Girls night out

Last night I went out with my friend Laura from work and a bunch of her girlfriends, 12 of us in total. Laura is on the left and her friend Rachel is on the right.

Met Laura at her place to get ready and I knew I was in trouble when we were leaving and I was going to put my coat on. "Oh no, you don't wear coats when you go out here". "Excuse me? It's freezing cold, why don't we wear coats?" I asked and she just laughed and made fun of me being foreign (which happens all the time). So, out we went in the freezing cold without coats.

The night started at 7:30 at this little place called Nu Bar which is in Essex (kind of like Vancouvers version of Surrey...yes that's right, Surrey!!). Nu Bar is about 1/4 of the size of the Roxy for those of you who know it - or maybe 500 sq ft. Tiny!! When we got there it was pretty empty so I got started on the vodka while Laura was on rose wine. 5 of the girls met us there and that's when we got onto the Dr Peppers. A Dr Pepper shot is about 1.5 ounces of beer/lager, 1.5 ounces of coke and a shot of amaretto dropped in....then you shoot it all in one go. Dangerous!

So after consuming a ridiculous amount of alcohol in 2 hours we went off to Laura's friend Jenny's where the rest of the girls were. Cabs were arriving in 30 minutes so we downed another 2 drinks and then went to this club called 195. Again, tiny!! Maybe 1/2 the size of the Roxy and ridiculously packed. This was clearly the wrong night to be breaking in my new Karen Millen satin stilleto boots because there were nowhere to sit so I was on my feet for 6 hours.

Essex is.....ummm.....interesting. There were points during the night when I wondered if I was in a strip bar because of the way some of the girls were dancing and their very skimpy outfits. Most of the girls (despite looking like hookers and dancing like strippers) were quite attractive but I couldn't figure out why ALL of the men were so damn ugly! Strange.

At 195 we were back on the vodkas and Dr Pepper shots. Everybody laughed at the "crazy Canadian" who was dancing so strange (what I call normal dancing) but I had a blast...partially because I spent most of the night laughing at everybody but also just enjoyed letting loose.

We stayed at 195 until about 1:30 when we were going to go to another club called Warehouse but then changed our minds and headed for the cab company so we could go home. Neither of us could stand anymore and couldn't stomach any more alcohol.

Now remember...I was told that you don't wear coats when you go out in England, so we're standing around in little tops and pants, freezing out butts off and trying to get a cab. Essex isn't like London or Vancouver where cabs just drive down the road and you can flag them. You have to go and line up at these cab companies and wait your turn until a car is available and then they charge you by milage - 1 pound per mile.

So there we are, standing at the cab company only to be told that the wait was 45 minutes for a car! You've got to be kidding me - I don't have a coat!! So we walked down this major road and then down this silly dark, dingy alley to another car company where the wait was slightly better at 25-30 minutes. After narrowly escaping frostbite, our cab finally arrived and we were on our way back to Laura's where I spent the night.

We finished the night off by me introducing Laura to grilled cheese sandwiches. Over here they do toasted cheese sandwiches where they put the bread with cheese under the grill....way too complicated. So, proper grilled cheese sandwiches at 2:30am.

Not sure about going back to Essex, it'll take me a while to recover from last night. Think I'll stick with London for a while.