Tue 13.10.2009 by Liz
Sniff sniff, cough, errr... I'm sick. Stupid London germs giving me a cold. So, I'm in bed today... thought I'd update an entry while not being able to do much else.
So, Jack's back! Yey :) The week before he arrived was interesting. After the last entry, I found the local library to hook up to the power and check my email for accommodation responses. The studio apartment I booked for Jack and I (which I'm currently in) was confirmed, but my temporary accommodation for the week in between dropping the car off and checking into to the studio apartment fell through... oh no! After a quick "help me!" email to Nina, she kindly housed me and our camping stuff until the following week. Saved!
On the Sunday before needing to return the car, I tagged along with Bron to Hyde Park and surrounding area. While she went to see Churchill's house, I went to Oxford street to start my jean shopping mission. I ventured into every shop that was carrying jeans, including one selling them for £200! Alas, no jeans for me.
As I continued down Oxford st and neared Regent (unfortunately I did not pass "Go" and receive £200) I noticed a fair few people walking around with helium balloons. "Why do they have them, and more importantly, where can I get one?" I then noticed loud music coming out of Regent st. "Hmmm.. interesting" I looked up to see banners reading "Regent Street Festival". "Ah, a street Festival, that explains it". I had a little wander down Regent street, looking at the food stalls and huge line for "Birthday cake": a huge tiered arrangement of cup cakes. It was apparently some radio station's 10th Birthday.
After finally locating a balloon for myself, I made my way back up Oxford st to meet up with Bron. We then lazily walked through sunny Hyde Park with our newly acquired balloon and yummy ice-cream (bought at a nearby ice-cream truck). Something about ice-cream and a balloon that sparks "the happies", as well as it being a gorgeous afternoon.
Monday came and Bron helped navigate the van through London to Nina's place - thank goodness she did or I surely would have gotten lost. We went up with all the stuff to Nina's apartment and stashed it in a "out of the way" corner. She made us lunch and then I was off to drive the van back to Liverpool.
What supposedly is normally a three hour or so trip took me six hours to do thanks to traffic jams on the M1 junction. I managed to avoid the largest part of the congestion by detouring off the motorway and driving on some local roads for a while. Eventually I reached Liverpool where David and Rosemary waited for me with dinner. They fed me very yummy fish and vegies and a roasted apple desert! YUM!
They helped me return the car the next day. The lady at the hire car company informed me that we incurred a congestion zone tax. What? We never went into the congestions zone... wait... I do recall seeing a red (C) somewhere... we were only in it for 30 seconds in order to do a U-turn... well, that 30 seconds cost us £60. Bummer. Guess we'll be paying attention to red (C) signs if we ever drive in London again.
David and Rosemary saw me off at the train station and I was back on my way to London again to go crash with Nina for a while.
Staying with Nina was fun. As she was contracting from home, we both did some work - but mainly helped extends each other's procrastination. Many many coffees were consumed and Nina started referring to us as "Coffee friends". Mmmm, coffee.
And Nina got me hooked on the Pride & Prejudice BBC miniseries... and I was sucked into the first Twilight movie also. How Nina kept sucking me in, I don't know... but I am highly susceptible to "veging out" :)
Nina also took me along when she went out and about, one of those times was to a bar called Boogaloo, which happily turned into a night of cheesy dancing and good company. An unexpectedly fun evening for all.
On the Saturday of my check-in to this apartment, Bron joined us and we three girls hauled all of mine and Jack's camping gear to the new apartment. Thank goodness they both helped, I wouldn't have made it all alone with ALL that stuff. We finally got there, dragging all the bags with us and I met up with the "guy with the key". We went up to the apartment (3rd floor, of course... always the way when you have tones of stuff) and he showed me around... well, pointed at different things in the tiny apartment. I paid my rent, obtained a receipt and the keys. Jack and I now had a place in London. As Jack wasn't returning until the next night, I figured it would be too boring alone, I went back to Nina's to chill and watch more vids with her.
Jack met us at Nina's the next night after he got in, pure Jack style - having not slept for a few nights between his Australian 30th Birthday dinner before flying out, a night out in South Korea and then his flight across to London. Jack and I then made our journey to our new home which was easier in theory. Being the weekend, our tube line was closed for maintenance and the normal bus route diverted due to road works, so wandering around central London, with Jack going through the world's worst ever case of severe jet-lag while carrying a heavy backpack was not the ideal welcome his last arrival was. I did my best to get him back quickly but we didn't make it to the apartment until 2-3am. Poor tired Jack.
The next few nights saw Jack struggling with what he called "The jet-lag sledge hammer": the instant heavy feeling of exhaustion you can't fight. Considering he had not quite adjusted to Australian time over the last fortnight and had continual nights out without sleep and was now back in London - it was pretty bad. Come the next Saturday, Jack was almost back on London time and we joined Nina for our first London warehouse party.
The party was a little crazy. Quite small for the amount of people "invited" and a fair few of the guests were DJs or musicians, so there was live music and mixing the whole night. The birthday girl played drums while her music partner played and electronic keyboard, mixed in music samples and sang. Of all the artists who played / DJ'd they were the best act!
There was a ball pit along one of the walls, which got very messy and eventually - and with Jack's encouragement of the locals of course - more balls were out of the pit than in. It was an amusing night which saw us back at our apartment at dawn.
Since our party fun, basically Jack and I haven't been doing much apart from working, eating and sleeping, as there is much to get done while we are here. We did venture out to Camden markets where I bought a scarf, jeans and a colourful jacket. And yes, pink is the main colour in my purchases... not intentionally. :P
So now I'm sick (probably caught it at the warehouse party) and have chosen to stay in bed and get well - although I am feeling bad about Jack doing everything today. I think I may help him take washing to the coin laundry. Maybe some fresh air will help... sniff.
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