We had a work day out today. Despite us not being based in London and none of us living in London, we went to London.
I haven’t been to London for a very long time. For context, the last time I went to London they had not introduced the ability to “touch in” and “touch out” on the Underground with a credit or debit card.
My work colleagues went to The Crystal Maze Live Experience first of all, but I passed on that as I suspected I probably wasn’t physically fit enough to take part. A shame, because it sounds like it was fun, but I don’t mind too much. I’m knackered enough as it is!
Instead, I joined everyone for lunch at Covent Garden. We went to an “Asian fusion” place with touchscreen tables that didn’t work very well, and had a selection of Japanese-style tapas. Pretty tasty, though I have been left with foul smelling burps.
I suspect that may have been more to do with the cocktails we had at our next destination, an arcade bar just off Oxford street. This was a dingy basement with lots of blacklight and some great arcade machines, though a few clearly needed a bit of TLC on the displays.
There was a great mix of classic stuff, including oldies like Galaga, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, along with later large scale stuff like OutRun 2 and all three Time Crises. It wasn’t free play, sadly, you had to buy tokens (£9.50 for 15, and a lot of games took 2 tokens) but the CEO was kind enough to provide us a generous allowance. There were also plenty of consoles equipped with Everdrives and equivalents, and those were free for anyone to play.
It was an enjoyable hangout. A little loud for decent conversation — from the music rather than the machines — but there was a nice vibe, and it seemed to pick up and become quite lively as afternoon turned to evening. The gaming-themed cocktails were great, too, even if they were all at least £11 a pop.
I am, however, as previously noted, absolutely pooped, so now it is time to sleep. I suspect I will sleep well tonight!
Want to read my thoughts on various video games, visual novels and other popular culture things? Stop by MoeGamer.net, my site for all things fun where I am generally a lot more cheerful. And if you fancy watching some vids on classic games, drop by my YouTube channel.
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