Things NOT to do in London: The 'Scottish' Steakhouse, The east end of Oxford Street, The cardboard pizza slice, The Trocadero, The caricature, The Rickshaw.
Dave did:
For a book that is meant to tell you 1000 things to do in london, to find one entry telling me NOT to do it...well....it really left in a state of confusion as to what the correct action was!
Looking through the list of things to avoid in London, I was frightened to realise that I had ticked off most of them in my time here so far (perhaps this explains why I find myself 40-odd things into an impossible task!).
I've regularly got off at Tottenham Court Road station, in the heart of the east side of Oxford Street (mainly because that was the first and only Argos store I could find when I moved into my first flat!). I remember waiting over an hour for a started in the 'Scottish' Steakhouse and never wanted to go back again, cardboard pizza? Well any night out in London ends with one of those regardless of how much you try to avoid it!
But the one thing I've never done, and if Timeout is to be believed, the one sadistic thing I've always wanted to try - was getting a ride on a rickshaw!
Now I've tried numerous times to get friends to join me on a rickshaw and its never come to anything. Out with a newly wed couple they refused to pay part of the fare, and being kind hearted people they still refused to get on when I offered to pay for all three of us!
When my parents came to visit, the concern this time was how much space there was in the back seat for all three of us. I was determined to at least give it a go, but again they politely, yet profusely, refused.
But finally, with the almighty powerful reasoning of it being my birthday to back up my request, my dear dear friend Byf accepted my invitation was immediately hopped onto a rickshaw in Covent Garden.
Now we had just been to a comedy club around the same area with a group of my old uni friends to celebrate my 24th birthday, and we were all making tracks back to my flat to polish off a 3 litre bottle of Moet I drunkly purchased a week before (don't ask...very long story...but for your reference, here's what it looks like - I'm a very proud father):
Anyway, I digress...we had just been kicked out of the comedy club (no misdemeanor, just closing time!), and I spotted a rickshaw waiting outside the pub.
"Byf!"
"Yes DC?"
"It's a Rickshaw!"
"Right..."
"I've got to ride one of those...its in my 1000 Things"
"Cool, but what about everyone else?"
"Ah sod 'em they know where they're going, we'll meet them at the station"
"Jump in then!"
And thus began a fun-filled 5 minute, £14 trip around the tiny streets of Covent Garden ending outside Holburn tube station.
Besides Byf yelling at the top of his lungs every few minutes to disinterested passerby's that "YES, we are NOT gay, NOT GAY people!", one other story worth noting was our drag race with a BMW convertable.
Waiting patiently at a set of traffic lights, this Beemer drove up alongside us. Byf immediately spotted this, leaned out of the rickshaw, held out his arm and imitated the gunning of a motorbikes engine - with mandatory engine revving sound effects. Driver of said beemer gave a wry smile, relaxed his shoulders and gunned his engine in response.
Red
Amber
Green
The rickshaw (peddlar knowing full well what we were asking of him) took off and with his tight turning circle managed to beat the Beemer around the corner and we cut him off.....Fast and Furious eat your heart out!
Anyway, long story short - I betrayed my Timeout bible and fell in love with the Rickshaw.
45 down...955 Things to go!
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