London special!

Friday afternoon, even before work ended, I started my trip to London. I took a shorter lunch and got the 4.26pm bus to Oxford. My epic journey began with a panic about not having enough change of the bus. *side note: In Ireland, if you don’t have exact change, you can’t get onto the bus and they don’t take notes*. No one local was answering their phones and my London friend didn’t know, so I decided to be a Maverick and hand in a £10 note, which was fine. I got to Oxford train station, just as my train was due. I quickly bought my ticket, but forgot that it is a 2-part return and left my return ticket in the collection tray. I ran, jumped through the open door and I was off.

I arrived in Paddington and headed for the tube ticket machine. I had enough change this time, but the machine kept rejecting my £2 coin. Eventually the guy behind me decided to give me his all day travel card and I gave him my handful of change, a fair compromise for both. It was only as I was walking away that I realised it was Reginald D Hunter, a famous American comedian, living in London.

I got the tube to Farringdon and was able to use my travel card again to get to Bromley. My friend picked me up from the train station and brought me home to debrief the day’s ordeal as well as catching up. It took me over 3 hours to get from work to their house, mental. After an hour of procrastinating, I got changed and we were on our way back to London. We got the fast train and then to tube to Leister square, which was alive with all sorts of riff raff (for Eavan only: Thieves, murders, deserters, young desperados...). We went to Chiquitos, a tradition when in these parts and had, what must have been, the longest meal in history, because we missed the midnight comedy show. Deflated and disappointed, we decided just to head home and have a night cap.

As we were walking down the street, we saw our night bus pull away from an earlier stop. Then began the ever popular game of ‘beat the bus’, where you try to make it to the stop before the driver laughs as he drives past. Luckily we made it, so out of breath and quite warm, we made the hour journey home.

Over a glass of home made rosé wine, we shared, caught up, laughed and even played guitar until the wee hours of the morning. After 5 hours of sleep, I was treated to a gluten free bacon roll for brunch. I put on Once and started pointing out all the places that I knew (like any good Irish person would do). We then got dressed and headed back into London. Everyone who knows me, will know how organised I am, so it was a shock to even me, when I realised that I had left my weekend bag on the train. After a quick run back to the train and 5 minutes of panicking that it was “destroyed” like all the announcements say, I got it back. After walking through Trafalgar, Westminster and past the London eye, we found an outdoor balcony area to sit and have a drink. The conversation lasted as long as our brains could function. Then it was back on the tube, a quick goodbye and back on the train to Oxford. Got the bus back home and crashed at 9.30pm.

On Sunday, I went to a family BBQ with a giant above ground pool, face painting, a playground and the England Vs. Germany world cup knock out. During the first half of the match, I got my face painted like an Avatar for Rod’s portfolio. So I sat, for the second half of the match, painted like an Avatar, sitting next to Becki, painted as a butterfly, cheering for Germany in a room full of English men, hilarious!