On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:10:10 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> On 21 Jan 2009 13:11:39 -0500, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> 
> 
>>You know, the reason I chose that station is because we had the "dinner
>>from hell" near there - met up with an acquaintance with a friend of
>>ours, and the acquaintance gave us a "tour" of the "seedy part of
>>London" (not her exact words, but close enough).
> 
> Soho, the red light district also the theatre district and China town.

Yep, that's the place. :-)

>>Our friend who was with
>>us said "yeah, I was part of the creation of that".  We got lots of
>>unsolicited advice, including my stepson (who was maybe 11 at the time)
>>getting unsolicited career advice.
>>
>>
> Ugg!

Let's just say that it was fortunate there were no chopsticks inserted 
into unexpected facial orifices during the meal.

>>But the funny thing is Wong Kei may well be where we went.  I don't have
>>the receipt any more (odd that, it's only been 10 years), so I'm not
>>exactly sure where it was.
>>
> Ah! Receipts, the Wong Kei does not do receipts nor does it do cheques
> or credit cards. If it does receipts I bet they are in Chinese. It is a
> cheap studenty place with 4 floors and queues.

Ah, then that wouldn't have been the place we ended up in, as I used a 
credit card.  Of course, the whole "settling of the bill" was a bit of a 
disappointment as well - we were invited as guests, and the invitation 
was worded as "we'll take you out", not "let's all go to dinner and pay 
for our own" - I had helped this acquaintance with something work related 
and the suggestion came up in the context of that, and was interpreted as 
"thanks for your help, when you're over here, let us take you out to 
dinner as a way of saying thank you".

>>But we were invited to "go for a walk afterward" even though "I know you
>>Americans don't like to exercise or take long walks".
> 
> How rude.

Exceedingly so.  Yet they were surprised when we declined to join them 
for a walk after dinner.

>>We passed, citing
>>that it was close to the last train back to Hastings (where we were
>>staying with friends) - we went to Leicester Square station and the gate
>>was down...
> 
> Cross the road, there are two other entrances.

Ah, now those might've also been shut, but the walk wasn't bad.  We're 
atypical Americans. ;-)

>>ended up walking to the next station down the line, had some beer and
>>tequila shots, and then got on the train - after realising that it
>>actually wasn't the last train after all. :-)
>>
> Told you :)

Well, yeah, but not at the time.  We found a nice bar in the station and 
waited there with Nic.

>>> Covent Garden.
>>
>>Ah, our first look at London was there.  We stayed with friends out in
>>Bucks the first week we were there, and Shaun took us to London - and we
>>got off at Covent Garden.
>>
>>It was raining, so we went to our next destination by getting back on
>>the tube at that station as well. :-)
> 
> Raining! I don't believe it ;)

Yeah, I know - totally unexpected. ;-)

Jim

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