Since I’ve started writing for a website called Shanghaiist, I’ve become a hugely, hugely important figure on the Shanghai nightlife scene.

Why, only last night I attended the opening of a new restaurant called Laurel And Hardy’s Prime Rib where the free wine flowed like water, and me and some other very impotent people eventually baffled the Chef fella into giving us some free beef.

Lawry’s prime rib, Shanghai
an important friend of mine at a very important event for important people

And yet I still can’t manage to secure a coveted VIP card (40% off drinks, a free party hat on your birthday etc.) for my local bar- The Spot. My boss has this card and uses every opportunity to taunt me with it. They gave it to him just because he plays football with some Germans at the weekend, behaviour which should be punished rather than rewarded if you ask me.

The last time they invited my boss to one of their special VIP events (free booze, mechanical robots to do your every bidding) I wrote to The Spot to ask them if there was room for a loyal and true customer who lives just around the corner and promises not to eat all the nibbles. No dice.

So I now pronounce from my blogging tower that no-one should ever, ever go to The Spot on Tongren Lu. All of their beer has rats in it, and the kitchen is staffed by malnourished Bengali street children, snatched from their mother’s teat*. They will rue the day they refused to give free stuff to me!

*alledgedly