Fact: an 18 hour session on Saturday leads to a Monday off from work

Last week I found out that a small bar named 'The Shed' was closing in a few weeks.  The Shed lives in a fairly arty district of Puxi, and was originally created as an office by two guys named Matt and Steve - who just happen to be the founders of www.justbeer.cn, the company that imports most Australian beer into China.  

They started the company a couple of years ago, and they needed an office. So they rented out a reasonably-sized room at the top of an old residential building in a little laneway along Taikan Rd.  Since they were selling beer into China, they decided that they needed a couple of fridges full of cold beer for potential customers to try.  In order to drink the beer, they decided they needed a bar - and so, The Shed was born.  It's a tiny place - can probably seat less than 10 people at the bar itself, and probably another 10 or so could squeeze in around the edges.  It's only opened when the owners feel like it (every weekend during the AFL season) and is usually full of friendly Aussie faces.  I went there for the first time a few months ago after I met Matt and Steve out at an event they were sponsoring, and have been back a few times since. 

Anyway, after finding out it was closing down (the government is redeveloping the whole area so a lot of businesses are getting kicked out), I decided I'd better go along on Saturday and have a few beers.  I made my way over at around noon (an AFL game was starting at 12:30) and knocked on the door...only to get no answer.  Obviously I was a little early, so I wandered around a few of the laneways nearby to have a look around. Great place for art lovers as there were a lot of display galleries around, and a number of stores selling all sorts of trinkets.  I stopped into a cafe and had a delicious chicken pasta and some even more delicious Coronas (it was pretty hot), and after an hour or so made my way back to the bar to find that Matt had opened it up.

I immediately got stuck in the Pure Blondes, and before long a few more people had wandered in.  People kept appearing in fits and starts throughout the day, and at one stage it was pretty much capacity - obviously word had spread about the place closing down.  I ended up staying there all the way through until the end of the night at 9, when everyone left to either go home (the smart option) or go out somewhere else (the Andrew option).  Total cost for 8 hours of drinking - $AUS20.  Nice one.

As I mentioned, I foolishly decided I would go out somewhere else after everyone had gone.  After a quick trip home to have a meal and get changed, I went out to Hengshan Rd, and an old favourite - Zapatas.  Got in and the place was packed - I can't remember if I've been there on a Saturday night or not, but I'd never seen it so busy.  I grabbed myself a beer and before too long I was out on the dancefloor moving and shaking.  A couple of guys 'encouraged' me to get up on the bar...and before I knew it, that's where I was.  My memories of being at University and dancing at the Icon Bar came flooding back at this point.  I spent the next few hours dancing on the bar, getting off to get a drink, getting up on the bar again, repeat.  At one point I ran into a guy who is a mini-celebrity here in Shanghai - he's an Aussie guy that's on a number of TV shows on one of the two english language channels - ICS.  I didn't really talk to him much, but I remember he was an excellent dancer and showed me up by doing the splits a few timers whilst on the bar.  I think I attempted it and almost fell off/did some damage to my groin.  

Eventually I grew tired of Zapatas and went off in search of more entertainment.  At this time I made my way to Tongren Rd, home of the City Diner (mmm...food) and a lot of extremely dodgy bars filled with working girls...and some working guys that look suspiciously like girls.  Anyway, I went into Judy's Too, a place that I knew stayed open until the wee hours of the morning.  I ran into an English bloke in there and we spent the next few hours drinking, laughing and dancing on the podiums like idiots.  Before I knew it, it was 6am and I decided it was time to call it a night...I mean morning.  I'd been going for 18 hours, and it was time for sleep.

Unfortunately, my stupid body clock didn't really let me sleep very much.  I was up before 10am on Sunday, and a world-class struggler.  I had some short naps on the couch during the afternoon, but by the time Monday came around, I was still hungover and not prepared to go to work.  Took a much needed day off and was back to normal by Tuesday, thank god.  Note to self: 18 hour sessions are not the answer.

Hot pot and beer usually spells a big night out

Friday night I had a fairly big night - I went out for dinner with 4 other co-workers after work. We tried to go to my favourite hot pot restaurant (Little Sheep), only to find that they were closed for renovations. Devastated! Luckily, we knew of another option that was only about 1km away, so we made our way there. It was a good thing we had some locals with us because unlike Little Sheep, this restaurant didn't have an English menu, so there is no way I would have been able to order anything.

Anyway, the food was good, but not up to the LS standard. We ended up drinking about 12 longneck bottles of beer between us and consumed an astonishing amount of food...for the grand total of $12 each :) I've said it before and I'll say it again - the value you get for Australian money over here is astonishing sometimes.

After the meal one of the other guys was keen to kick on, so we went over to Puxi to an English bar named the Bulldog to meet up with some of his friends (two Poms and a Yank). I've mentioned the Bulldog in a previous post when I went there and saw Manchester United vs Arsenal. Well, this time there was no soccer on, and it was much quieter as a result. We stayed there for a couple of pints and then moved on to another bar named 'The Shelter', which was a pretty funky underground bar in what seemed to be an actual bomb shelter.

It took a bit of finding - I seem to recall that the door kind of appeared out of nowhere, and was not well marked at all. After paying a $5 cover charge (a rarity in the bars that I've been to over here) we walked down an extremely steep set of stairs, then down a claustrophobic's nightmare hallway, and out into a bunker-type area. The bar stretched out on the left, and a number of people were dancing in-between some massive concrete pillars that seemed to be dotted around the place holding the roof up. It was bizarre, but kind of cool. Probably would have been better if there had been more people. That and the fact that the music was average (hip-hop crap) meant that we only stayed for about half an hour before migrating to Zapatas, another bar that was close by.

We went to Zapatas for the fabled '1am Popcorn Party' - at 1am on certain Friday nights, they unleash a sea of popcorn on the dancefloor. We got there about 10 minutes before 1, and took up our positions on the side of the (packed) dancefloor and waited....and waited...and waited...and it didn't happen! We had thought it was every Friday, but maybe it only happens on the first Friday of the month or something. Anyway, we stayed there for a few hours and moved on to our final place of the evening, but I can't remember what it was called (was pretty pissed by this stage if you hadn't already guessed). Had a few beers there before calling it a night just after 4am.

Remarkably, considering the amount I drank, I woke up feeling pretty good on the Saturday. In fact, I was even well enough to go out and play basketball for a couple of hours in the afternoon. In 32 degree heat. This was perhaps a little optimistic in hindsight, because I got home afterwards and absolutely crashed. I had been intending on going out again on the Saturday night, but ended up falling asleep in front of the TV at about 9pm.

Happily, this meant that I woke up as fresh as a daisy on Sunday. I guess there are some side benefits to having a quiet night in after all.