The Americas!

Alright - this is a couple weeks old, but we're always behind, so get over it.

Thursday - Beth's new office BFF from Chile goes to her desk and asks, "Do you want to go out tomorrow night? I will have some friends over, then we will go out dancing." The last time Beth and I danced the type of dancing that was to go on that nite was when she was 24! Beth and I had been wanting to hit the club scene here, but weren't sure of the good places to go (yea - not a lot of clubbers in the office). Not only were we not sure of the places to go to, we needed to have shoes other than trainers. Trainers are basically shoes that you wear to work out in. Europeans know when an American is around because we are always wearing our trainers out.

Friday.......
8pm....Beth and I are having dinner in Russell Square by the fountain in the middle. Our dinner consists of a pizza roll, danish roll, and a piece of cheese ciabatta. Not much of a dinner but we figure we won't be drinking that much tonite so we should be fine. As we are having our picnic in the square, these two little boys (around 3 and 4) are playing in the fountain and just going crazy. We are two of 30 people watching these two kids go crazy. Pretty soon, they are filling up their bottles with water and splashing each other. I had a bad feeling knowing what was about to happen; the older one throws too much water on the little one and it's on.....the little one starts pouting and runs over to their mom. No doubt he is telling her of lies, deceit, and almost drowning from his older brother. Mom comes over to find out the rest of the story - pretty soon they are both pouting. I'm talking bottom lip out and hyperventilating, you can see their stomach puffing from trying to catch their breath...the whole 9 yards! Twenty seconds (I'm not lying) later, mom has diffused both bombs!!! The boys were both looking at her smiling and now going after her with their bottles of water! This woman performed a parental miracle right there in the middle of a packed park! If we have a kid in this city, I'm going to find this woman and have her teach me everything she knows.

Enough of that - 8:30pm we are heading to Beth's BFFs place. She is there with two of her Chilean friends. They are speaking Spanish and we think it sounds beautiful. They proceed to tell us they speak the worst Spanish ever - other spanish speakers don't understand what they are saying. Well, if the other Spanish speaking countries speak the way I was taught (out of a textbook) then there's no way anyone could understand them. Since I took four years of Spanish, I can catch every 10 to 15 words! They bring out some Pisco (look it up on Wikipedia) and mix with Diet Coke ( you know, we're on a diet so need to be healthy!!). As they bring the VERY large glasses over, I begin to get a little nervous. The last time I was drunk ended up with me puking in a pizza box. But I knew moderation was the key tonite. The drink tasted similar to a rum and Coke but a little sweeter. The official name of the drink is Piscola.

We chat and drink for the next few hours and pretty soon it's 11:30pm! Time to go to the club! Now, Ms. Chile is only 25.....we are not. We're not exactly sure how to get to the club or the cover amount, but we're going out either way. We take a taxi to the club and upon arrival there is a line. I've never had to stand in line for a club. Well, that's cause the bouncer sees how hot I am and let's me cut. Yeah right. I've never been to a club that is so busy that you have to stand in line. The line goes pretty fast and we realize that it is 15 GBP per person to get in the club. Beth is not liking this idea and neither am I, but we are already here and should have a good time. We just know that next time we will not spend 15 GBP unless it has 6 floors and free drinks until 2 am. This club is open until 6 am, no free drinks, but has three floors. We reach the first floor and it is techno music. Every song that is played sounds exactly the same and the music is terribly loud. At this point, I realize that I am getting old. As we make our way to the next floor, people are bumping into us and not apologizing. The crowd is beginning to get bigger, but we still make our way to the second floor. This rooms sounds a little Latino, and then three songs later it turns into House music. At least in this room, the songs didn't all sound the same. I am dancing my butt off trying to burn the drink and carbs. Beth is not having a good time as she is still in her work clothes ( a very cute black and white summery dress) and is carrying her suitcase! Well, it's not really a suitcase, just a very BIG purse. The purse can hold at least two pairs of tennis shoes along with her necessities.

At 1:30 I start checking my watch every 10 minutes. We have to stay out til at least two to kinda get our money's worth. Finally 2 am hits and I can't take it anymore. We need to leave. The tube stops running at midnite, but there are cabs lined up along the street. We grab a cab and it's going to cost about 28GBP to go to Fulham (which is where we live.) The cab drops off Beth's Chilean BFF and she pays for her portion, and we are headed home. We didn't even think to ask how much she provided, but assumed she paid about 10. The driver asks us where in Fulham we live and we tell him near the Putney Bridge Tube Station. He tells us that it is going to cost about 10 more. Um, exxxccccuuuuusssseee me???!!! So to drive another 2-3 minutes is going to cost 10? He tells us the reasoning is because Putney is considered to be in the next price bucket. We argue and say that we live in Fulham, not Putney. But he continues to stand firm in the price and won't budge. So I ask him how much it would cost to go to Parson's Green, which is about 1 minute or 30 seconds at that time of nite from where he wants to drop us off, and that is 7 GBP more than the orginally price we were quoted. We tell him to forget it and that we will just walk from Fulham Broadway Station home. Fulham Broadway Station is about 1 mile from our flat. So we think he was trying to rip us off. As he drops us off we ask how much we owed and he tells us she left him 10GBP. So we gave him the remaining balance and took the bus home. It only cost us about 1 GBP to take the bus 1 mile. Hmpf!! And he was trying to get 7 or 8 more bones out of us. AHH, I don't think so! 'Homey don't play dat!'

In bed by 3 am to get up and go to Brighton's beach in severall hours....