Beer List: The First Five Weeks (22 September- 29 October)

The following is the true story of my first five weeks in London, condensed into those periods of time in which I happened to have a beer (or scotch...or wine...or shitty gin) in one hand and my BlackBerry in the other. It is a faithful representation of most of my drinking, at least the parts I can remember (and no, I have not blacked out yet). I apologize for any weird abbreviations, shorthand, or typos. I originally meant to use this only as a personal reference and didn't pay any attention to spelling or to clarifying meaningless names and abbreviations for outside readers. All I have to say is that among the most important lessons I have learned here are (1) open container laws suck all the fun out of drinking and (2) variety is the spice of life. I now present to you the Beer List, unedited and unabridged, presented with no commercials by Stella Artois, the top-selling premium lager in the United Kingdom:

Carling-british lager. Very tasty. Great brew for my first day in London. So good that I had two pints for lunch...and nothing else.

San Miguel-tasty beverage with my first meal of fish and chips. Don't remember the restaurant, but I think it was near Leicester square.

Heineken-just Heineken. Had it late at night at a beach-style bar with Eric Ren during my first night in town.

Some kind of cider at the Wellington. Need to go back to remember its name. (29 sept-think it was Magners, an irish cider).

Strongbow cider with chicken kiev sunday night (aka the last night before I begin cooking for myself). I could get used to this hard cider thing. After dinner, returned to Trinity and had a single of Glenlivet with the cool bartenders (Nic and Rocky) and an entertaining customer (Frank). Closed the place down and Frank took me to a nice local pub around the corner. Turns out he's a licensee, so he unlocked the pub, turned on the lights, and poured me a drink of Laphroaig, which was really amazing and smoky. London is amazing.

Bottle of white wine (Isla Negra Chardonnay) with salmon dinner. Great day and great dinner with Helena L.

Some cheap-ass gin with the grad-student partiers. Tasted like pine-sol, but whatever...I needed to have a drink.

Beer at Nando's (need to rememmber name) with eric and emily.

Asahi, Japanese beer at a cheap little place with the SWers on Russell Square. Great with sushi.

Adsnes Broadside, a great dark beer, with Chris and Helena after Love's Labour's Lost (Globe Theatre version)at the pub I had dinner at on Sunday.

Finally tried the Vina Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo cabernet sauvignon after dinner with Helena. Made even better by her singing along with herself and her Stanford Harmonics(a capella group).

Pimm's with a few folks from Sidney Webb while floating the Thames to Greenwich. Classy.

Oh guiness. Finished off the Diablo with a small dinner, then hurried to quiz night to meet the SW guys and kick some Bankside ass. Brought my 6 pack of Carling so Helena, Antony, and I wouldn't be too far behind the others. At quiz night, had a Grolsch, then 2 Guinesses. After that, hit up a bar on Borough High Street with everyone. Overall, had a great night.

Bottle of ok chilean cab at an Indian restaurant above the blue-eyed maid on BHS with dinner. After, went out with Helena and the Union gang to Vinopolis. Had a great but overpriced Californian and a decent Chilean. Walked along the Thames with Helena.

Ministry of sound night? Okocim to start things off with a foreign twist. 2nd okocim and 2 shots of vodka. Party foul opening kirsten's stella resulted in a double of smirnoff and a single of "high commissioner" whisky. Forced to down the rest of the 2nd okocim due to peer pressure (who could resist?). I believe that I have had an extra shot of Smirnoff thanks to chris and joe cox.

First night w/ everyone in Sidney Webb (30-9....aka September 30th). Headed to Atlas and mingled. Stella, then Beck's, then Guiness.

Picked up a cider with a sandwich at lunch. Bumler's or something like that. Pretty good. Had a guinness at the three tuns after listening to Greenspan.

With fish and chips, ordered a London Pride. Very tasty. On general course boat trip, received two free drink tickets. First went to a Kronenbourg 1664, which, quite honestly sucked. Too lemony, light, and metallic. Second should have been for one drink, but ended up better. Ordered a Strongbow, but the keg crapped out 3/4 way through the cup. Asked if I should give 3/4 a ticket (politely, of course) and ended up getting a full pint of Foster's out of the "negotiation." In the words of McDonald's, "I'm loving it." Must dine and drink at Skinker's on Tooley Street for their kindly allowing me to use their toilet without consuming anything.

Tiger beer was a great way to get out of an awkward situation.

Drank Coke at Lehman networking event. Better for a good impression. Came back and had a stella and a strongbow at quiz night and a celebratory champagne for best group name.

Had a bottle of red wine (---) over one of Helena's amazing chicken and soup concoctions. Wine left much to be desired; company was wonderfil as always. Grabbed another bottle of rose (---) that we drank while walking up to meet Cynthia.

Decided to do fish and chips at the Anchor. Went for an Anchor standard, Greene King IPA, which was really tasty.

Had a strongbow while walking up to Hyde Park. Wonderful place. Simply gorgeous. The cider was nice, too.

After an interesting day (getting my projector and bike, having a city careers forum, my first LSE lecture, and a business society meeting (at which I lost the treasurer vote by only a handful votes out of over 100), then getting fucked over by Merrill's waiting list), I went to the Trinity for a good beer and meal. Tom Woods Bomber County with dinner, which is a tasty dark beer, although it's a little weak. Next up, see about writing a defense of the Day $200 million grant or getting sloshed on Jameson. Fun times, either way.

So that last entry was about a week ago. Have gone to two operas since then and had lots of fun with the beginning of school and all. Drink-wise, I finally tried Carlsberg at the 3 Tuns and liked it. Mainly stuck to Strongbow and previously mentioned beers over the course of the week (although I did have several glasses of LSE's special red wine at the Gen Course/BSc econ reception and a couple drinks of Jack at the Atlas and 3 Tuns). Today, met up with the Loesch twins and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon picnic in Hyde Park complete with a bottle of Casillero del Diablo 2006 shiraz rose. Stopped at the Chaplin restaurant by Leicester Square and enjoyed sausage and mash (delicious) and a pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord beer. Not my fave in London, but good.

Monday night, the 15th. Just now walking home from a Bain presentation in Westminster. Enjoyed several glasses of "something Vega" red wine at the networking reception. Really liked the firm; wish they had undergraduate internships in their London ofice.

The best sushi I've ever had only a block away from LSE. Delicious lunch w/ Jessica and Emily, washed down with tasty Asahi.

Had a Beck's at the Citi presentation, as I gave serious thought to becoming a trader. Bumped into Nathan Vazquez randomly in the lobby after the event. Quite strange, given that we hadn't seen each other for the better part of a decade. At home, had more Beck's with a self-cooked pasta dinner.

Nothing like a big, tasty bottle of Tiger beer to wash down an Indian dinner and a hard day. Followed by a Strongbow and double of Jameson at the Atlas and some white wine and baklava with three crazy girls.

So I wanted to try all 6 of the scotches at Cumberland Lodge, but failed. You know what Alex Combs says, though: "Shoot for the stars. Even if you miss, you'll land on her face." In that spirit, even though I did not achieve my goal, I did manage some success. I was able to "sample" 5 of the 6. The ones I got were Laphroaig, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Macallan, and Balvenie. I don't remember all the ages, but they were all at least 10 yrs old. Only missed The Famous Grouse, which means I didn't miss much.

In the week since that last entry, I've tried some good stuff, including Caffrey's, which I vaguely recall being quite tasty. Unfortunately, I wasn't keeping track of my booze-ups, so we'll never know exactly what was what. If I do remember in the future, I'll jot them down, but don't count on it.

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