Hungover the day after Halloween in Shanghai

Having spent a few hours poking about around the neighbourhood of my friend Becky's place I came back to settle into watch a horror movie as I felt like I owed at least a little something to the evening and Halloween just isn't a big deal here. A quiet night in it was not meant to be...

Becky called me about an hour into Black Sheep (see it, very good zombie-sheep movie) to annouce that there was a big staff party that night for EF (the company we both teach for) here in Shanghai. However, before we got anywhere near the orgnized staff party we got word that the event was a bust and that everybody had headed to a bar called Windows Scoreboard.

We arrived to a packed out Chinesse Sportsbar filled with about 1/2 westerners and 1/2 locals at around11. An odd sight to lay eyes on. However, the beer was cheap (about 1.20 Canadian) and the music was good. And so the drinking began... Beer after beer until it was suddenly 4am and Becky and I were drinking with the bar staff. She had to work this afternoon so she wisely took the empty bar as an omen that it was time to retire for the night. Me, never one to call it a night early had pallied up with a Philopena waitress and we decided that we should carry on later into the night. Thankfully Becky wrote her address on my arm and on a piece of paper so that I could get a taxi to take me back.

The waitress, whose name totally escapes me, and I headed off to another Windows bar and drank full on until the sun chased the night away. Fortunately the dawn was enough to force a little sense into me and I stumbled into a taxi. Handed the driver my piece of paper and promptly passed out.

When he dropped me off in Becky's neigbhourhood it was on the opposite side of the street to where I was used to and because of that and the countless beers I was totally lost. I did however, find a hotel, I went in and asked how much a room was. They quoted me a price in the 50$ range so I decided to move on. I phoned Becky pleading for her help. She had a wee chuckle at my expense and told me the hotel was just across the street from her building complex...

The beauty of China is that at 7 in the morning their are a bevy of street vendors selling all matter of breakfasts and so I sat down on the curb to a meal of 1.25 Liters of Gatorade and two freshly made beautiful crepes. Before stumbling my way to up to Becky's flat.

Turns out even with that grub and Gatorade the beer won. Hangover 1 Clinton 0.