A Glass Of Wine To The Head

Notwithstanding the fact that it's only Sunday morning, I think I can safely award the Classic Moment Of The Week trophy -- which I have just come up with on the spot and which, in disappointing point of fact, consists of nothing more than a blog mention ( a blention?) -- to my new friend --let's call her Mrs. X.  

The story goes thus.  Friday night, a few of my work friends and I headed to Rocket, a nice little bar around the corner and down the stairs from our place of employment, for what was deemed to be a "quick drink" to celebrate the start of the long weekend here.  Somehow, despite our best-laid plans, the quick drink went on a little longer than intended, and before we knew it, the London midnight scramble was beginning -- this, for those of you not familiar -- consists of thousands of people, in variegated states of intoxication, speed-walking from every closing bar, pub, cocktail lounge, watering hole, and hole in the wall to the nearest Tube station in a frantic and -- due to the aforementioned variegation -- sometimes comical attempt to make their last trains home prior to the Tube shutting down sometime around 12:30.  

We -- myself, my colleague F, and Mrs. X, had left the bar and were in the midst of our own speed-walk down  the street.  Mrs. X had somehow smuggled a full glass of wine outside, and drank as we went along, resplendent, regal, and highly animated, describing with sweeping gestures  some important point or other to F up about 10 feet ahead of me.  Suddenly, Mrs. X noticed that the wine was finished, and very offhandedly, flung the empty glass - hard - into a small alley we were passing by, all the while continuing to chat with F.  Instantly, there was a horrible shattering sound, followed by a vehement and emphatic string of expletives from a poor guy on a moped, whose helmet (which he had just put on, thank God) had caught the flying glass full-on, before it exploded into about 5,000 tiny pieces.  

Moped Man: "WHAT THE F!$ING F!*K, YOU F&*#ING B*!#H!?!?" 

Mrs. X: "Oh dear.... um....  sorry.  I didn't, er, see you there... " 

The girls continued -- at a noticeably expedited pace -- on into the night; it took me a few minutes to catch up, as I first had to peel myself off the pavement where I had keeled over in hysterical laughter.

Shockingly enough, this in itself was not the highlight of the week.  That honor instead goes to my action-packed Saturday.   The weather was nice (read: not pouring and with a sunbeam actually peaking through the cloud cover for a few seconds once every hour or so), so I grabbed the camera and went out for a long walk along the Thames River Walk.   Even though Canary Wharf itself is still new (its construction began only in 1985) the sense of history along the river is tangible and quite unlike anything I've experienced in the States.

Canary Wharf from a distance.  My apartment is in the smaller of the two yellow buildings, visible slightly to the left of the boat.

A little inlet in the river.  While this looks like a ditch running through, it's actually just low tide - if you look closely you can see the green waterline on side of the retaining walls.  I was amazed to learn that the tidal movement of the Thames can exceed 30 feet.

The Grapes pub, nearly 300 years old, known as the Six Jolly Porters Pub in the Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend.  Dickens sang to customers here as a child.

An interesting building along the River Walk.

On the way back, I swung down by the docks below my Canary Wharf apartment to poke around and strolled into the Docklands Museum, which happily was offering free admission due to the Bank Holiday.  The permanent exhibits offer a truly impressive overview of the history of London.  Beginning in 50AD when the first Roman port of Londinium, was built near present-day London Bridge, all the way through the development of Canary Wharf in the mid-80s, the exhibits showcase the amazing growth of the city around the Thames, with separate exhibitions on the earliest origins of the city and its struggles through centuries of attacks by Gauls, Saxons, and Vikings, the development of the first great bridges nearly 1000 years after the founding of the city, the influence of the sugar, whaling, and slavery trades, and much more.  Definitely well worth a visit for anyone in the area.

After a few hours' downtime, I headed out to Chelsea -- thankfully without any Tube delays, a minor miracle considering this was a weekend -- to a little gastro-pub called the Anglesea Arms to meet my high-school friend Mary Helen, whom I hadn't seen in a number of years, and her husband Jonti.  The couple were just back from two weeks in Ibiza, Spain, and Italy, and I was very lucky to catch them; they were just stopping back to the UK for a couple of days in prior to embarking on 6 more months of travel, culminating in a relocation to New York (they've been living in London for the past 4 years).  We had a great catch-up session, and MH, who has been working in food media, passed along some top-notch food recommendations which I will surely be writing about in future blog entries.  Thanks MH -- and make sure you give my regards to Corner Bistro and Shake Shack when you touch down in NYC!!!

MH and I mug it up.