A twinkly night in Soho

Soho is a place that makes me feel alive. It also makes me feel like I don’t own enough rubber bras. I don’t own any rubber bras. But there seem to be so many people shopping for them I feel as though I must have missed a trick.

On Friday night I took the tube to Oxford Circus – I walked down Carnaby Street and into Soho, where I met K-Bosh, at Maoz Falafel, on Old Compton Street.

I love falafel. It’s tasty tasty (very, very tasty), healthy, gluten free (yip) and doesn’t break the bank. I went for falafel in pitta with humous, with a help-yourself-to-as-much-salad-as-you-want-saladbar. That, with a fresh mint lemonade came to £7.70. Bargain.

K Bosh and I go way back. Way way way. She knows things. We sat and chatted for an hour, (boys, books, jeans, boys again) before heading over to Ronnie Scotts to meet our chums. 

Ronnie Scotts opened its doors in Soho in 1959 and has been the home to top notch jazz ever since. Tickets to the gigs can be quite pricey, ranging from £15 – £50, which can put you off if you’re not feeling flush. *Tick*

However, upstairs from the main club is Ronnie’s Bar, which opens at 6pm and closes around 3am. There’s live music every night of the week and poetry slams, jive nights and samba classes also find their way there.. The best news is that it’s free to get in before 8pm (hurrah!) and so this is what we did.

After some serious negotiation with the doorman, (yawn – he was clearly confused about the time and thought it was after 8pm. It wasn’t.) K-Bosh and I nipped upstairs and Mimbles, (we go way back too – she also knows things) Lena, Ingo and Neve followed shortly after. The bar was packed (capacity 140) so there was nowhere to sit, but we were happy standing and dancing once the music kicked off at 9pm – Viva La Revolution! (Name of the band, not my own sentiment.)

Wine flowed, Evian flowed, (that’s Neve’s – she’s doing a detox and looks completely glowy-shiny-lovely-amazing) and the wine flowed even more once Lena realised “it is cheaper if we just buy the bottle!” Ahhh.

The music was brilliant and FUN and we all danced with big smiles on our faces. Mimbles amazed us with her incredible miming talents, (I couldn’t possibly try to elaborate here) K-Bosh shimmied like no other and Ingo handled being in the company of four girls very well, I thought. He held handbags and drinks when loo runs were needed and even took on the role of official group-shot photographer. This episode was slightly less successful, but we all blamed the lighting.

I said my goodbyes and headed out into the sparkly streets of Soho. Beautiful, bright and full of hope. I do love this city…

…and I LOVE Liberty’s at night.

Me, my tired feet and a glass of warm milk (I am not 12, it is just so good) crawled into bed about 20 mins later… and I thanked my lucky Soho stars to be living in such an amazing, magical and musical city… and to have such wonderful friends.