Well, that was quite a birthday!
I took over favourite Nanluoguxiang watering-hole Salud for the evening. Things were a little slow to get going (lots of people crying off with autumn colds - there seem to be some nasty bugs going the rounds at the moment!), but at peak we had 50 or 60 folks along. I gather a handful of diehards stayed on until they were finally refused further service at around 3am. I had retired to the Pool Bar at around 1am; at 2.30am I found myself unwisely exchanging text messages with The Weeble to arrange a reunion with him; and thus I didn't finally stagger out of the door until something like 4.30am.
My thanks to everyone who came (and bitter recriminations to all those who said they would, and didn't - shame on you!). I hope you had a great time. Thanks also to the two Nicos, for helping me set things up, to everyone else at Salud, and of course to Zoe and the band, who were great (her 'agent' wrung a rather inflated fee out of me for their appearance, but I don't begrudge it). Thanks too to Luke at the Pool Bar, for staying up to see me. And apologies to Luke's Dad, for keeping him up so ridiculously late.
And a blanket apology to anyone who may possibly have been offended by my behaviour at certain points in the evening (bad dancing, worse singing, excessive flirtation). I hope that drunkenness and a birthday are sufficient excuses to earn me forgiveness.
I did perhaps overdo my 'warm-up' slightly. I had planned to kick off my evening with one of the fine single malt whiskies available at the 12 Sq M bar. I nearly gave up on the idea, since I was running a bit late leaving home, and it appeared that none of my pals were going to be free to join me. But, belatedly, a few people did sign up to the plan; and they all insisted on buying me a drink. So, I had 4 whiskies in the space of about half an hour, and was flying for the rest of the night.
I took over favourite Nanluoguxiang watering-hole Salud for the evening. Things were a little slow to get going (lots of people crying off with autumn colds - there seem to be some nasty bugs going the rounds at the moment!), but at peak we had 50 or 60 folks along. I gather a handful of diehards stayed on until they were finally refused further service at around 3am. I had retired to the Pool Bar at around 1am; at 2.30am I found myself unwisely exchanging text messages with The Weeble to arrange a reunion with him; and thus I didn't finally stagger out of the door until something like 4.30am.
My thanks to everyone who came (and bitter recriminations to all those who said they would, and didn't - shame on you!). I hope you had a great time. Thanks also to the two Nicos, for helping me set things up, to everyone else at Salud, and of course to Zoe and the band, who were great (her 'agent' wrung a rather inflated fee out of me for their appearance, but I don't begrudge it). Thanks too to Luke at the Pool Bar, for staying up to see me. And apologies to Luke's Dad, for keeping him up so ridiculously late.
And a blanket apology to anyone who may possibly have been offended by my behaviour at certain points in the evening (bad dancing, worse singing, excessive flirtation). I hope that drunkenness and a birthday are sufficient excuses to earn me forgiveness.
I did perhaps overdo my 'warm-up' slightly. I had planned to kick off my evening with one of the fine single malt whiskies available at the 12 Sq M bar. I nearly gave up on the idea, since I was running a bit late leaving home, and it appeared that none of my pals were going to be free to join me. But, belatedly, a few people did sign up to the plan; and they all insisted on buying me a drink. So, I had 4 whiskies in the space of about half an hour, and was flying for the rest of the night.
And here's another belated birthday treat for myself: John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett performing their song Birthday Boy (good picture quality, but a lot of distortion on the sound, alas).
And while I'm at it, here's Marilyn singing to JFK. We didn't have quite so much female glamour on view last night - but I did suffer a few moments of heartbreak, nonetheless.
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