I spent Wednesday and yesterday in our capital city, catching up with Gray.
It is the first time I have ever been and not hated the city. It helped that I didn't need to be aware of where I was or where I was going or how transport worked, or any of the usual stuff I panic about.
Instead, we hit up a lot of bars and food places, all of which were amazing. Pricey but the food - oh wow! Wednesday evening we were meant to head to a comedy club as tickets were £1 for the night. We found the club, but it was devoid of anyone, including in the ticket office, or the restaurant next door. We decided to wander some more, so meandered through the West End. I hadn't realised quite how many theatres there would be...
A theatre came into view, and I mentioned their display, as I'd wanted to see it in Bristol but never was able to. Gray then suggested we just enquire about ticket prices, and so we did. We spent that evening watching the production of War Horse - OH MY GODS, it was incredible!!!! The lady behind us watched it for the 4th time, and I can completely understand why! The complexity of it, the emotion conveyed via the puppets, the skills of everyone taking part... I couldn't fault it whatsoever! We didn't get expensive seats, but I could not have had a better view. (It was also pretty much the last thing we did before both my single status and my sanity were officially wiped out...)
I didn't sleep much. No, not sex - technically we'd only been together for a few minutes and it wasn't right to me. (He actually asked if I'd be his girlfriend - that was new to me!) He snores, loudly, and when he stopped I overheated and couldn't cool.
As soon as I accepted the job of girlfriend (apparently I was the only applicant), things changed. Things were not quite as easy as they had been. I have always thought of myself as clingy, but it turns out that I might actually be a bit middle of the road. I never thought I'd actually get sick of being kissed, but I used my daily quota by about 10am... I was also extremely conscious of the fact that other people really don't want to see it in public, but hey ho...
In reality, I don't hate it, I just found it a little uncomfortable. I'm just not used to the attention. For someone to actually faun over me every second of the day has never been a thing before. I could get used to it...
Still, we did a lot yesterday, and hit town around 9am. We wandered, we saw some sights, including a stunning Victorian (I assume) covered market and a food market next to Southwark cathedral, where we ended up for lunch.
We did the London Bridge Experience (after we unintentionally blagged a 2-for-1 ticket). It was good but creepy, and I think everyone departed afterwards and headed to the nearest pub for a much-needed pint... If you like history, audience participation and being chased by zombies and people with chainsaws under strobe lighting, you'd love it! We escaped the audience participation part by joining the tour with a group of young friends who nominated each other, and once the first got drawn in, there was inevitable retribution that rippled through the group...
We made it to the Tower of London, but as we approached there was what looked like an entire primary school heading there also. We ducked into a coffee shop, and almost made ourselves sick by eating too much directly after lunch. We must have sat (Gray dozed) for a few hours. The ceiling was glass, and the run-off patterns reminded me of the stream outlet on the beach here. There were even gulls running around on it, and you could discern all the detail in their webbed feet.
Gray wants to visit on Sunday evening, but I may decline purely because it doesn't seem sense for such a short time.
Back to work today. I overslept... Luckily, 10 minutes is all I need to get up and out the door, so I was almost on time. Most of our business today came from twitchers who'd come to see a special bird as it's the first sighting in the county, and one of only a handful recorded in the country. One poor little surf scoter got blown off course from Canada, and is now lodging quite happily - or so it seems - outside my cafe. I've spent many hours looking at it through binoculars, as it'd be rude not to. It's actually quite a character, which is not something I normally attribute to a duck...
