Reflex!!

Reflex is my favourite new bar! I love it! It's an 80's bar in the city about a ten minute walk from Lloyd's (where I work for those of you who haven't been paying attention!).

I went with my friend Eve who also works at Lloyd's last night (Friday) for a couple of drinks after work. And as we're both single....we thought we'd scope out the available men too - why not kill two birds with one stone.

We went to a bar next door for a quick drink as Reflex wasn't yet busy enough...then we made our way over. For the first half hour we sat and had some drinks, chatted, caught up on the gossip and pretty much prepared ourselves for the night ahead.

After we'd had a few more drinks we made our way downstairs for some dancing. I have always loved 80's music so this place was perfect for me. The decor left a little to be desired - extremely cheesy and a few too many neon lights for my liking. But....that didn't matter at all because the music was fab! We went through our fair share of double vodka/diet cokes and shots of tequila (not the best idea I've ever had) and danced for hours. Every time a new song came on, I would say "this is my favourite song. I love it!" hahaha.

The amount of drinks might not have been the best idea as I woke up with a raging hangover today and was supposed to spend the whole day packing. Oops....

I am so going back there but next time I'll take a change of clothes as it's a bit tough to have a proper dance in a suit. Yay Reflex!!

Single again

Don't really have much else to say about that.

My journey home.....

....was very unimpressive. Firstly the flight was 45 minutes late leaving Vancouver. Then we got pretty much zero service during the flight from the staff, the veggie meal was disgusting and the landing was terrible!!

But that was nothing compared to the 2 hour wait to get our bags. We were standing around waiting and waiting and the worst thing is that nobody from BA said anything to us. So, after about an hour and everybody complaining, somebody came over the PA and said that there were "issues with BA and it will be another 40 minutes". Finally, almost 2 hours later, some bags started coming out but of course neither of mine were there.

Half of the flight got their bags while the rest of us were standing around hoping that more bags would show up. Another 20 minutes later and the rest of the bags came out. Great, I'm on my way home. Ummmm....not yet.

I get down to the tube (I'd topped up my oyster before leaving) and am just about to get on the Piccadilly line when there's an announcement saying that it's been suspended at Hammersmith so we can all get on the Heathrow Express instead. That'd be great but it means that I have to get the train from Heathrow to Paddington, then get the circle line (tube) to Liverpool Street and then get the train to Stoke Newington. And the best part is that when I get off at Stokey, (I've got a massive carry-on, a ridiculously large suitcase as well as a regular size suitcase) there's a good 3 flights of stairs to go up. Yay!

Finally made it home, 4.5 hours after landing. Am sooooo tired but have to stay up til 10pm in order to get a jump start on getting over the jetlag. zzzzzzz

Dinner with the girls

Both Mom and Nic planned a trip to Toronto leaving on Thursday June 14th as they didn't know I was going to be in Vancouver. So....I tried to spend as much time with them as I could before they left. That meant that I had the last two nights to myself which was kinda nice :-)

My last night, Friday, was busy all day with running around shopping, getting my hair done, seeing friends for brunches, coffees and lunch. Then I had dinner with "the girls" at Hapa Izakaya (Japanese tapas) in Kits. Some of you know the Hapa on Robson but the one in Kits is WAY better so if you haven't been yet, you've gotta try it!

So, the girls - Rena, Hardeep, Cyndie, Trista and I (who all met at George's boxing class years and years ago) got together for a dinner as it was the only night we were all free at the same time.

Everybody showed up on time (except Rena who isn't known for her punctuality hehe) and had some appies; cheese tofu, agadeshi tofu and some pumpkin puree thing - interesting in a yummy kind of way. Then we ordered a bunch of plates to share when Rena arrived. Dinner was fab, absolutely amazing!

It's always great to catch up with the girls, find out how they're doing, what they're up to, get the updates on families, love lives etc. And girls, when you read this, don't let me find out that you're waiting until I'm in town again to catch up! You never know when I'll come to town again....

Oh...and I can't forget....my trip was complete when I saw Trevor Linden walk in as we were ordering our appies. *swoon*.....I couldn't have asked for a better ending to my trip. Well....I could but I don't think Trevor's wife would go for it hehehe.

