Sisters.

This blog now has a sister on Tumblr! For photos and musings from the city I love. 

http://londonandthings.tumblr.com/

Ode To A Cocktail

Last Monday night saw a night of general debauchery at a cocktail bar in Shoreditch named 'The Shoreditch' (I haven't worked out quite yet if I appreciate the possession this cocktail bar seems to take over the place it resides in or if it is a brilliant marketing ploy). Anyway, many Shoreditch Martinis and Gin Gardens along the track we ended back up on the Tube home and pretending to pole dance on the hand rails. I am sorry East London Line but the poles are just there and no matter how little we have had to drink and how busy the carriage is or how long we have lived in London in our minds the poles are there for one thing and one thing only: entertainment. Tuesday, surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), saw more cocktails, these were, luckily for my bank balance, not for my head, bought for me. That certainly made me feel better about the 'cocktails two nights in a row' thing. Maybe I just need to go on more dates?
If this week has taught me anything it is that cocktails always make things more fun, the cans of Red Stripe 'Jamaica's finest' that I then had to drink for the rest of the week as I couldn't justify spending any more money on cocktails or find someone who was willing to buy them for me, tasted extremely bitter. This, combined with me finally discovering 'Sex And The City' this week, has not made a good mix. How am I meant to watch people drink what seem like bottomless Cosmopolitans all day, seem to never be at work and yet manage to buy such expensive clothes and then not wonder why I can't do the same thing? The answer is simple: I am a student. This is not a time for cocktails and designer clothes. This is a time for thrift store shopping and cans of 99p cider bought from the off-licence across the road. The thrift store shopping I can deal with but the sooner that someone creates a delicious cocktail comprising of White Lightning and Red Stripe the better.
In other news I have decided that it is going to be Spring. Listen up everyone, you have me to thank for the sudden increase in temperatures. I have resolved that if I stop wearing a coat and start drinking ice tea again (homemade I'll have you know) then the temperature is guaranteed to rise and I will be the Spring saviour. I don't know if it is simply my mind playing tricks on me but I swear it has actually got warmer since I began doing this and I am sure the mornings are significantly brighter this week than they were last week.

Back to London, back to reality.

So I have now been back in London over a week and it is fair to say rather a lot has happened. Last week seemed to be a week in which we celebrated being back in London by not actually doing much about London and instead mostly bopped around a club to probably the least cool music East London has ever seen (forgetting Chas and Dave), naturally, therefore I loved it. Whilst waiting for the Tube on our way to said club we started talking to a man who said that he had got out of Belmarsh Prison that same day for a multi- million pound fraud and that he was now a billionaire. I found it hard to believe as he was holding a blue plastic bag and rather crumpled looking. He seemed nice though and he offered me a cigar. I politely refused and said that I would let him celebrate his release with the one he wanted to give to me.

This week I have discovered that I am good at writing on mirrors in toothpaste, that Brazil is a beautiful country and that cheese and wine nights aren't as innocent as they seem. Especially when I get a half price magnum of sparkling wine from Gateway 'supermarket' across the road. All in all I feel like this past  week has been the best week since moving to London. It was like another freshers week but with the knowledge that you can grind on down to ridiculously urban music you have never heard before in an East London club, in front of your friends and that instead of never wanting to see you again they will probably join you. For that I salute my new-found urban family. Tomorrow it is meant to snow (the Met Office have advised against anything but essential travel so the 1 minute walk to my lecture may not happen) and as I maintain that there is no more beautiful sight that a London boozer, fire blazing and punters laughing I will probably spend most of my evening in the Royal Albert, said 'Royal' provided by yours truly, obviously.

On the subject of royalty, one that I rarely ever mention, I would like to celebrate the
pure boldness of the Royal Family's press office. Today Princess Beatrice and Eugenie drove a Union Jack mini right through the centre of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Press office I applaud you for providing me with a laugh at your unbridled patriotism and disregard for political relations.
Anyway bed awaits and a pile of books as high as a premium race horse. Better get started  now. As they say, "Every Little Helps".