After the barbecue and the beachcombing last weekend, both Julianne and Todd stayed over at Geoff’s too and we went to feed the (little) ducks in his pond the morning after. We watched mummy Moorhen bring the bread we threw in for her, to her babies. Then we walked towards one of the nearby stations and eventually ended up at Stratford, visiting Europe’s largest shopping centre. So yeah, taking it easy, although not quite like a tourist. In fact, I noticed I have less patience with the bloody tourists blocking the escalators than the actual locals even. I mean, it’s not that hard to ‘keep left’, right?
Speaking of travelling… The last two days I’ve been studying in my pal Graham’s London office and one of the assignments had to do with travelling. I had to listen to some file on the site of my uni, which would teach me how to pronounce ‘difficult’ names of the London tube stations. Like Gloucester Road. (If you read this in my voice, do read that in the perfect way to pronounce it!) I wasn’t very surprised that the file was nowhere to be found, but then I remembered I had been listening to announcements at stations all the time these past two weeks… (‘and take all your belongings with you’)!
I also minded the gap at Covent Garden, where I went to get comfortable footwear and ended up with a nice hat, to (literally) keep cool, too. Then I stumbled upon this lovely little place right outside the market. The heat drew my attention to its sign advertising their banana milkshakes. And they sure know to make those. With real bananas and everything. But that’s not all. They were also very helpful and friendly and offered even more food than I could eat in this weather. Highly recommended! The tube was of course extremely hot, but it got slightly better on the DisneyLand Railway.
The DLR I mean. This was also because I had a little accident with my sparkling water bottle. Although honestly, if I had realised beforehand how nice that would feel, I’d have shaken the bottle deliberately. Luckily it happened before someone sat down next to me. The nice boy that did end up in that seat, with his younger sibling on his lap, turned out to be German. When I got out I replied in my ‘best’ German: ‘Du kannst hier sitzen’, leaving them with a surprised look. Priceless. When I walked into the local supermarket, the thought of sleeping in the cold store that night crossed my mind, but they probably wouldn’t have let me.
So I went home to cook for the guys instead. We went for an after dinner walk too and I made a new friend. Todd captured that moment of me petting the black kitty. I do miss my own little buddy, but I frequently hear from my parents that he’s doing rather well (as they are spoiling him). Anyway, we sat in the garden till well late, especially on the Dutch clock, although that one doesn’t count much now. We watched the bats get rid of a few mozzies and I counted myself lucky that the score is still 0-3 in favour of me against the little suckers. Not one mosquito bite! Neither did I get sunburned, touch wood.
We also went to the little farm around the corner by the way and we had another walk along the Thames. In that last picture, with the O2 Arena, I just love the clouds (even if I’m not supposed to, as an amateur astronomer)… And that’s it for my little update really. This Friday, Steven is joining me for the last week here in London. We’ll stay at Annie’s and go to the RAS picnic together. There’s also another visit to this We Will Rock You musical planned and I’m sure there’ll be another mini-gathering of (Zoo) friends to say bye-for-now before we’ll ferry back. I am a very lucky lady to have such dear friends indeed.
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2 Comments
Lovely hat! And… Only 3 hours and 45 minutes to go!