Saturday Night Out in Shoreditch

Saturday night was Wayland's birthday and the old chap was turning 29! What an old man. Most of my friends have had the pleasure of meeting Wayland. He's been my flatmate here in London and good mate.
There he is. Our Wayland. He doesn't like this photo, but I do. He's doing business, which is what Wayland does. He's a brilliant business man and he won't let you forget it.

On Saturday our friends Phil and Katie threw a party at their flat for Wayland. I hadn't been to their flat before. They live over in Wapping. What's Wapping you ask?

Wapping (pronounced 'Wopping') is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which forms part of the Docklands to the east of the City of London. It is situated between the north bank of the River Thames and the ancient thoroughfare simply called The Highway. Wapping's proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, such as the Prospect of Whitby and Wapping Stairs.

We had a bit of bubbly and then set out to Shoreditch. Our party group split up into two groups and dived into some lovely black cabs. There's a quick stop for a drink at a place called the Underground Station and then we headed over to On The Rocks. I love On The Rocks, and haven't been there since Matthew and I started dating. I would say that it had been a good year. They play Northern soul, Ska, two-tone type of music. It's a great place to go dancing.

The nice thing about Northern soul, Ska and two-tone is that anyone can dance to it without looking like a fool. It's one of those places were you can dance in peace without discovering that you have a dance partner grinding on your backside. Matthew and I even Incorporated some of jive dance moves, aren't we cool?

We had to take off around 1 a.m. since we were driving up to Oxford the next day. If I don't get at least 7 hours of sleep I can be as mean as a snake. To get home at that hour you either can take a taxi or the night bus. We opted for the night bus. We took the N55 from Old Street to Oxford Circus and that wasn't a bad ride. The bus wasn't full and it was a pleasant ride. Sometimes riding the night bus home can be a real adventure. For those of you who have done it in London know what I am taking about. You see all sorts in the wee hours. People very drunk wandering around.

At Oxford Circus we waited for about 10 minutes for the bus to turn up and when it did it was too full to stop. This is never a good thing and it usually manages to infuriate people beyond belief. One guy was beating his fists on the door and threatening to put a curse on the driver. Also there was a group of posh couples who had been yelling each other on the sidewalk the entire time we were waiting for the bus.

We thought that we might have a better chance of getting on the bus if we walked up to where it departed from so we took off up Oxford Street to see our bus the N207 coming down the road and it was pretty empty. Matthew and I had to run like bastards to get to the bus. We caught it and managed to find two seats at the back.

It would have been a nice bus ride home if it weren't for the two nasty teen aged boys who got on sat opposite us and played gangsta rap on their mobile phone. I really hate when people do that. People are too afraid to tell them to turn it off and I guess with good reason. Usually it's best not to tangle with those kinds of dudes.

We got home at 3 a.m. not bad, two hours journey across London? That's going out in London if you don't spring for a taxi. I kinda like taking the night bus, but maybe next time we'll get a mini cab.