UYE @ Grand Union

As the name suggests, it was certainly a grand union as new and old Unilocalers alike took part in a chat, a cocktail or two, and oh, some VIP Camden Crawl tickets.
Is it just me or do these UYEs just keep getting better and better?
And does the decision to stop serving food at 8pm really blow?
And does Jane C have one of the coolest jobs on Earth?
And have bus drivers been exceptionally pissed off recently?
And do south Londoners rock for making the trek up the northern line?
And, and, and, awww, I love you guys!

Grand Union — what a great little venue in Camden! Kudos to Leon (?) for picking it as our UYE location, as it was a bit off the beaten Camden track and therefore a bit swanky but not packed full of patrons and thereby afforded us a large and comfortable Unilocaling space.
Beyond the swanky locale, I got to meet some new Unilocalers with whom I have been interacting for a while now online even though I showed up an hour late. I have mad respect for the South Londoners who made it up to Camden, as it took me an hour to get there from no more than three miles away due to London’s infamous weekend engineering works. Plan a UYE in Clapham, and I’ll be there.
I’m looking forward to a review or two from our (hopefully) recent convert Phil R. Cheers to our growing London Unilocal community!
P. S. to Grand Union: stock your toilets with some toilet paper and soap. I’m not too fond of drip drying and scalding my hands with hot water to get them clean.

A double UYE day kept Unilocalers on their toes.
The Grand Union gathering was yet another success. I was so happy to see some new faces around the table like Katie C., Jane C., Molly K. and soon to be Unilocaler Phil.
With this gang by your side, you can always guarantee there’s plenty to talk about. I got in the middle of a chat about meat free living, who knew so many Unilocalers were vegetarian!
Cocktails and conversation are always a welcome mix and I’m happy I dragged my toothache out for a good time.

So, what better place to start reviewing than the place where I’ve been mentioned more than twice without being a Unilocaler?
WELL I AM NOW.
5 stars really is a given considering I’m writing this.
So, what about the venue? It was nice and quiet and cosy with good cocktails and great chat. It was really good to be in such elite company :)
Looking forward to the next event already!

Finally, I had my UYE cherry popped! Wow, okay, sorry that sounded a bit… grotesque? But I thoroughly enjoyed myself last night and am so happy to have met all the people I’ve been chatting to through Unilocal for the last couple of months. What a great bunch — seriously!
Grand Union was a comfy cosy place, but what a bummer that the kitchen closed EXACTLY WHEN WE WANTED TO ORDER FOOD. Rumbling tummy aside, the cocktails were fabulous and the conversation was even better. Don’t worry, 5 minutes into this UYE and Phil R excitedly told me he wanted to register on Unilocal!You’ve converted another one!
Thoroughly looking forward to the next one, and will do my very best to plan an awesome Barnes/​Putney/​southoftheriver UYE asap.

What’s better than spending time with my fantastic familiar Unilocal family at a UYE? Spending time with a new larger Unilocal family of course! Fantastic to meet Jane C, Katie C, Molly K & Phil (sorry, Chris R — forgot the name of your friend) in person. I’m of course overjoyed to finally have some fellow south of the river Unilocalers — smiling at Katie, Molly and Phil!
Grand Union was very cool with the whole Friends sofa feel though ‘Petra’ had reserved the best sofa corner. We still managed to find a nice nook to settle in. Thanks once again to Unilocal for getting the drinks though the bar did test our ability to select alternatives as they were out of orange juice (seriously!!) and ginger ale.
Once again, the chat and banter never fails to bring a smile to my face and chuckle inside — topics ranged from alternative words for a tampon, rugby and football fan profiling, should London bus drivers really have to ask the passengers where to go (Lizzie G’s unique reason for running late), the look on Evelyn M’s face when Laura N said she had gone for a ‘short 40 minute sprint’ and of course the classic line from Red «What is the Camden Crawl?» just after he had won the complimentary VIP Camden Crawl passes scored by Unilocal in the draw made at the UYE!
Once again, the south London crew (we have our own crew now :-)) had a leave a bit earlier and we left a happy Unilocal mob eating hummus (so glad you didn’t carry out your threat to lick the bowl, Laura N!) and smoking an apple shisha pipe. Great evening once again.

With UYE’s coming in thick and fast this week, it has been an excellent opportunity to say hi to some of our exciting new Unilocalers. With GU as the setting and cocktails flowing a plenty, chatting with Jane C, Katie C Molly K (and her +1 Phil who we must surely convert as he is definitely Unilocal material) was awesome. Of course the core of the Elite was present and as always the banter was jovial and smiley.
Red and I took football, tore it apart and analysed it every which way. I think Hansen and Lawrenson had better watch out. It is to bad Chris R arrived late as his views on the beautiful game would of been invaluable.
Another great UYE and they simply get bigger and better.