End of London update

Hello!

It’s 8:15 pm on Sunday evening and I’ve just finish packing to go off to Holland tomorrow, so I thought that I’d write out another update. Hope you are all doing well!

Anyway, the last time I wrote it was Thursday afternoon and I was about to go and meet Dan after work. We met at the Castle again, and then headed towards Covent Garden for dinner. The restaurant’s name unfortunately escapes me at the moment, but it was nice. Afterwards we had a quiet drink at Chez Gerard in the Covent Garden Opera terrace, and went back home.

Friday we had a big night planned, because Dan had booked a karaoke room with several work friends. During the afternoon I went back up to Oxford Street to see about getting some shoes, but unfortunately it never happened. Dan and I met at the Castle, of course, where I had a nice Bulmer’s cider. We then headed to the Karaoke Box in Smithfield with Dan’s friends James and Sam (my God that was the gayest room I’ve been in in a long time, especially when James sang Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Dan and Sam started in on Little Shop of Horrors). At 9, we moved to a bigger room, because several other colleagues showed up. There was lots of bad singing and pink wine, and somehow I managed to order popcorn chicken at KFC before we got in the taxi home.

The next day was quite lazy, but we had been invited round to Guy and Sarah’s for dinner, so we turned up there around 8. They have a really nice flat in East London just off the Brick Lane. Very minimalist. :-) Wendy, who is a girl I met through Sarah and who lived in Amsterdam when we were in Leiden, came by as well. I hadn’t seen her in ten years, so that was really nice. Sarah made chicken fajitas (well, Dan had some fake-meat stuff. Ugh :-)). That was probably the weirdest thing—Sarah used to be a vegetarian and Dan used to eat anything, so sitting there watching her eat chicken and him not was bizarre!

On Sunday, Dan had to go to a work party in the afternoon, so I just stayed in and watched television.

Monday night was good fun. We met Karen the crazy Kiwi at the Castle, and then moved on to The Last for dinner and a few drinks, where Sharon and Chebs met us. After they closed at 11, Chebs invited us back to her place, which is just up the road on Leather Lane. It was a cool little flat, and Karen ended up crashing there with her. We eventually got the bus home about midnight.

Tuesday night was the time for some comedy, so we went to the Comedy Store to see a group called the Cutting Edge. Though I usually see the Comedy Store Players when I’m in London, this group was quite good too. There were some AWFUL Americans in the second row that the performers kept taking the piss out of. I’m really glad Lorraine wasn’t there, or she would have pointed me out. :-) I wouldn’t have been as annoying as they were, though. :-)

Wednesday night was a big one. Dan had really been looking forward to going to a free outdoor screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at The Scoop, which is a massive complex with an outdoor amphitheatre just south of the river between London Bridge and the Tower Bridge. We got there a bit early, and so had dinner and two bottles of wine at Strada. At the show, there was a collection of freaks and weirdos there to rival Eeyore’s birthday party, so naturally we talked to most of them while drinking the vodka and coke I’d been carrying around in my purse. There were two women about three rows below us who actually knew the audience participation too, so I was quite pleased when we made THEM laugh. :-) After the show, I was offered to be in the cast of a Halloween screening. The woman was really disappointed to find out that I wouldn’t be here… Anyway, we went with a few of them down to Wetherspoons before I had to pile Dan into a taxi before he fell over....

Needless to say, Thursday was a lazy day (Dan had taken that as his day off). I had done my best to sort out getting food for the house, so it worked out ok for us :-)

Friday was Dan’s last day at work. I went out and went back to Oxford Street to look for a few things at HMV. It turned out that what I wanted was cheaper on Amazon, but I did manage to get Muriel’s Wedding and Withnail and I for 3 pounds each. :-D I ended up getting to the Castle about 5 pm, which was good because had I gotten there 5 minutes later I wouldn’t have gotten a seat. Imagine my surprise when I was reading my book and at 5:30 the music got really loud, and 5 guys dressed as the Village People marched in and started dancing the YMCA. :-)

Anyway, Dan got there about 630, and we talked with him, James, Sam, and a few other colleagues for a few hours. Then, after stopping at Sainsburys for sandwiches, which we ate on a bus stop bench, we headed over to Firefly on Old Bailey to join up a birthday celebration. That place is the kind of place that I really miss in Austin—a bar where they play silly music and everyone gets up and dances and has a good time. James came along as well, and Karen was already there, though most of the time she was trying to hook up with this other random guy.

