Gastronomically pricey

3 x Burgers
2 x chips
2 x glasses of wine
2 x dips
1 x coke
37 = pounds spent

Last night I managed to spend £37 on burger and chips. Thirty-seven pounds. And that didn’t include a tip. If that isn’t a sign that the London economy is fucked I don’t know what is.

I had had a perfectly reasonable evening with a few friends in Clapham Junction. Not far from where Fe and I are moving in next month. I was still shaking off the effects of a huge boozy night out with some work mates the evening before. And that kind of dreamy haze that affects you the next day, after the hangover has cleared, meant for a surreal five minutes towards the end of my night.

As I stepped out of the brightly lit diner, getting accustomed to the change of temperature on the street outside, I was momentarily shaken out of my contemplation over the price of the food as I watched an altercation unfold over the road.

Three rich women, in their thirties, were drinking outside the stereotypical bank-turned-trendy wine bar that you find on Northcote Road. To add a post-modern & ironic twist to proceedings the wine bar had recently been renamed ‘The Bank’.

The ladies were drinking outside because they were smoking and also perhaps because their tiny and fashionable dogs weren’t allowed in the premises. And it was these pets that led to the problem. As a group of four tatty looking youths walked by something was said or happened to set the dogs off. The women leapt up, barking at the group in similar fashion. This led directly to one of the group walking into the road, picking up a black bin liner full of rubbish, before hurling it at the women, hitting one, knocking over their glasses and covering the bar front in rubbish.

As the young lads ran off down the road, the dogs continued to yap away and one of the women hurried into the bar to get a security guard. I tried to balance out what I had just seen with the extortionate amount of money I’d just spent on burger and chips.

I’m not sure what message it gives about London these days. About how differing strands of our society continue to co-habit in a city that financially is getting further and further out of reach for the majority. About whether it’s wrong to secretly find myself in favour of the oiks who would have probably done the same thing to me if given the chance. At the very least, it showcases most of what’s wrong with this city. Although the burgers were pretty damn tasty.