London Nov 13
Up for it were
Yupmeister, Anytime Tone, Granpop Bill, Keithee's up for it, JayCee, Mind the Gap Sid, Jacko, Tim Mothy, Roadrunner, Brolly wolly bag man from Talke Talke, 2 Pie Hard Dave Semi-Colon, Pedro, Corky and Sean of the County Wounties
The trip began for some of us with a butties or oatcakes at Caterbake in Stoke, and then a gentle stroll across the D Road to the station. ‘Remind me to take my pills’, Yup asked Jaycee. You guessed it …. he forgot.
The train was on time yet again. Our reserved seats were spread far and wide over the length of the train from carriage B to E, with Corky having already settled in within carriage A.
Brolly Wolly Bag Man from Talke Talke was bagless today but was well prepared for the impending wet weather and carrying a crunchie only.
At Euston there was the obligatory 5 minutes wait around the ticket office which allowed everyone an opportunity to top up their oysters and for Roadrunner to catch up with us.
As usual The Market Porter was to be our first port of call although our time there today would be limited to an hour. Corky's eyes lit up when he spotted the opening times on the wall, with next year's visit in mind.
The adjacent market provided sufficient choice for those who needed a snack. A well packed game pie was devoured by Brolly Wolly Bag Man from Talke Talke, although it was suggested by Mind the Gap Sid that its ingredients probably included rat and fox. 2 Pie R Dave Semi-Colon opted for a measly 3 or 4 pork pies smothered in mustard. ‘You’ll soon need to start on the morning tipple of hot water and a slice of lemon to avoid indigestion’, said Anytime Tone.
The Salisbury Ales’ Sarum IPA went down well until it ran out and a Slater's brew from Stone replaced it. Helen showed up to say a quick hello before dashing off. Meanwhile, Pedro found a friend who was sporting a trilby, but failed to get a free pint off him.
At 1.50pm it was time for 10 of us to take the short walk to the iconic Shard. ‘Is it far?’ asked Mind the Gap Sid, as the gigantic 95 story building towered over us even before we left the Porter.
‘Designed by Renzo Piano’, stated Jacko, ‘310m high’. He was tall, wasn’t he!
A young lady asked Yup if we’d got tickets as we entered, to which he confirmed we had. Now, if she had only asked to see the tickets ……….
An airport style security check-in came into view where we removed our coats and valuables which were then passed through a scanner. Amazingly, Jacko didn’t get stopped for a strip search which he so often does. (and enjoys)
We then proceeded on an ear-popping journey taking 2 high speed lifts, each taking around 20 seconds, to the 68th floor. The open observation deck was a few flights up on the 72nd floor and from here you could see around 40 plus miles on a clear day. We were satisfied however in spotting the Market Porter which we’d just left and the remaining lads Sean of the County Wountys, Corkster, Pedro and 2 Pie R Dave Semi-Colon still standing and supping outside.
An opportunity to take photos of the gents was missed by Yup. Granpop Bill had however managed to visit them, describing his experience as feeling rather exposed to the outside world. ‘I'm sure no one would be looking in with binoculars at that height’, said Granpop Bill, as the window cleaner appeared with a huge smile on his face.
A young female photographer took up several positions in an attempt to take a group photo of us with alternative backdrops if we were interested in buying one at the booth on our way out. None were to our satisfaction and we opted for their cheesy background template showing the winding Thames river morphed in behind us.
Click on THE VIEW below for a video taken by Anytime Tone
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Dividing £25 between 10 for the photo proved extremely difficult and after taking £2.20 off each of us Keithee was forced into adding the shortfall.
It began slatting it down as we left the Shard so we darted to the nearest tube station and took the underground to Farringdon situated in the Clerkenwell district of London.
Heading off from the underground in completely the wrong direction, and in pouring rain, we eventually wefound The Craft Beer Co. in Leather Lane (within the Hatton Garden jewellery quarter) catching up with the 4 who had evaded the Shard and were now drying off after a similar walk in the rain.
The room was quite stark with plain white walls, bright lights, a sparkling central chandelier, stained glass windows and ornate mirrors covering the ceiling, ‘Similar to my bedroom’, boasted Jacko.
Although the pub boasts of having around 36 beers on draft including rare beers from microbreweries, half of them were foreign beers or lagers so were limited to only around 18 proper ales as we'd expect. What sorrow. The ones available which we favoured, were mainly beers from the Magic Rock Brewery; opting eventually for one containing New Zealand hops.
Anytime Tone slipped off to meet up with Tea-time Chris at Euston, leaving us to continue drying off on the outside and getting increasingly wetter on the inside.
A text was received from Richee confirming that he was sweltering in temps of 36 deg. We were well pleased for him.
After waiting for Pedro to visit the gents, we left, 5 minutes behind schedule, and again taking the wrong direction. The sat nav was playing up yet again.
With his tongue darting in and out, like a lizard in a desert, Corky led the search and eventually sniffed out the Jerusalem Tavern. Dating back to 1720, the layout of the pub was quirky with small green painted cubical rooms packed with standing drinkers. A table with seats was miraculously found and Keithee’s knee took a deserved rest.
The full range of St Peter’s ales were almost all available with a golden hoppy ale being top of my list until we had to leave for the Monsoon in Brick Lane.
With the sat nav playing up again we finally located Farringdon and took the tube to Aldgate East. The short walk to Brick Lane didn’t go quite to plan either, as we missed the junction and had to make a u-turn through side streets to return to it.
Touting traders from the Indian adjacent to the Monsoon were quite confident that their offer would be the best in the street, but could only offer us the same as the Monsoon. £10 was quickly agreed with the Monsoon for cobras, a bottle of wine between 2 people, a starter, main course, nan and rice. In theory we’d got an excellent bargain even though the final price turned out to be £15 including a very small tip. How do they do that? Still excellent value especially as a bucketfull of chocolates was embarrassingly requested again by the cheeky Pedro.
Brolly Wolly Bag Man from Talke Talke took some of us aback by re-inacting a scene from Superman, diving headlong over a step before finding his seat. Only when he eventually found his cobra did he begin to fully recover. Is Brolly Wolly Bag Man from Talke Talke only the second faller this year???
The sat nav didn’t exactly help yet again as we boarded the wrong train from Aldgate back to Euston. Luckily the situation was retrieved and a direct train was found taking us directly to Euston where we slipped in to the packed Bree Louise pub. Pity the ale didn’t excel despite the CAMRA discount. Next year the Euston Tap !!
Roadrunner slipped off to meet Mrs Roadrunner at the station and to spend the weekend in London. As is a woman’s prerogative, Mrs R was late.
Yet again the train was spot on timewise. Celebrating the cheapest curry in London, Corky got the coffees in for those still awake while the rest snored back home.
Yuppers
(enjoy yer dives)