Under the influence

One balmy summer evening there was a group of us at Lulu's for the monthly expat quiz night.

Normal behaviour at quiz nights is drink and chat, quiz, bicker about who got what right or wrong, more drink and chat, then home to bed.

This particular evening followed the same routine, no surprise there, but where it deviated from the norm was that in the morning six or so of us woke up thinking, "did we just make fairly firm plans* to go to London to see naked men**?"

And the rest is history, or it will be this time next week, seeing as we intrepid five fly off on Friday afternoon.

The planning was pretty speedily done, thanks in part to our keenness for our little Ausflug***, it was helped along by the fact that we didn't have to organise accomodation as one of the six, H, actually lives in London and KM was quite keen to book the tickets on a specific card (points mean prizes).

So that was it, flights booked, husband kicked out of London for the weekend, all husbands/children in Germany organised, tickets for the Saturday evening show booked (not Naked Men, but Crazy Horse Cabaret instead) and even the train tickets to get from the airport into central London are booked and waiting for collection, what can possibly go wrong?

Apart from the fact that two of the travellers are U.S. citizens who will get stuck at immigration while the rest of us, as British passport holders, wont.

Apart from the fact that one of the travellers has extreme allergies to so many food groups she'll be lucky if she gets anything other than salad with no dressing for three days.

Apart from the fact that two of the six passionately hate shopping, and where are we going? Central London. Which is full of? Shops...

Apart from the fact that the longest time we've ever spent in each other's company was maybe five hours of dragon boating and here we are planning three days of enforced sisterhood.

Apart from the fact that one of the group was demanding to go dancing while the rest of us were more inclined to bar hopping.

Then add into this the actual composition of the group, we have two yanks, 4 brits, 1 scot, 4 bloggers, 1 blipper**** and 2 non shoppers, but the one thing we do have in common is friendship, that and a love of having a good time, so we should be fine.

Watch out London, we're on our way.




* diaries were consulted and dates organised.
** Naked Men Singing to be precise, it's a legitimate show in London, honest, you can google it if you don't believe me.
*** der (or possibly die or das) Ausflug - little trip/excursion
**** so there's absolutely no chance of "what happens on tour, stays on tour"