Pauline celebrated her birthday today by having drinks at The Goat followed by a few hours of dancing at Clapham Grand. The usual suspects from worked turned up for drinks at The Goat. Pauline had also invited a whole heap of other friends but for some strange reason they didn’t turn up until late and then they left after what seemed like about only 15 minutes later.

The Goat seemed like quite a nice bar – it seemed quite massive actually and, I’m not sure if its because Pauline and the others got there early and managed to snag a good seating area, but seating seemed plentiful from the time Lofty and I arrived (at about 8 I think it was) for at least another couple of hours. It did get quite crowded however and getting served at the bar could get difficult.

At about 11 the brave few (Pauline, Sandra, Boo Boo, Amelia, Andy and I) ventured on to the Clapham Grand. The Clapham Grand has a bit of a dire reputation for cheese. If there is one thing I can recommend to get in and save a few pounds it is to look out for the girls/boys handing out pamphlets for free entry. No point paying for club entry when you don’t have to! When we got inside it reminded me a bit of The Church. And no wonder really as both are clubs/bars situated in former theatres.

The Clapham Grand is supposed to be spread out across a few floors but I only saw one, or one and a half. The DJ is a big feature and he/she is centrally located right up on the main stage. The dancefloor had tiles which were illuminated and changed colour constantly. It took a while but finally the dancefloor did get full (though not crammed by any stretch of the imagination.) It also took a while to convince Boo Boo, Sandra and Andy to come down (and by the end of the night Boo Boo and Sandra were the first to sit down!)

The music tonight wasn’t too bad featuring classics from the ’90’s apparently. I was glad that most of the songs that came on you could actually dance to and was not rubbish house music.

Overall I was expecting something much worse for The Clapham Grand but actually its a fun night out .. even if it felt a little cheesy!