Day 80: crashing date night!

I was languishing in the office on Friday night and noticed a Facebook status saying that m(A) and his lovely, and incredibly intelligent wife K, were enjoying a date night in Oblix in the Shard next door. I promised to wave and they suggested instead that I swung by. Hmmm, I had a new silk party dress arrive today by courier that I could christen, and I have some fabulous emergency sparkly shoes tucked away in my the cupboard. I've been assured that despite it being date-night, I'm not really crashing an intimate dinner á deux, so decision made...I could go to the ball, or bar even!

There's an impressive queue snaking outside the foot of the Shard but pleasingly I could flash my Project News card and jump the queue...sweet! I had been looking forward to seeing if that would work, and it does.

M(A) and K had commented that Oblix was like being transported back into the bar in Ally McBeal, and I could see exactly what they meant. There was something about the vibe with the female singer crooning a soft jazzy number, and the bar full of be-suited patrons in the vaguely American glass, and dark wood styled bar. It was almost as if a dancing baby would materialise and Vonda Shepherd would start warbling at any moment. I always found the dancing baby rather creepy, so was pleased that it didn't. You're facing a different direction that when dining at Aqua Shard so naturally I was compelled to try and capture this view. When we'd finished our drinks we debated leaving and heading for our respective homes, or perhaps heading to Hutong and having one more for the road. The lure of checking out the Asian stylings of another bar won over a sensible early night, so we opted for delicious cocktails and yet another view. We found a table but it was alarmingly close to the incongruously loud DJ so we hustled ourselves to a tiny cubby hole, at the farthest end of the bar, pressed against the glass and enjoyed another view. From our cosy vantage point we could overlook the HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, the curve of the mayor's 'egg', the greeny glow of the Tower of London, the twinkling lights of the city and on the horizon, the towers of Canary Wharf. When it was time to leave again, it was very much Saturday already. I noticed that the timestamp on this photo was nearly 1am, so the decision regarding how to get home was made for me, Uber.

 

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