The beer stein

Last night was an interesting night...I started out way over near Wimbledon (over an hour on public transport) at the Oktoberfest pub. They were having what they called Mayfest, billed as a pre-Oktoberfest event. For 10 pounds, you got entrance to the pub, a free glass beer stein (see below), and your first drink free. I swear, you had a workout just lifting the silly thing which is very heavy on its own, and especially when full of beer or cider or whatever. I was out with Nicole, Dave, and a couple of Dave's friends, and we had a good time. But after a while, I got tired of the so-called Oompa Loompa band playing the only three German drinking songs they knew, as well as Take Me Home Country Roads and When the Saints Come Marching In over and over and over. And I got tired of the drunk guys using cutting through the crowd as an excuse to put their hands all over me. So along about 10pm, I left and headed for Liverpool Street, which is only a couple of stops from my stop on the central tube line. I'd had a text from Nicole Levesque that she and her boyfriend Rob and several of Rob's friends were at a bar/club in that general area. They let me check my beer stein at the door and Rob's friends were very very nice. The music was good, and suddenly I didn't feel so tired anymore. I forgot to keep track of the time, since the tube shuts down at 12:30am, but luckily everyone was planning to take cabs, and were happy to drop me off on the way. But first, we went up the road to a bakery that had bagels...it was the one-year anniversary for two of Rob's friends who are a couple, and they wanted to do exactly what they had done at the end of the night this time a year ago. They had bought bagels with salt beef and mustard that clears your nostrils the same way wasabi will do. So we all went and bought them- salt beef tastes very much like corned beef. I also tried something called Eccles Cake, which I'm told is Welsh-- it was sugary pastry filled with a sweet raisin filling, very tasty! The girl behind the counter took one look at my stein, looked back at me, and shook her head in disbelief.