Drinks with Rita and Tammi

Tammi and I had lunch one day during the week - I have no idea which day as they're all sort of blended together by now. But we also got together for drinks with Rita on Wednesday night and caught up on all of the gossip. Who's doing who, who's having babies, who's getting married, who's been cheating on who....you know - the usual girl gossip. Was a fab night and had a wicked laugh. Congrats to Tammi for finishing up all of the RT stuff and good luck with the exam next month!

Visit with Leane

I got to meet Leane's daughter Anna for the first time when I was out in Vancouver. She's such a little nugget and was full of smiles for the most part.

It's strange seeing people every 6 months or so because every time I go back there's at least one major change and this time it was that Leane had a kid. Crazy - it makes me feel so old!!

It was good to catch up over a couple of coffees and walks as Leane, her husband Steve and Anna are coming out to London next weekend so we talked about where to go, what to see etc. Looking forward to it!

Surprise visit to Vancouver

Ok - so Portugal was a total throw-off, I had never planned a trip out there, it was just a little story that I came up with to trick my Mom and my sister so they wouldn't suspect that I was coming to Vancouver. The surprise was for Nic's 30th birthday but if I told my Mom I was coming, she'd definitely let the cat out of the bag and tell my sister.

Nic's birthday was on June 4th and we wanted to do something really special for her. So instead of coming out the weekend before (which she would have suspected we'd do), we planned her birthday night for Saturday June 9th.

I arrived in Vancouver on Friday afternoon and our mutual friend Bonnie came up from San Fran on the Saturday. Unfortunately me and Bon were booked into the same hotel, the Fairmont, as Nic and Dary which made it a bit difficult for us to get in and out of the hotel unseen.

So after trying to find out where they were and having no luck, I speed up to the hotel, jump out and throw the keys at the valet. Then we run into the hotel and check in faster than I've ever done before and tell the girls at the front desk to call our room when the Bakers arrive. Upstairs, we're getting ready, throwing on the make-up, doing our hair and getting changed. Then the phone rings and it's the girls downstairs saying that Nic and Darcy had checked in. Great - so we know where they are but we don't know if they're going to stay in their hotel room for a bit or if they're going to dump their stuff and head straight out. So again...Bon and I race downstairs and jump in a cab to get manicures and pedicures before going out.

After that was done and we'd relaxed a bit, we headed over to the restaurant and put up all of the decorations and had some pre-drinks. Nic and Darcy showed up pretty much on time but we didn't get the phone call saying they were 2 minutes away so the surprise wasn't all that it could have been but I think that Nic was surprised none the less. And of course she was definitely surprised to see me - much better reaction than last August!!

Dinner was great and there was a great turn-out. Then we stumbled over to Celebrities to do some dancing and watch the pretty boys strut their stuff. My bar bill was insanely huge as I was on a bit of a shooter kick that night and dead set on getting everybody completely wasted *grin*.

We danced from about 11pm - 3am and had a wicked time. Then when Celebs closed down we went back to the hotel for more drinks - not the wisest idea - and finally hit the hay at 6am. And here I thought we had all gotten too old for that..... Wicked night was had by all especially the birthday girl.

Girls night out in Shoreditch

So on Saturday night Kat and I went to Shoreditch for a night of drinking and dancing. She came over to mine before going out for pre-drinks (a bottle of white wine between us) and then it was off to the club.

We went to some bar called Herbal which had a ground floor area which was more house/beats and the upstairs which was much more casual and laid back. So we ordered another bottle of white wine - sat and drank it (too fast) and then got to dancing.

Kat is a great dancer and made me look worse than I usually do! But we had a wicked time, danced for hours on end, entertained ourselves by watching all of the people around us. There were a lot of freaks there. Towards the end of the night I got accosted by Matt - a weirdo who was on E and thought he was in love with me. Umm....yeah...we got away from that situation fast!

Got home at about 4am, my feet were killing me from new shoes (but they looked fab!) and I was exhausted but had a great time.