does your boyfriend know you're out with another guy?
Friday was one of the more extreme days of my life. After 10 hours of plastics where the heating went haywire and the temp in theatre spiked at 28.9 I had to run to Main Theatres and change into something else before running 'back' to plastics to slip into the Ortho rep meeting.
The reason I'm going to this meeting is solely because the rep has the funds to give us dinner afterwards. Nice dinner, fully paid dinner. Hey, it's free food and I'm up for free food.
So the meeting crashes cos some specific part isn't with the rest of the kit but anyways, we leave the meeting and I hitch a ride into town with the others. The restaurant, Browns, is nice it used to be part of the old Bristol Uni refectory so it has those traditional english high ceilings and space. Things the current housing in Bristol clearly lack due to the greed of the housing cartels.
But food wise, following a Moscow Mule, was mussels, chicken snitzsel and blueberry cheesecake. Which is the first time in some time that I've had 3 courses (I usually have orange juice as a starter). The food was lovely, I had to take a bit of ribbing due to my mussels - they're trief and sparked the age-old pork debate as a result - and I was also getting some nice eye contact from the waiter.
After the meal ($338 for 11 people!) everyone left cos many were working on the saturday, and me and JoJo wanted to stay out for a while. So we did. I haven't been out dancing or drinking (I have a LOW alcohol tolerance) really since my surgery back in 2008, so it was with tentative steps I followed JoJo out the door to the golden mile of Bristol's clubbing district.
Our mission = Bar Hopping!
First bar I got the whole "are you her boyfriend" by one of the bouncers..
I was drunk and just burst out laughing, channeled my inner Snoop (minus the quicklime) and went in and started on the drinking. And I stayed standing for the night for which I was very impressed.
Apple Sourz (I forgot how nice that was!) and Malibu were drank at maybe half a dozen bars on the street before we ended up at the waterside in a bar that played anthems that we both danced to in front of everyone.
Then we met a group of lads on a stag do and just got chatting. One was from London so we both instantly hit it off, neither me or Jo paid for another drink for the rest of the evening and I felt fine, even if I was a little angsty for a bit but I found my feet surprisingly quickly in terms of conversation.
When the bar closed at 1am we wandered over to one of the nearby casinos and stayed there for another hour and a half. Jo won $100 on the roulette. $100 profit! On roulette!!! Girl got the skills.
I just drank and chatted and watched the others. I only play poker if I gamble, and things like blackjack and roulette don't really interest me.
If I'm honest the whole place had this feel of melancholy. It was like the desperation was tangible in the hard-core gamblers. Many were foreign given the hour (2am) and they were just playing and playing. It seemed very... I don't know. If hell was a British casino I wouldn't be that surprised.
Finally, after approaching the 20 hour mark both me and Jo were tired so we said our goodbyes and left the windowless hollow-cheeked world and wandered to the taxi rank stopping for cheezy chips along the way.
I managed to haggle the cabbie down from $24 to $20. BUt he told me such a convincing story and was so nice on the trip home I gave him $22.
ANd rolled into bed at 3am.
In hindsight I had a really nice night. The meal was lovely but what was really nice was what happened afterwards. I wasn't as uncomfortable in Bristol center as I thought I would be, or have been when I was growing up or in recent years.
And with JoJo and the rest of our gang I'm DEFINITELY up for doing it again.
The reason I'm going to this meeting is solely because the rep has the funds to give us dinner afterwards. Nice dinner, fully paid dinner. Hey, it's free food and I'm up for free food.
So the meeting crashes cos some specific part isn't with the rest of the kit but anyways, we leave the meeting and I hitch a ride into town with the others. The restaurant, Browns, is nice it used to be part of the old Bristol Uni refectory so it has those traditional english high ceilings and space. Things the current housing in Bristol clearly lack due to the greed of the housing cartels.
But food wise, following a Moscow Mule, was mussels, chicken snitzsel and blueberry cheesecake. Which is the first time in some time that I've had 3 courses (I usually have orange juice as a starter). The food was lovely, I had to take a bit of ribbing due to my mussels - they're trief and sparked the age-old pork debate as a result - and I was also getting some nice eye contact from the waiter.
After the meal ($338 for 11 people!) everyone left cos many were working on the saturday, and me and JoJo wanted to stay out for a while. So we did. I haven't been out dancing or drinking (I have a LOW alcohol tolerance) really since my surgery back in 2008, so it was with tentative steps I followed JoJo out the door to the golden mile of Bristol's clubbing district.
Our mission = Bar Hopping!
First bar I got the whole "are you her boyfriend" by one of the bouncers..
I was drunk and just burst out laughing, channeled my inner Snoop (minus the quicklime) and went in and started on the drinking. And I stayed standing for the night for which I was very impressed.
Apple Sourz (I forgot how nice that was!) and Malibu were drank at maybe half a dozen bars on the street before we ended up at the waterside in a bar that played anthems that we both danced to in front of everyone.
Then we met a group of lads on a stag do and just got chatting. One was from London so we both instantly hit it off, neither me or Jo paid for another drink for the rest of the evening and I felt fine, even if I was a little angsty for a bit but I found my feet surprisingly quickly in terms of conversation.
When the bar closed at 1am we wandered over to one of the nearby casinos and stayed there for another hour and a half. Jo won $100 on the roulette. $100 profit! On roulette!!! Girl got the skills.
I just drank and chatted and watched the others. I only play poker if I gamble, and things like blackjack and roulette don't really interest me.
If I'm honest the whole place had this feel of melancholy. It was like the desperation was tangible in the hard-core gamblers. Many were foreign given the hour (2am) and they were just playing and playing. It seemed very... I don't know. If hell was a British casino I wouldn't be that surprised.
Finally, after approaching the 20 hour mark both me and Jo were tired so we said our goodbyes and left the windowless hollow-cheeked world and wandered to the taxi rank stopping for cheezy chips along the way.
I managed to haggle the cabbie down from $24 to $20. BUt he told me such a convincing story and was so nice on the trip home I gave him $22.
ANd rolled into bed at 3am.
In hindsight I had a really nice night. The meal was lovely but what was really nice was what happened afterwards. I wasn't as uncomfortable in Bristol center as I thought I would be, or have been when I was growing up or in recent years.
And with JoJo and the rest of our gang I'm DEFINITELY up for doing it again.