London Town

At the final whistle in yesterday's match against Woking the general feeling in the changing room was one of frustration with a 2-2 draw. Before the game we were confident we could win and at the end of the game we thought we should have won. Obviously at half time and at 2-0 down a draw would seem like a good result, but we were that dominant in the second half that it felt a bit disappointing that we hadn't taken all 3 points. I spoke to Phil Gilchrist their manager after the game and he was more than happy with a point !!!. The ground pretty much felt like it had been taken over by Torquay fan's which again was a massive bonus.


So the with the game over the squad travelled into London for the annual ( if early!) Christmas 'Do'. It was back to the hotel first though to change into the dancing old gear !! . Once the boy's had showered and shaved it was straight to the tube station and into Covent Garden. We spent a few hours there before heading to 'Clubland'. First it involved a quick taxi ride to the Met bar on Park Lane ( I'll come back to that), then onto another club back in the West End. Most of the lad's were already queuing when our taxi arrived. The queue was big, it was cold so...... why not!. Yep I nipped to the front of the queue and began the 'Blag'. Our names had been put on the guest list but when I asked the guy's at the door it was a negative, it may have been the sight of 10 or so of the lad's at the back of the queue 'livening' proceedings up that suddenly erased the names from the list. Time for Plan B, "Come on, the lad's have travelled up a long way, don't let them down, we will be little angel's in there", smile and wait....... The 'Rope' was lifted and to the annoyance of the freezing hopefuls in the queue the boy's marched past and into safety!.

As usual the clubs were a frenzy of celebs, wannabes, and footballers. Understandably there weren't many takers for the first round!. The remaining kitty was swallowed up in minutes rather than hours due to the price list at the bar!. It was that bad that the bar staff gave you a tissue and a get well soon card after each order. It could have been much worse though. As I said earlier we had already been to the Met Bar, kindly sorted by 'Hells Bells', but it was early and a bit quiet in there so we moved on. But I had told Damo, Kenny, Bri and Shaun we would meet them in there only remembering when I received a text from Damo saying he had just come round after paying 50 pounds for 4 drinks!, smelling salts anyone!.
Back to our watering hole and one of the lad's was having a bit of banter with a couple when the guy said " Tell you what I'll get a bottle eh, then you get one OK ". The waitress came over and beamed " That's 400 thanks". Shoulder officially dropped at that point!. Don't mess with bottles of Crystal is the lesson there !. It didn't stop plenty in there though, there were that many ice bucket's with sparkler's it was like firework night. What with the Ice sculpture and the chocolate fountain the credit crunch was nowhere to be seen!.
I have to say though I love London, the sights, the restaurants, the buses and black cabs and the town houses in squares overlooking little parks. I know for a day trip or a weekend it's a novelty but I think I could live in London quite happily as long as I had a few million in the bank!. The ideal scenario is a home in Devon and a pad to crash in London for the odd blast!. But for now it's the odd day or evening like last night.
A great laugh, a little cameo role by Phil Mitchel, a ten man race on rickshaw's and a faultless man marking display by one of the lad's and the night was over. Is that the alarm clock we've only just got in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.



CH