MVP "Boys night out" - match report

The following has been classified as non-NDA.

Date: 4th November 2005
Attendees: Mark Arnold, the lovely Carola Mattsson, Jimmy the Swede, Steve Foster and your truly.
Venues: the Hilton lounge, the Hilton Exec lounge, the back of a black cab on a tedious route, the Pillars of Hercules, McDonalds, Champagne Charlies.

Hilton Lounge. Good for a schmooze. Foz wearing no logo'd clothing was a shock though.
Hiton Exec Lounge. Self service bar and no toilets. Really going downhill.
Back of a black cab. He took a fairly direct route but went all the way along Oxford Street on a Friday evening. Took forever but the photos were quite good (well, as good as they get given that collectively we manage 20% beauty and that 99.9% of that comes from Carola on her own).

Ah, the Pillars. A drinking den hidden away on Greek Street in Soho. The toilets are always that bad Jimmy. The beer is always excellent (Wicked Witch and Ptarmigan on tap) and it holds about 5 bar staff and 5 punters and that's about it. So we stood outside and it was cold.

Carola was the first to complain about the cold. A Swede in London complaining about the cold? Yikes. Then it warmed up. Then it went cold again. Then it warmed up. Then it went cold again. We couldn't work it out until the third time - the patio heater that was Mark's grin as he wandered around. Cheshire cat or what?

By this point the beer coat was firmly on and Carola had made a request for "proper" fish and chips. The only place known in the area to be good is on Berwick Street. A quick walk showed it was closed. Another quick walk over to Champagne Charlies via McDs (yes Jimmy, Friday night in Leicester Sq the toilets WILL be bad), 2 bottles of Verve Cliquot and a couple of samples of some nice port.

Carola now understands (or at least I explained in my English and half cut way) that the group may insult each other (and boy do we do that) but anyone outside the group had better not try it. Or they'll get a slap. Sometimes MVPs get slaps too, don't they?

A marvellous evening, thanks all. Burger King, a long wait for the train then a 25 minute walk to the house and I was tucked up by 12.45am and I hadn't even left my bag anywhere but the office this time.

Would have liked to have seen a couple of others there. The country bumpkin, Bubba and a few others but it was thorough good.

Just don't go near my liver for a while, it needs to dry out.

All other events are NDA. What happens on tour, stays on tour.