Back to Blighty

It was time again for my regular visit to the UK. As usual, I arrived at London Heathrow on Monday morning, ready for a week of hard work (and a beer or two, goes without saying). Much to my delight (and slight surprise), I was greeted by sunshine for a change.

After a hard day of work, I hopped on the train for London Waterloo, for my customary London night out. This time, Chie had booked a Cuban restaurant just next to Waterloo called Cubita. Most of the usual suspects were there; meaning Nick, Chie, Geoff and Sinhung. Rasmus, our colleague from Copenhagen, also came along, as well as a Danish friend of his who lives in London. The Cuban soiree was predictably good fun, with Mojitos, daiquiris and some great food spicing up the proceedings.

After the meal, we naturally headed down to the local pub, where we ended up participating in the pub quiz (it’s been a while since I did one of those...). We split into two teams, and having only one Briton per team (information / general knowledge that does not have a direct bearing on UK events or culture are next to useless in pub quizzes, hence teams made up of foreigners tend to get rather badly humiliated...), did predictably badly... (although in our defence it must be said we didn’t come last!). A train ride later, I was soundly a sleep on an inflatable mattress in Sinhung’s flat).

For Tuesday evening, my boss Steve had pencilled in a team curry & beer night. It was pretty appropriate since we had a big two-days training event for the whole team which ended on Tuesday – so it was kind of a nice conclusion to that. After a few pints in the Oatsheef in Fleet, we headed next doors for a curry (can’t remember the name of the place now...). It was all good fun, meeting new faces and catching up with old colleagues.

The next day, it was time to relocate to London after 2 peaceful nights spent in Fleet (after a productive day at the office, of course!). This time, the plan was to meet up with Ed. The original plan was to meet up where he works in Canary Warf, but due to the train schedules, it proved a bit too ambitious, so we ended up meeting up for dinner near Waterloo instead. After an “aperitif” (= a pint in the UK) at the good ole’ Fire Station (just next door’s to the train station), and some indecisive wandering around, we ended up in a rather classy fish restaurant called Livebait. Not the type of place I normally end up during my trips to the UK, but hey it made for a nice change. Samy, who works in my team, also joined us after a rather long day at the office. No complaints about the food at all, top marks all around – although it was a bit heavy on the wallet, it must be said... Ed then offered to drive me down to his flat in his new car. Having said Ed’s previous cars, I sort of half-jokingly asked if the Maserati parked in the street was his “new toy”, and imagine my surprise when it turned out it actually was! So, I got to experience my first ride in an Italian sports car, then.... Quite a classy little beast, it must be said. Nice flat he’s acquired as well in Peckham; where we discussed life, cinema, politics (a new government had just been formed, after all...) over a couple of glasses of wine - the usual.....

Getting to work from Peckham is a bit of a pain, it must be said (and not easy on the wallet either – the train prices are even more extortionate than they were when I lived there...). Bus to Waterloo, train to Farnborough, and then the shuttle bus to Southwood.... Oh well, at least I had a good book to read. After another day of blood, sweat ‘n tears at the office, it was time to head off to Guildford for the last night out of the week. I was already kind of looking forward to a quiet night out in the Stoke with Phil (him being the only one who was confirmed for going to the pub), until Simo gave me a ring, announcing his readiness for “a pint or two”. So there you go... Good to see Steve as well, it’s been ages.... A pity Simo couldn’t convince Zuzi, his dear lady friend, to come out. Anyways, great to catch up. Looks like both Simo and Steve are (like most people I used to know) on their way out of the UK – Simo to the Czech Republic and Steve to Hungary.... Soon there won’t be anybody in Guildford I can go to the pub with, what’s that all about then?

That pretty much brought an end to this visit to the UK. Well, Sinhung did manage to talk me into a pub lunch with the colleagues on Friday (well it’s not like he needed to twist my arm or anything...) at the Crab & Anchor. Well, the pub lunch was actually missing from the “English things to do every time I cross the channel” list.... I even had a Kangoroo steak, so I even ventured into unknown culinary territory...