Emily and Armando just recently arrived back from their multi-month trip to South East Asia and Emily and I have been texting about getting together. A plan was hatched: Ange, Anna and I would take the 9am train into London, catch the tube over to the place they're staying at and we'd go for lunch and do something 'touristy'.
So, by 8:30 the three of us piled out of the house, Anna in the Baby Bjorn, and a little backpack of food and nappies for the day. The walk over to the train station takes about 20 minutes, but by the time we'd stood in the queue for our tickets, we missed the 9am fast train into Paddinton Station (by about a minute). No problem, trains leave for London every 15 minutes on a Sudnay, so we purchased some train-station-priced coffee and found our platform. We got on the train and sat ourselves down, only vaguely realising that we had got ourselves on the Sunday calling-at-all-stations train. The fast train takes about 25 minutes. The one we got on took 50. It was unfortunate and ill-advised with Anna in need of a nap.
There is something special about arriving in a London train station. You feel like you have arrived somewhere special, be it Waterloo or Liverpool Street, Victoria or Paddington. We got caught up in the crowd and Anna was especially intrigued by 4 little girls skipping hand-in-hand singing London Bridge has Fallen Down in full chorus. I had no idea there were so many verses. We kept pace with them as much for ourselves to learn the new verses as for Anna's clear facination. Sadly our little entertainers took us the wrong direction and we ended up on the opposite side of the station from where we needed to be. We checked the signs and plodded back to literally where we had got off to take the Hammersmith & City line direectly to Emily. Only, the Hammersmith & City line was closed all weekend for "essential repair work." We then trecked back to where the singing girls had taken us in the first place to get on another line, which involved a transfer. Suddenly our 10am meeting time was closer to 11:30.
Emily and Armando took it in stride when we met up with them at Dave and Dan's appartment in the East End. It was very good to see everyone, as we've known Dave for years and Dan we met last time we were here. Dave, in fact, took on Ange in a still often referenced "Dance Off" one nice at a club in London a few years back. Emily is looking really good. Despite being well pregnant now, she is hardly showing. We quickly fed Anna and charged off to the Flower Market. Only, as we were leaving, we realised the it had started to rain. anna was now in her new little London-sized buggy (stroller) which we had no rain cover for. We manipulated a small umbrella into the frame of the push chair, which covered all of here except for her feet.
We then seemed to get lost on the way to the market, which was a shame because we were all quite cold and wet when we got there... and what a very cool market. Every imagineable kind of flower and wild assortment of potted plants stuffed into a little east end lane. All sorts of voices yelled out from hundreds of stalls. As far as I can tell, you could get just about any permeatation or comination for "only a fiver". Some of them even claimed to the masses that, "I'm crazy to do it, but I'm givin' free [3] bunches for a fiva!" I'm not sure he was crazy. After all, there were guys either side of him and 2 meters across from him doing exactly the same thing with much the same flowers and plants. Behind the overstuffed stalls were funky little shops selling everything from designer clothes to georgeous baked goods and coffee. Lunch being ages away, we had a coffee and a savoury treat that still makes my mouth water. What was astounding was that as the rain lashed down, this place was packed. Our mini buggy only just fit, but with an umbrella sitting on top, it was a genuine hazard in amongst the people. No one seemed to notice how wet it was.
Still, we didn't last too long. We poked our head in a couple of stores. One to get a blanket for Anna, who had very wet feet by now. Unfotunately, designer blankets cost 40 quid and we couldn't justify it. We walked over to the high street and bought her a cheap little outfit she will never wear again, but it was dry. AND, it came in a plastic bag that we put around Anna's legs and clipped in so she couldn't eat it. Dry and warm, Anna was still without nap and it was pushing 3pm. She couldn't handle the restaurant and Ange and I had to dive out and head back to the flat without eveyrone so Anna could get a brief nap. The crowd filtered back to the flat by 4:30 and by 6:00 Ange and I were looking at the time to head home.
Of course, the trip back involved all sorts of tube problems and it was nearly 10pm when we got back to our flat in Caversham. Somehow, we had managed to spend 60 quid going to and from London and eating whilst there. But we hadn't actually done anythiing. It was extraordinary. It was, however, great to be back in London. We are now officially here in our minds. Also, we know a little bit more about taking Anna out on the trains in England in her new "I'm mobile" age. We also know that we must revisit the flower market in the summer.
The first photo is of Anna showing off her new outfit that Dave got for her. The second is entirely gratuitous: Anna and I watching the NHL highlights from the night before very, very early in the morning... after Anna decided 5:20 was a good time to wake up. Also notice the comfotable computer table set-up we have going. We have since replaced the trunk with a large box that her high chair came in, since it puts the screen more out of reach. In turn, we're now trying to stop Anna from eating the computer-table-box, as she's taken a liking to chewing on cardboard.
No comments:
Post a Comment