would be the decision of the London masses though since we can do any.

I know there's one day on that weekend I can't do. I just don't know which one.

We will be sad if you don't come so you must come! Im beginning to think that all your lives don't revolve around me and that surely can't be true!

Believe me, I'd ratehr see you than where I'm being taken.

We're in Fife right now and Ange is home as well so we're having a drink with her tonight. She is really looking forward to another night out in London with you lot. My friends and family refer to you lot as my geeks
we are going to the Notting Hill carnival on the Sunday as well if any of you want to come!

I haven't been to a BeexMeet since Grim...'s Firefly shenanigans, so I may pop along to this. We shall see. As there are ladies present, I will endeavour to wear my full-body condom, should I attend.

Excellent, the more the merrier.

So, any ideas about where to go? We want fairly central, fairly cheap, not too noisy that we can't speak and possibly a quiz on the off chance there may be somewhere that does a quiz (unlikely I know).

and a partridge in a pear tree?

On a Friday night? Hah.

Hah to the quiz or hah to it all? I remember I have to be prepared for London prices again so I mean fairly cheap on a London scale
We actually went out for a few drinks in Crouch End last time in a wee pub next to Ange's flat and I think it was ok prices. (Not that I'm suggesting we go there, just an example!)

Yeah, I'd say you've got Buckley's chance of that.

Imbibe in Southwark might be a choice, or maybe (if you can deal with it) a Slug and Lettuce - there's one near where I work that's normally comparability quiet on a Friday.

But I'm not coming, so I'll leave it up to you

I don't mean quiet as in not busy, just not too loud that we can't chat! We could meet in Camden on Saturday afternoon...?

I'm in.

I know this stinks of self interest, but Canary Wharf has trains. In the Sky. And significant outdoor drinking area and choice of bars and food options. Only, not Davys, as that stinks of pooh and wee on a friday.

Stinking of similar self interest, London Bridge has good travel connections and plentiful pubs. Though not so much outsideyness, and the trains remain resolutely on or under the ground.

Other than the refinery or whatever it was called, of course.

If you have a fag outside the barrowboy, then you can sort of see half a train. In the sky. Occasionally.

I have a wedding that weekend so myself being in attendance would be very unlikely (although, ever so slightly possible on the friday). But you could try The Wenlock as it is the most london of pubs.

Which is inbetween Oldstreet and Angel and is the most proper, proper london pub imaginable*. It's dirty and old and falling apart, and the toilets are shit but there are a dozen real ales on at any one time, and it serves salt beef sandwiches that are as thicker than a fist and it's easy to talk, despite the fact that the local old men play Jazz there on a Friday, and it's wonderful and I love it.

Beer in the evening link

*If you're not a londoner.

The problem with going to Hoxton though, is being in Hoxton.

Yup.

Same applies to London though, doesn't it?

Bobby, you are in for anytime or one particular aforementioned time?

Lots of options being presented now. HOW WILL WE CHOOSE? I don't know if trains in the sky will hold the same appeal this time, they're old hat to me now. I'm world wise, remember I spent THREE days in London.

Shunt is ridiculously expensive to get into on a Friday, is it not? I just rather enjoyed that venue last time.

Did you get the beer boat to canary wharf last time?

If we're going to Shoreditch, I'd like to suggest places around Brick Lane and curry.

Expensive and jam packed. Thursday is Shunt night.

Craster - while The Refinery is a lovely bar, and had deckchairs, it cost a fiver for a pint, so it can eff off.

The Crosse Keys is near my office (and hence near Bank and London Bridge and Cannon Street and Liverpool Street). It's a dirty Wetherspoon's, but it is cheap and they do have about 30 different specialist ales, ciders and beers on at any given time.

The All Bar One at London Bridge is always busy, but you can hear yourselves talk, it is reasonably priced (and there are normally offers on food and stuff) and has some good drinks.

There are various other places that are good 'for a bit', before their drinks offers dry up and they slam the volume to 11, but I figure we'll probvably want to stay put as much as possible, so would suggest we go to one place and make sure it serves food.

Mind it'll still be Ramadan & the food always turns to shit around then.

We didn't get the beer boat, no. We were early so just got the underground to the pub where we sat for about half an hour with Grim... enjoying drinks and banter before realising Craster had been sat at the other end of the pub for about an hour

I think I might leave it to you guys to decide, we are happy to go to anywhere suggested really. So someone decide. (I would remind you of how easy it is for me to get drunk and so being near or in a place with food is a very good idea.)

Food. If you eat it, it always turns to shit, unless you chunder it up, of course.

PS I know this and I don't have an 'A' level to me name.

I am in for anytime (I think) but almost certainly Friday. I was expecting friends to visit, but they are not coming now, so I am free to pass outparty.

My real house is actually better protected against tunnelers than my minecraft house, what with having a built-in water trap.

Right, Friday night it is. I am happy with all of the pub suggestions so far.

*checks out scuba gear*

A drink + food combo would be good. The good Lady Zio is free to attend also if that's okay with you chaps (no mentioning the war, er baby, er... ...fuck it, she's heard it all anyway) and we were discussing a quick trip to Wagamama en route. So if we were to do the food thing anyway, we wouldn't need to be horrendously late for meeting you all.

Last time we were down we didn't plan in dinner and ended up staggering off to a Gourmet Burger Kitchen (I don't remember the journey there) before going back to the pub. So yes, dinner this time I don't mind if this is in a pub that serves food like an All Bar One or if it is a place to eat near the pub like on Brick Lane.

We will check with Ange tonight when she is getting to London on Friday and if she has a preference about where to go.

So, errr, where are we going?