Shoe shine

There were not many meetings in the office today, and nobody was heading for a drink at the end of the evening. This was pretty good as I was off to The Hand and Shears, near St Paul’s, where I met A for a drink. I was interested to hear about his new job and how he is getting on.

The pub we met in was small but very busy. It has this lovely picture of a shoeshine on the wall. There were many very loud work colleagues in various combinations standing around. At times, it was a bit unpleasant. After a couple of drinks, we went to Apulia, a restaurant with an Italian-based menu. It was delicious, if a little expensive.

Finally, we stopped off at Old Red Cow, where we secured a table for one last drink. But, after the food, I felt a bit bloated, and the drink didn’t sit well. A drunk American lady wanted us to talk about each other’s annoying habits. We declined, and as the Elizabeth Line at Farringdon was opposite, I thought I could get a train from Farringdon to Wimbledon Chase quite easily. When I checked, I had about six or seven minutes to get to the train I wanted. It turns out that doing that is a walk down to and along the entire Elizabeth Line platform, back up, and down again to Farringdon Station proper. It was a long walk and not one I wanted to rush while bloated. Still, I made the train home.