London one-way!

Friday July 6th

After work there were still delays, in fact, from Notting Hill Gate all three tube lines had severe delays. So yet again I went over the city and it took an hour to get home. That’s fine, Lija was fast asleep on her bed under the covers when I reached home at about 8pm, complaining of being cold!

We had no food left in the house and we were going out, so we got Chinese from the little shop ten doors down and ate it on the train at about ten. The trains were going from Mile End but not from the central line, the workers were only just packing up, and police tape was still across the central line side.

Because I get home late, and it doesn’t get dark until quite late, usually ten o’clock, we’re just not hungry and don’t eat until we are.

Lija and I went out in Clapham, with Ali and his new Irish housemate Broma, and his mate Peter, who was celebrating a pay rise to £50,000pa. That’s a bit of alright hey! He’s in banking, and did the equivalent of four days overtime this week. It was a Friday night and he hadn’t left work until half past seven.

Personally, I’d rather work to live, than live to work.

But each to their own, as long as he enjoys the job as much as the pay. It was a good night, although the club we went to was quiet at first. This was at about half ten, and there was no one in the room upstairs! We went downstairs for a while, and when we went back up it was so packed we could barely move. By three we were through, and all headed back to Ali’s for bacon sandwiches and sleep.

Saturday July 7th

We got brunch at one, and then Lija and I headed home, first stopping off at Borough Markets for some fresh vegies and my weekly indulgence of cashew nuts. We also had fresh ice cold apple juice which was absolutely beautiful after the hot stuffy tube ride.

The central line has finally been fully restored so once we got home and changed, we headed out to Hyde Park, wandering down through Green Park, watching the time trials for the Tour de France. They had started at 3, but we didn’t get there till 5. Even so, because there are 200 riders, we still had a lot to see. Riders set off at one minute intervals, but you couldn’t see them coming, only hear the crowds cheer each time they passed.

Constitution Hill was the best place to watch, because riders were coming from the beginning and after completing the loop coming along the opposite side of the road to the finishing point, there were also heaps of big screens, where we got to sit and enjoy the sun.

I was amazed when I got to pull my sunglasses out of my draw and dust them off for this beautiful day!

Sunday July 8th

This weekend was London sports central. After the Tour yesterday, we watched a bit of the British Grande Prix (poor Hamilton didn’t win) and then the finals of the men’s singles at Wimbledon (and wasn’t it awesome to watch, although personally I think Nedal has to get better fitting shorts if he keeps getting wedgies! At least Federer’s pretty to watch).

This afternoon we went into Oxford Street, where Lija bought two pairs of shoes which brings her London collection to nine pairs of shoes. Shock horror!

The one pair I’ve been looking at for the last two weeks are a really nice black pair for work, but also nice enough to wear out because they have a decent size heel. Even though all the summer sales are on at the moment, this particular shoe has not been on special, and because I’m so stubborn that I refused to pay £40 for one pair, which isn’t actually that bad, and I’ve tried them on twice and suggested a discount to unmoving store clerks.

But today was different. Today I wanted to take a walk down Regent Street, and there, in the same store, I tried on these shoes for the third time. After ten minutes, and Lija’s like, “You’ve still got them on your feet?!” I sighed and took them off, holding them in my hands.

When the store clerk came over and asked what I thought of them, I said I loved every bit of them except the price, and could he do any better? Whether the fact it was a Sunday evening or I just gave him ‘the face’, he made a few calculations on the computer and came out with £27.40. Yes, a whole £13, or what I later found when I read the receipt, a 33% staff discount.

I spose the lesson learned is persistence pays off. And a nice smile will get you anywhere!

We seem to be eating heaps of vegies, because they’re cheap and easy to cook, and meat is pretty aweful over here, we’ve been eating chicken, pork, or pork mince. I made spaghetti blog tonight, because Ian had it the other night and Brenton several nights before that, so I wanted it! Lija went to Ali’s after tea and Brenton and I sat and watched Old School, yeah my choice, needed a laugh!

I watched The Virgin Suicides after that, upstairs on my laptop. Ok, it doesn’t sound like the nicest movie, but it was another of Sofia Coppola’s films. She also did Marie Antoinette, which I watched the other night, and the well-received Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlet Johannsen. This woman, I don’t know whether she is bizarre or a genius, the way she presents her films, the music and timing and characters, and just the story lines are really something to marvel at. She is so creative and I really admire her.

London Tidbits

The English call the floor when you walk into a building the ground floor, and the next floor up is called the first floor.

Everything over here is numbered. We were walking through the subway today and every light globe had a number so you can call and say “Hey, globe 58 needs to be changed!”.

 

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 8:20 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.