Eyes Wide Shut

2 weeks into my trip and I'd almost written London off as lame, but then I had a great weekend!
Chris, my former Tango partner, invited me to a masquerade ball on Saturday night. It was hosted by a group of expats living in London called the nomads. We (Chris, his friend Yomi, and I) spent an hour in the costume shop (think Kubrick's final film) picking masks, the guys got capes and ruffly, satin shirts, I got a feather boa. It was hysterical trying on all of the crazy get ups! Afterwards, we headed to the Hoxton Square Bar & Grill (one of the few places in London that serves American style breakfast- i.e. pancakes & fried [not boiled] bacon).
I'd just poured the syrup on my pancakes when this scrawny guy walks in & starts yelling at a couple sitting behind us. He says, "This is who you're cheating on me with? This is who you're leaving me for? You said you were having lunch with Claire! Is that Claire?" At this point, a hush fell over the crowd as we all stopped to stare for a moment in disbelief. Then, as British politeness dictates, we all turned away & pretended not to still be listening. The man continued, "Come outside guy! We can settle this like men! Let's take it outside!" The woman's date never spoke, nor moved. The woman jumped up and screamed, "Why are you doing this? Not here! Not now!" She pushed him out the door as she spoke. They staged whispered on the sidewalk outside. Then the man screamed to the date, who was patiently waiting at the table for the woman to return, "She slept with me last night!" Hilarious!
The waitresses finally told the man that if he did not leave they were calling security. He left...sort of. He really stood outside in the square for 15 minutes waiting for the other guy to come out of the restaurant. He was dead set on the two of them handling things like men. The woman came back inside, got her purse, and left her date sitting there! When the crazy guy saw her leave, he followed. About 20 mins later, the date slipped out the back door. What fun mealtime entertainment!
Later that evening, Yomi texted Chris to say that he saw the woman & Claire on the tube! Ha!
The masquerade ball was lame-ish. It was at #1 Leicester (why this word is pronounced "Lester," I'll never know) Square, which had a superb view of London at night! You could see the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye! It was lovely! The music was all over the place & people weren't really dancing because the groove switched every other song. One minute you and J. Timberlake were bringing sexy back, the next Luther Vandross was telling you how a thousand kisses from you was never too much, then you'd be dancing on the ceiling with Lionel Ritchie. Crazy! We stayed for quite a while, despite the wacky DJ. There was also this Italian guy who wanted my body, but...well nevermind, he's not important. 3 Red Bull-vodkas later, we ended up at Chinawhite.
Apparently, this apparently is the hip spot to see & be seen in London. I was over it after having to wait at the door for 10 minutes when the bouncers heckled our masks! We did get in however, and the music was better. The bartender was also hotter! *drooling* We shook our groove thing for a bit until this group of girls pulled me over to their corner of the room where we proceeded to dance on the table! So much fun. We screamed introductions over the loud music & they invited me to join them at another club. I said goodbye to Chris & Yomi and headed to Mo*Vida. It was closing by the time we got there, so we danced to about 2 songs, gulped some champagne & left. Crazy!
The ladies wanted McDonald's hash browns (long story), but all of the McDonald's were closed. We decided to take the night bus (always a laugh riot in Europe!) to one of their houses for an after party. We got there, loud & drunk & I lost my feather boa as it slipped off onto the floor of the bus as I stepped off...
We had toast, as our hostess had no hash browns to offer us @ 5:30am, and went to bed.
We spent the next delightful day getting to know one another.
There was Natasha, a 31 year old, Dutch/Guyanese, former Samba dancer, who now works at a bank. Lisa, the 22 year old, South African, model/makeup artist, who starts nursing school in September. Vina, the 30 year old, English woman, who often gets mistaken for being Southeast Asian (her parents are Indian & grew up in Kenya, but she's never been to either place). She is also a makeup artist & best friends with Lisa.
Vina & Natasha met on Thursday at Lisa's fashion show and decided to go out on Saturday night, where they met me! We drank wine, Natasha gave up Samba lessons, we had dinner & lots of laughs! We called it a night at 11pm because some of us had to work in the morning! Thank heaven for lazy days! I'm wiped out!
It was good stuff!
I'm so glad to finally have fun here & enjoy myself!