I first headed to The American Expats Meetup Election Night Party at The Light Bar for a number of reasons: (i) Admission was free, (ii) there would be a large crowd (350 people were expected to turn up) and (iii) the bar served Fruli.

However, once I got there, I realised that while there were a lot of people, and there was a big screen showing BBC's coverage of the elections, there was no sound. That's right. No. Sound. We had to rely on reading the subtitles in order to follow what was going on.

Now, this not being the kind of thing you'd like to experience without any commentary whatsoever, I decided to take a chance and make my way to the party at the nearby Gramaphone where, bless them, five people exited just as I arrived, enabling me to get into the jammed-to-capacity venue. And yes, this time, there was sound in addition to the subtitles.

From this point on, I'm just going to let the photos tell the story of what happened next.

4 am GMT / 11 pm EST as it unfolded:

California closes, and it's time for a number of swing states to be called as well.

Hopeful expressions on fellow viewers 

Across the 270 mark! Victory is Obama's!

Jubilation as the historic moment we have all been waiting for finally arrives