This night out for new years was supposed to be good, not this memorable.
The plan was, and has been since around December 28th, to go to the Tramshed, a pub in Tooting. It was an idea agreed upon by myself, Ant, a lad called Shane, and soon to be agreed upon by many more. However, as of this afternoon, it struck us that the Tramshed, not only was ticket-only, but has been sold out since December 22nd. Boo, I thought.
Plans to go with the guys to Kingston fell through, and soon I was at risk of having nothing to do on New Years Eve. Ant was off to a gig with his family, and I had but one choice - to fall back on the offer to visit Parliament with Siobhain and see some lovely fireworks in Central London. I've done it before, but it is something special.
I met with Siobhain, Margaret and Abby at 8:50pm, and we headed off to Westminster by Tube, only to find that Westminster station had been closed due to previous injury. Problem #1. We got to Embankment and headed over by foot. Surprisingly the crowd was generally pretty slim, except for the view by the London Eye, which was fairly chocka-block and rough, however we overcame and got to Parliament.
Fun ensued. We cleared security and went to the Terrace and the bar where the ever charitable Margaret bought me a bottle of Red Wine which I began drinking. We went outside and found the magnificent view of the London Eye.. but unfortunately no seats. Me and Mag swiped a table and the 4 of us stood drinking and chatting before Mag found out that none other then Duffy herself was present and would possibly be singing. We hurried over to the marquee and watched the marvelous 4MP (a band made up for 4 MP's) performing a host of brilliant songs for charity.
Unfortunately the song they played by the Beatles is too large to upload atm, once I get my new laptop in the post I will convert it and add asap!
The group is cross party, Labour, SNP and Conservative. After all the conflict that has ensued politically this year it was pretty refreshing see a joint band planning from different political spectrums (and no Lib Dems!) My favourite politician, controversial as it may seem, John Burcow, came and gave a lovely speech which made me feel even more like the night was going to be good. Observe the photo:
After the band was done it became apparent that Duffy would not be performing to which I BOO. But I did see and she looked lovely. By this point I had drunk most of my Red Wine and was fairly drunk.
I staggered back to the outside table, approached Siobhain and failed to realise until the last moment that the mighty Ross Kemp was standing next to her chatting. Ross Kemp, for those of you who don't know is a fairly high up British celebrity. We shook hands and he seemed fairly nice. His gorgeous Australian fiance stood opposite and was nice also. Many upper-class toffs came up to us over the course of the next 2 hours and asked Mr Kemp for photos and banter to which he, surprisingly in my view, said yes to.
By you would imagine through TV, Mr Kemp would not generally be thought of as the patient man in most occasions. However he genuinely impressed me tonight, using unnecessary patience to talk to complete strangers. Bravo!
Soon 2011 was upon us all and fireworks hit the town of London. Here are the best of the many shots I took:
Now it should be pointed out that I am a POOR red wine drinker. I have big lips. Thus henceforth all conversations I had on the night I had with the knowledge that I looked like I had just supped from the neck of a nearby human. However Margaret came and began moving our bottles over to the wall. I dutifully followed mine, turned and POW - John Burcow and Ross Kemp had inadvertently started a conversation and cornered me by the wall. Trapped is the wrong word, I definitely wasn't trying to escape this party. I spent the next 20 minutes watching this glorious conversation play out. It mostly consisted of Ross Kemp putting forward his points regarding the neglect of developing nations. Gotta say it was amazing. John Burcow did his best to take it in like me, it was quite a discussion.
After this mind blowing debate I sat talking with Abby over the events and we ended up in the final debate of the evening, with a group of smart, sophisticated young lobbyists. The intensity and complexity of the discussion scared me but looking back I believe I had a grasp of it. For my reference as much as yours, we discussed the Vince Cable scandal, about how the Telegraph first released the story of Cable badmouthing Rupert Murdock, but, that it had not released the more damaging parts of the discussion. However these details were leaked to the BBC, which did, resulting in an affray between the media outlets. I'll discuss these details in a later blog when I research them more.
We also discussed the BBC and its benefits over US media, being so impartial, but also how Sky, with subscribers, beats the BBC for funds many times over, leaving the BBC to claw as much money as possible. A sad state of affairs.
We left around 3AM and on the walk back we ran into a lady who asked us to point her in the direction of Vauxhall. We ended up walking her back there and I got to chatting to her for a good while. Turns out shes an aspiring 18 year old model (looked a lot like Rihanna). We discussed homophobia and her aspirations and Vauxhall friends amongst other things. Gotta remember she hangs out in Fire in Vauxhall, might be worth checking how shes doing. Too young for me but seemed like a lovely lass.
We helped 3 middle aged ladies in dresses I'd expect to see on teenagers find their way on the tube and made our way back. In all it was one of my life's most memorable nights so far. God willing there are many more to come!
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