Anyway, here goes:
Dear all,
OK, so I’m finally getting around to writing something about the last week. Nothing too exciting, but read on if you like! I’m posting this to Facebook as well, and there are photos available here.
Arrived last Wednesday. As I wrote, Dan was lovely and carried my bags for me back to his flat. Originally we had thought about taking the Heathrow Express to get into town, but ended up just taking the tube as it wasn’t busy. We got to Dan’s house around 1 pm, and Dan busted out the bottle of Veuve Cliquot (jealous, Alix? ;-) )
I had originally planned on taking a nap, but at a certain point it’s just pointless. I just took a s
hower to remove the airplane stank and carried on. Dan and I ordered pizza and then eventually headed down to central London to the Hard Rock Cafe to see Dan’s friend Frieda’s little brother Tom play for half an hour. After that, we stayed there for a few hours while Dan bought expensive rounds of drinks in an attempt to pull one of Tom’s friends. There WERE lots of cute young boys there. We followed Tom and his friends to a place called the Crobar, but it looked busy and a bit crap, so Dan and I ended up going home and playing with the karaoke on my computer for a while.
I woke up the next day around 11 am, and we made some breakfast. I hadn’t been able to find my European hair dryer before I left, so I decided to just buy one here. We went to two different Argos shops looking for a cheap travel one. After that, we went to a nice pub called the Lion and had a few beers. We came home and Dan made some vegetable curry, and then went out to the Alma for one more beer.
On Friday we had to do lots of shopping, as Dan was going to his cousin’s wedding, and also needed pressies for his mom’s birthday, and for father’s day. We went down to Oxford Street to John Lewis to buy his mother a glass pitcher, then up to Sainsbury’s at Angel to buy a bottle of brandy for his dad. We came home, and Dan made some chili, and we watched TV until about 9, when he headed to the station to go to Kent, where the wedding was. I stayed up till 4 a.m. watching episodes of Shameless on the On Demand.
The next day I slept in, did some laundry, and then decided to try to head out by myself. My extremely sprained ankle was still bothering me enough to use my boot, but I felt like a walk, so I decided to see how far I could get. I originally decided to see if I could make it to Old Street so that I could stop in a few shops, and I felt OK, so I carried on to St. Paul’s Cathedral. I sat in a cafe for a while, then got the bus back, stopped in the shop for dinner, and went back home.
In the meantime, I had heard from my old friend Sarah, and she came around with her husband Guy later that evening. She had said they’d be over around
9, but Sarah’s notoriously late so I didn’t expect her till at least 11. They surprised me by turning up at ten to ten, which means they actually left their flat somewhere close to 9 o’clock! :-) We had a great time, hanging out and singing karaoke until 3 a.m. There are pictures posted. That was the first time I’d met Guy. He’s loads of fun, and the only person I’ve ever met who sings worse than me!
Dan turned back up the next day around noon, hung over from the reception. He had invited some friends over for a dinner party at 230. We had decided I’d make twice-baked potatoes, and that Frieda’d bring the dessert, so I had gotten up around 9 to start the potatoes. Dan made two lasagnas. I found out later he’d decided to experiment with BEANS in the second one, so I can’t say that I was too disappointed when he ended up leaving it in the oven all afternoon and burning it to a crisp (didn’t stop him trying to eat it at 3 a.m., though. As healthy as Dan’s tried to get with his food, in the end he’s still a human garbage disposal :-) ). LOVE YOU DAN!!!! Frieda brought a lovely rhubarb tart for dessert, and Jane came with her man, as well as Dan’s friends Sheila and Chris. Dan was right—Chris is loads of fun, and has the same sick sense of humor that Dan has. We amused him by playing the Shatner version of Rocket Man.
After they left, we went down to the Alma again because they were having a post-Stokefest Brazilian party. Dan had already been knocking back vodkas all day to try to stave off his hangover, so he was pretty drunk. The nice blurry photos I have posted were taken by him. There WAS loads of good people-watching there, and a random guy kept drinking rum out of his bag and then offering it to us. Dan invited his ex-therapist to come and join us, since she’s dating a Brazilian man half her age. By the time she turned up, though, it was closing down. We then went up the street to some crappy place that was open and stayed for another hour, before walking home singing Rocky Horror songs. When we got home, we of course ended up watching Rocky…
We actually managed to get into bed around 2, but Dan had to get up at 8 and go to work. I was lazy and stayed home all day… He came home, we ordered pizza again, and went to bed.
On Tuesday I did actually manage to get out of the house. The weather was lovely, and I met Dan for lunch. 
We picked up sandwiches at EAT, and took them to Lincoln's Inn Fields to eat. After that, Dan went back to work and I just wandered around Central London. I bought postcards, and found a place to sit and write them. Of course, typical me, I ended up in a gay café to write them (after I’d sat down I noticed the constant Pet Shop Boys playing and the lesbians sitting at the next table...) After finishing the postcards, I just carried on walking, without any particular direction. I ended up at Trafalgar Square, so I decided to duck into the National Gallery. It’s free to go in, but as it was already 4 pm, I decided to just buy the book of the museum for Melanie, and sit in the café for a bit. I can look through the book and come back later if there’s anything I want to see.
I had arranged to meet Dan at The Castle across the street from his work, so I went there to read and wait for him. He met me at 6, and we stayed for a bit, and then headed down towards Blackfriars to meet his Book Club. The place is called Shaw’s Booksellers, but is really a gastropub. The food was excellent, and the people were interesting (though a load of London lawyers at one table can be a bit intense—especially when one of them started slagging off one girl after she left). Apparently Dan’s mad Kiwi friend Karen normally comes (her boss is one of the people I met), but she was on holiday in Portugal. Charis went to law school with Dan and Sarah, and doesn’t like Sarah, but does like Dan. I took a few pictures. I think the other guy looks a bit like Nigel Planer.
After that Dan and I went to this amazingly expensive (for a Texas girl spending dollars) bar in Soho (7 pounds for red bull/vodka--close to $13 in June 2008), where Dan talked to an Italian ballet dancer in the hopes of scoring with her fag, but that didn’t work out. We ended up getting a cab home and watching Rocky Horror again…
Wednesday is Dan’s day off, so we mostly slept all day, and then ordered in from the Bombay Bicycle Club. Mmmmmm, lamb samosas and chicken korma.... Actual food with spice!
Today’s Thursday, and now it’s 3 pm and I still haven’t gotten dressed, mostly because I’ve spent the last 2 hours writing this email and working on photos… Oh well. Dan’s trying to organize dinner with Sarah and Wendy and Nick (some of the Holland gang), but I haven’t heard back from him about that. After I finish this, I’m going to get dressed and head into town anyway, just to get out of the house. Unfortunately the weather isn’t as nice as it has been, but as long as it’s not 100 F I’m okay!
Tomorrow they’ve booked a karaoke room for a few hours, so we’ll see how that goes! :-)
Hope all is well with everyone!
Love, Leslie
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