There was a bit of drama leaving the club, though, as Dan’s card had apparently been mixed up with someone else’s, and they’d of course put the wrong PIN in three times and locked it up (they do everything by PIN here now when you pay, so having bank/credit cards like mine without chips in them makes things more difficult). Seeing as we’re leaving on Monday, he needed that card to get money out with. The bartender apologized profusely, and gave us the night’s drinks for free.

We were standing out by the bus stop about midnight, waiting to go home, when Dan got a call from Karen, who had apparently fallen and hit her head very badly, and was wandering around lost, so we went to find her. We did eventually find her, and then I spent 45 minutes trying to keep her upright while Dan stood in front of a Lloyd’s Bank cashpoint trying to sort out his bank card. We ended up getting a taxi back home, when of course Karen woke up, and we listened to music and watched tv till 4 am. So much for getting in early!

The next day was Dan’s birthday celebration in London, and we had booked a table for lunch at 1 pm. Karen was of course with us, and Dan’s brother Tim came in from Soham, where he lives with their parents. Frieda also turned up at Dan’s flat, since she wanted to go ahead and give Dan his birthday gift.

Well, Dan and Karen were still pretty drunk from the night before, and Dan was pretty much going through the house singing Rocky Horror songs at the top of his lungs. Oh dear, I thought, this is going to be a hell of a day. :-)

We called a taxi to take us to the restaurant, which is called Sarastro. It had really cool decor, and all the booths were up separate ladders, modeled after theatre box seats. The food was sort of nominally Turkish, and good, though probably not as impressive as the surroundings. Meeting us at the restaurant were Frieda’s brother Tom, Sharon, Sharon’s flatmate, and our old friend Martha, whom we knew in Holland.

At 3 pm we’d booked karaoke on Frith Street in Soho, so Dan, Karen, Tim and I got in a taxi (who did this amazing move getting around major traffic by driving into an underground parking garage!) and went there. We met Sam, and several other people turned up later, including Sarah and Guy, Sharon, Chebs, and Wendy. After being moved to a smaller room around 6 pm, we finally ended up leaving about 730, so Dan, Tim, Sam and I went to a nearby bar called Freedom, where Sam bought us a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, and (this part deleted at Her Majesty's request ;-) ). Dan was doing his best Rosie Gilmore impression (walking around with his eyes closed) when I finally got him into a taxi, just after breaking the SECOND pair of shoes this week. Grrrrrrr. I’m going to have to buy some in Holland.

We got home and tortured Dan’s brother with another round of Rocky Horror and ordered some pizza, as it was only about 10 pm. Then Dan put Withnail and I in the DVD player, and proceeded to pass out 15 minutes later. I had to stay up till the movie was finished because Tim was watching it and I’m sleeping in the living room. Oh well.

Today we slept late, though Dan did actually manage to get up early and get his bank card sorted out. The legendary Nick Jennings, another friend from Holland whom I hadn’t seen in 10 years, had told Dan he was going to try to come by, so he turned up about 2 pm. It was a lovely day, so we went down the street to have some lunch at Bavo, and then came back and chatted for an hour or so in Dan’s garden, which I got to see for the first time today. :-)

Anyway, that’s all for now… Hope it wasn’t too boring, and I hope I survive Holland! We should make it to Belgium by the end of the week…

Love, Leslie

Additional photos from London, June 2008 can be found here.

FIRST WEEK IN LONDON JUNE 2008

Ok, I'm starting this out by posting the blog entries I wrote last year on Facebook, so the first 3 or so will be actually reflecting what I was thinking at the time. Once we got to the continent I no longer really had time to write anything, because we were constantly on the go, so I'll be basing it all on memory.

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 shower 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