Stoke Newington

HS has just moved to Stokie - moved out from her boyfriend's to have some space of her own (possibly the beginning of the end, we await the final judgement). So Saturday night was testing out the delights of Church Street.

I used to go there alot when GS used to live there - lots of time spent in Abney Road Cemetary photographing overgrown gravestones, having poached eggs with welsh rarebit at the Aubergine of a morning, evenings at the Vortex Jazz Cafe listening to obscure bands (and sometimes not so obscure) and drinking cheap cocktails at Booths.

We started with a jug of Long Island Iced Tea at Booths and sat on the steps leading up to the flats upstairs. Didn't seem like much alcohol while we sat there. Reminded me that I always wanted a stoop to sit on outside my house - great to watch the world go by from the vantage of a stoop. Then we staggered along the road (realising that there really was alcohol in the Long Island Iced Tea after all) to Yum Yums Thai restaurant (just love Thai Green Curry and coconut rice). Then cos we finished eating late had one last drink in Bar Lorca. It was hot. Like a sauna. Lots of people dancing raunchily until their sweat showed on their teeshirts, faces dripping. We watched, too much to join in.

Coming out into the cooler air outside was great. Its been just like being on holiday (sun of Ibiza with the solid air of Los Angeles) apart from the fact that I haven't got a pool in the grounds where I'm living.