It’s been about 3 months since my last visit to the UK – so I suppose it was about time duty and English weather called upon me again. The weather looked predictably grim and grey as I landed on Heathrow – but surprisingly the sun even came out on the way to the office in Southwood! (this was of course just to give me false hope – the weather was predictably English for most of the week).
After a productive day at the office, I got a lift off Cliff to Guildford, where I was staying this time. For a change I decided not to pester poor old Phil for his sofa, and stay in a hotel – the aptly named Guildford hotel, located slam bang in the centre on the high street. Which is about the only good thing that can be said about the place – it’s overpriced, the showers are of the English no-pressure model, and the rooms are just not very classy. Then again, truthfully, the same could said for most hotels in the South-east of England. But the pretty much all-eastern European staff is friendly, and the brekkie is nice enough, so I kind of like the place.
Anyway, having settled into my room, I headed off to the pub, naturally. The Guildford Tup was on the agenda tonight (of course). There was a pretty good turn-up, with the usual suspects (Nick T, Phil, Stephane, Maxime and Jeff) naturally turning up – and also Nick H (with his new £8000 camera – wow…) and Kartsa – both of them giving us the latest from the world of Formula 1 (they both work for McLaren). We had a really good night – we predictably ended up in Farenheit 51 after last orders at the Tup, and predictably spent all night by the quiz machine. It’s fast becoming a tradition… (a sad one, some might say?)
On Tuesday night, after another hard day at the office, I decided I’d actually do something useful before going to the pub. So I went for a run around Stoke Park (I had the foresight to bring some jogging gear, actually) – or in fact twice around. After a quick shower back at the hotel I sped down to the pub again – this time to my other ex-local pub, the Stoke. Tuesday night is of course quiz night. Me and Maxime were the only one there, and signed up – in the desperate hope that the inexhaustible treasure chest of TV/pop knowledge, Phil, would turn up (without at least one Brit on the team there is no hope…). Thankfully he did, as well as Stephane and Jeff. So we were saved from humiliation (actually, at one point it seemed that we actually came third – but turns out they had miscounted the points).
For Wednesday night, we had a team curry in Fleet , preceded by some pre-drinks (somehow the word aperitif doesn’t sound right) at the pub next door’s. Nice curry – it had been quite a while since the last one, so…
The night out in London was scheduled for Thursday night. Things kicked off in the Reef bar at London Waterloo, with myself, along with the Malaysian duo of Ko Chung and Sinhung. After a quick drink there we headed down to a bar near South Bank, where we were joined by a bunch of other people (Amal, Ed, Maxime and Chie). After a couple of pitchers of beer we decided it was time to get some food in – after a couple of failed attempts to book a table around South Bank we ended up in a curry house near Covent Garden – recommended by Chie. And with good reason – the food was very tasty indeed, in spite of the somewhat slow service. Among the normal drunken chit chat, there was even a fascinating debate about what the difference is between lap dancers, belly dancers and Geishas (opinions differed rather a lot). There was some last minute drama (a misplaced credit card…) – but thankfully everybody managed to catch their trains back home…
So that was that for this visit. And this time there wasn’t even any entertaining stories to tell about the flights (the flight on Friday leaving half an hour late is more like routine for Heathrow).
More photos here.
After a productive day at the office, I got a lift off Cliff to Guildford, where I was staying this time. For a change I decided not to pester poor old Phil for his sofa, and stay in a hotel – the aptly named Guildford hotel, located slam bang in the centre on the high street. Which is about the only good thing that can be said about the place – it’s overpriced, the showers are of the English no-pressure model, and the rooms are just not very classy. Then again, truthfully, the same could said for most hotels in the South-east of England. But the pretty much all-eastern European staff is friendly, and the brekkie is nice enough, so I kind of like the place. 
Anyway, having settled into my room, I headed off to the pub, naturally. The Guildford Tup was on the agenda tonight (of course). There was a pretty good turn-up, with the usual suspects (Nick T, Phil, Stephane, Maxime and Jeff) naturally turning up – and also Nick H (with his new £8000 camera – wow…) and Kartsa – both of them giving us the latest from the world of Formula 1 (they both work for McLaren). We had a really good night – we predictably ended up in Farenheit 51 after last orders at the Tup, and predictably spent all night by the quiz machine. It’s fast becoming a tradition… (a sad one, some might say?)On Tuesday night, after another hard day at the office, I decided I’d actually do something useful before going to the pub. So I went for a run around Stoke Park (I had the foresight to bring some jogging gear, actually) – or in fact twice around. After a quick shower back at the hotel I sped down to the pub again – this time to my other ex-local pub, the Stoke. Tuesday night is of course quiz night. Me and Maxime were the only one there, and signed up – in the desperate hope that the inexhaustible treasure chest of TV/pop knowledge, Phil, would turn up (without at least one Brit on the team there is no hope…). Thankfully he did, as well as Stephane and Jeff. So we were saved from humiliation (actually, at one point it seemed that we actually came third – but turns out they had miscounted the points).
For Wednesday night, we had a team curry in Fleet , preceded by some pre-drinks (somehow the word aperitif doesn’t sound right) at the pub next door’s. Nice curry – it had been quite a while since the last one, so…
The night out in London was scheduled for Thursday night. Things kicked off in the Reef bar at London Waterloo, with myself, along with the Malaysian duo of Ko Chung and Sinhung. After a quick drink there we headed down to a bar near South Bank, where we were joined by a bunch of other people (Amal, Ed, Maxime and Chie). After a couple of pitchers of beer we decided it was time to get some food in – after a couple of failed attempts to book a table around South Bank we ended up in a curry house near Covent Garden – recommended by Chie. And with good reason – the food was very tasty indeed, in spite of the somewhat slow service. Among the normal drunken chit chat, there was even a fascinating debate about what the difference is between lap dancers, belly dancers and Geishas (opinions differed rather a lot). There was some last minute drama (a misplaced credit card…) – but thankfully everybody managed to catch their trains back home…So that was that for this visit. And this time there wasn’t even any entertaining stories to tell about the flights (the flight on Friday leaving half an hour late is more like routine for Heathrow).
More photos here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment