Boyz II Men

It wouldn't be Christmas without a meet up with these splendid fellows: (l-r), Ash, John, and Ric, my erstwhile bandmates and perennial chums.

I arrived into London around three o'clock, with presents for John and Ric in my bag but relying on a trip to The Whisky Exchange in Covent Garden to find something for Ash. I have to say the staff were particularly and commendably patient with me and the chap I dealt with did a great job of lowering the bar repeatedly until he realised that laying it on the ground would suffice.

I listened with a feigned interest mastered over years of being stuck on the periphery of conversations about football, and once I'd repeated everything I knew about what Ash likes in a whisky once or twice, we settled on a choice of three bottles of Islay of a similar sort of price. It was at this point that my long-suffering sales chap revealed that Ash could always bring the bottle back and change it, at which point I chose the one with the label that I liked the best. (I probably shouldn't have told him that.)

Present sorted, I headed over to Kensington High Street to join my chum Keith at the Sony offices on Derry Street. He'd invited me to have a drink at the swanky bar there but we promptly discovered that they only serve alcohol on a Friday afternoon*, so we relocated to a nearby pub, where Keith gave me my Christmas present: Vizinczey's 'In Praise of Older Women'.

... which gave me something to read on the tube as I made my way back to to Starcross Street to meet up with the boys. We had two or three beers there before moving to the wonderful Shah, on Drummond Street. 

Here we all are, then. I *think* John's pointy finger might be recreating an old band photo but I couldn't find it to double-check. 

*FFS

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