memory loss bars: Shish

at 15:19

Friday 30 May 2008

There are several bars that have a bad, bad, bad effect on me. In fact, such a bad effect on me that I can't actually remember leaving them. Ever. It occurred to me today, while no doubt terrifying the lovely lady I will be meeting this evening (the Pajiban known as joker), that I reference these delightful places rather often and yet never really explain. So here's one of them, hopefully others will follow.

So today I'm going to talk about Shish. This is the bar that I dragged a poor sick Genny to it is also the bar that is involved in two of my favourite debauched stories: The Conclusion of the Geezer (TM Manda) Saga and The Time I [redacted] With My Ex-Boyfriend's Ex Girlfriend In An Entirely Passive Aggressive Fit of Vengeance Against The Ex Mr The Odd, Which Was Kind Of Pointless As I Still Don't Think He Knows About It.

Where to start? Shish is a cocktail bar that serves gorgeous and unusual cocktails with middle-eastern and sometimes oriental twist. Now, as most of you already know: I am a drunken lush. I usually become inebriated through a finely honed feedback cycle which involves being around tried and tested drinking buddies who will encourage me to drink more and more (the kind of people who buy a bottle of wine as a round between four of you which seems like a good and sensible idea until you realise that to make it even you have to buy a bottle each and inevitably I will drink more, faster than the others meaning that by the end of the evening I will have probably drunk a good two bottles to myself which leads to headaches). This does not apply in cocktail bars. I could be on my own and get wasted within half an hour because if you present me with a cocktail menu I am like a kid in a candy store. I cannot have the same drink twice in once evening leading to hefty amounts of mixing and because I love the taste of most alcohol I can drink them as if they were juice. Not a good combination at the best of times.

And here's where the problem lies- I can't actually tell any stories about these bars because while I remember entering them and certain specific events during the time I was within them. Some things I remember from the assorted evenings I have forgotten leaving Shish:


  • Getting into a cocktail race with my friend Rich

  • Winning

  • Losing the rematch

  • Discussing the girl I suspect my ex dumped me fir with the girl he dumped for me

  • Finding out that by "I chose you" my ex actually meant "I chose to have regular sex with you while continually telling her how confused I was and that I really did love her and lying to you about times when I was with her but not sleeping with her because I would then no longer be morally superior to everyone else on the planet"

  • Discussing my future tattoo plans with my friend H's boss

  • Explaining my obsession with Tequila Girls to a completely uninterested party

  • Explaining my obsession with Tequila Girls to a girl who shared my obsession but for entirely different reasons

  • Having the heel shape of a vintage Prada boot explained to me and the importance of other people recognising said boot

  • Finding out that despite being able to hear them having sex there were yet more details I could discover about my flatmates' sex lives

  • Realising that the uber-vanilla one is not who I thought it was


And the thing is I know that interesting things happened to me in this bar I just can't remember them. How do I know that interesting things happened to me?

It's all about where you wake up the next morning.

2 comments:

Genevieve Burgess said...

Now I'm not sure if I should be cursing that migraine for ruining my evening or thanking it for allowing me to wake up the next day without new body modifications somewhere in the depths of London.

Nope, still cursing it.

Alex the Odd said...

Heh, well if I'm ever on your side of the pond I'll make sure that we have an American evening of debauchery to make up for it. Promise ;)