Small Town Oxford

Another night out in Oxford, another night blighted by an idiot. This time, some guy itching for a fight in Escape. He's just lucky I didn't go Kung-Fu on his ass.

Could be the bad choice of clubs that is the problem.

Brighton baby!

Met up with Dave at last. He's been working round Gatwick for ages but never had the chance to meet up with him. Yesterday I went through to Guilford on the train where he picked me up in his Audi A3 company car (jealous of the company car!) and we went for a night out in Brighton.
Scary number of hen parties out in Brighton! Went to various bars and ended up in Tru. Was a hell of a funny night!

Who's your daddy?

Ocean & Collins

I often end up comparing my home town, Dundee, to where I currently live, Oxford. They're both about the same size and have two universities, but that's about where the similarities end.

I love living in Oxford, but I've decided it totally sucks for one particular thing - clubbing!

Luckily I'm not a huge clubber, or I would probably hate living in Oxford. Last night, I made my long overdue first visit to Ocean & Collins. The people I know that have been either loved it (Miguel) or hated it (pretty much everyone else I know who has ever dared set foot in the place).

I can now declare that I fall into the latter category.

It's basically a big room, with no atmosphere.

Some clubs have smoke machines on the dancefloor, or sometimes have bubble machines. Ocean & Collins don't go for any of that boring rubbish - they have a layer of broken glass to dance on! Brilliant - add the element of danger to your dancing - fall and you will lacerate yourself! I was probably about 2cm taller when on the dance floor with the amount of glass embedded in my shoes. At one point a guy came onto the dance floor, kind of pushed me out the way, then started sweeping up some glass. Quite futile. I held up my foot so he could scrape some of the glass of me too.

Maybe it would be an idea to ban bottles from the dancefloor?

Dundee is no clubbing Mecca, but, expanded commercial sell-out that it might be, Fat Sams is a decent "large" club and London is also quite good (I'm really talking about them as venues - I'll make no comment on clientèle and music).

...and I still remember the good ol' days in the Mardis Gras... not forgetting the Student Union where I spent most of my student days. It's been completely refurbished since I was there and is quite a modern club venue now. I reckon it's probably lost of of it's "student" charm. The shape of the old Liar Bar, whilst completely impractical, was great for me and Kev to go on "tours".

Ahhh those nostalgic student days...

Jimmy Chung's Doesn't Serve Seagulls!

Jimmy Chung's Does NOT Serve Seagulls!

When I came back up to Dundee I heard the bizare rumour that the Scottish Chinese buffet chain, Jimmy Chung's, had been closed down in Dundee for serving seagull instead of chicken.

At first I believed it and talked about it to other people, some of whom hadn't heard the rumour before. I nearly texted Wendy as soon as I heard to tell her about it.

However, a few more level headed people pointed out it was probably a load of rubbish. Would seem they are correct - it's just an Internet gossip fueled load of nonsense. Sounds like they just closed for a week and someone has taken it upon themselves to start this rumour. Sadly, it seems to have badly affected their takings. Seems really wrong that their business can be ruined by numpties like me believing ridiculous rumours.

I hope that the power of this blog puts it at the top of an Google search for "Jimmy Chung's Seagull" and I can help put the rumour down. I walked past last night and it was deserted. Maybe if you see any of this seagull nonsense posted elsewhere you could put a link to this post (use the permalink) or to the Daily Record story. Maybe leave a comment (below) to acknowledge your support for the restaurant.

However, I did eat next door in Papa Joes, which was fine, then went drinking in several West end pubs, then off dancing in Fat Sams. While I was in the queue for Fatties, blethering to anyone who would listen, some girls told me that my clothing "style" (in particular the scarf, leather gloves and sexy, sexy shoes) made me look like a "pretentious, English metrosexual". I think saying I look English was a bit of a cheap shot, and has left me feeling quite low. However, they also gave me two compliments so that's nice! ;)

Birthday fun! Club Escape - Oxford

Birthday fun this weekend:

Best part was the meal at Zizzi, where the highlight was the impressive 'wall of sound' rendition of "Happy Birthday". The food was great - one of the best meals out I've had for a while.

Before and after the meal we went for drinks at Copa. It's a decent bar considering it's in the city centre and it serves some nice (but pricey) beers. They could do with cleaning some of the seats upstairs though.

For dancing we went to Escape. I like this venue and the music is good. The place was absolutely packed. What was a bit distracting was the simmering undercurrent of violence. Yes, that always reduces the fun somewhat: Bouncers full of arsey attitude, obnoxious girl with reserved section for her birthday, Kazakhstani gangsters and drunk howling banshee women on the dance floor.

Still the shisha was good and we all had fun.

Work Xmas do!

Last night's work Xmas dinner is best summarised by saying that wearking a kilt totally rocks! I love being Scottish!

Woot!

I also got to sing the proper karaoke version of the Elephant Love Song medley, which earned me a bottle of bubbly!

However, I did feel slightly ill for most of the night (starting before drinks were served!) which did somewhat detract from the fun.

Never mind, tonight we are going oot for my birthday so we can make up for it big style.

I await a photo from someone to attach to this post...

Birthday weekend fun to come

It's my birthday on the 9th of December so I will attempt to have some kind of going out for food then drinks-type thing.

Open invite to people I know. Lisa and Foxy still not welcome.

Email me if you fancy it...

I apologise in advance to all the people I will offend when I have had one or two too many drinks... Ahem, me looks guiltily around...

Zodiac and cinema

Jo was back in town this weekend so we went oot down the Cowley Road.

First stop - Kas Bar - too busy so we're straight out of there and into the Jamiacan place, Hi-Lo. It's less "Tropical Lilt Advert-style Jamaican Love" and more "I will tolerate your presence here because you pay us money".

Next stop was Bar Baby. This place has a pole for pole dancing. I had a go, and learnt why women have evolved to have their reproductive organs inside their body - it's so they can pole dance without sustaining the sort of injury I got why I jumped at the thing with my legs open, thinking I would spin round looking all erotic-like. Women have evolved to pole dance! God works in mysterious ways. I wonder if I can get this theory published in JMCP (The Journal of Male Chauvanist Pigs)? Do firemen have reduced fertility rates?

Then, like all good nights, it was off to The Zodiac. Incidentally, the Zodiac has recently been sold to the Academy Music Group. I hope this is a positive thing. The comments on that link seem quite unhappy with it.

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We went to see two movies at the cinema this weekend. First, in the comically small screen at Magdalen Street Odeon (honestly - I think my TV at home might be bigger than that screen) we saw, Starter for Ten which was a pretty good story. Ooh, who will he choose? The gorgeous, but slightly shallow blond, or the down to earth and I suppose attractive in her own way, brunnette?

Then today in the George Street Odeon (still quite small) we saw The Prestige, which was a really good movie. Loads of great twists, some seem a bit obvious, but they all deceive you from the last one (kind of). Definitely recommended!

I may go to see Casino Royale some time soon.