So, regardless of the fact that I’m comfortably sitting in my own bed with my own pillows right now and clearly not in London, I need to wrap up some loose ends.
In traveling to London, I had two goals: go to class and hang out with two of my favorite beings of all time, Courtney and Tara. Having scheduled their trip to overlap with my time in London, the fact that I was sick with what may have been a fever was not going to stop the part of my adventure that I had been most looking forward to.
Of course, delay that adventure for 45 mins as we know certain people are notoriously late and I am absolutely one of them at times. So the V&A is about to close when I with my newly purchased zipper earrings finally see Tara trying to get in to the museum. Security is almost not buying it, but rainbow hats cannot fail to be seen and therefore our adventure begins.
We walk around the Kensignton area – I know this only because of the Tube stop names, if someone asked me what district I was in NYC, I’d have no idea – and attempt to make it to the All Saints store where Courtney and Tara had been window shopping. Its closed, but around the corner we find Tara’s demi-god, not an appearance of her guru as I can’t really joke about that, but the one and only Whole Foods. Can you believe it? Tara is like one of those water finding sticks but instead its about good grocery stores. Now would you believe it if I told you that we spent at least an hour in this Whole Foods – I feel a Get Smart joke coming on but I’ll resist. So, time flies when you’re in a Whole Foods. We eventually make our exit and I navigate us to the raw food restaurant that I had researched in preparation for this visit. Saf is a beautiful restaurant, Courtney makes me order a lemon ginger drink to get me to feel better. Delish! In actuality, everything is good. Nut cheeses, sweet potato thingies, apple cheesecake! Yum!
At this point I’ve read my watch to say 10:30. I think this is accurate. However, we make our way over to Roxy Bar and Screen – Courtney had some desire to visit here and, you know me I’m a film person. So we get lost, we get found, we ask, we find and there we are: Roxy Bar and Screen. And its delightful. Of course we’ve missed the short films but its a wonderful red velvet curtain walled lounge with leathery couches pulled in like stands in arena but this time surrounding a pull down screen where some unexpectedly violent film is taking place. Minus the child being shot in the head in a church, I’m all for the place. We don’t order drinks, we rest our feet, I try not to be sick and we have a good time. Then I take a look down at my watch and its 12:00 or so. What the heck?
Now we’re scurrying back to the Tube, which closes at 12:30. We make it, we think. I get Courtney and Tara to a destination where they can catch a bus and I take the next stop to transfer to my line – so I think. But no, the Eastbound Tube is closed. I’m stuck with searching for a night bus. Luckily, Tara had forced me into taking the bus map and Courtney had attached an empty whole foods back to my wrist. Like I said, I wasn’t feeling well. So for a moment I’m distracted trying to get to the right bus stop to get the right bus to get to the next station and repeat the process. It goes smoothly! I’m feeling terribly ill though by the time the bus passes a place I recognize, so I get out to walk the rest of the way home. Night air is good for you? Uhuh. Its a 5 block walk to my residence and half way through, out comes that bag and out comes raw food. I now count on one hand how many times I’ve thrown up in my recent memory. Funny that number 4 actually makes me feel better.
The next day I’m completely fine. Remnants of a fever but feeling amazing. When I run into Courtney and Tara at our Whole Foods meeting locale, we exchange bus stories. Did I get the short end of the stick?! Chaperon service vs. middle of the street upchuck? Oh well. Again, we don’t make it to All Saints before they close. We wander to Portobello Market as I hadn’t been there yet. All closed up but I get my picture of verification. Soon enough we all have to get back to our respective places and its the end of the trip. I’ve gotten a whole 9 hours in with my girls and then they’re off to Paris. I always get a tad sad about their leaving but thats life. We wave goodbye only to keep in mind how wonderful our time together was.
Heading out!
Small Girl, Big City 