What a week, what a telling tale of my London life, so
vibrant and dynamic, so full of social life, culture and art, delicious food
and drinks! A brief overview follows.
Monday. Monday was awesome. It already feels like a month
ago but it’s really only last Monday that I boarded a train to Watford to go
running with lady Dana. In my suit, on the train, with a large Tesco ‘save the
rainforest’ bag that contained my sports gear, shoes, and what not. Once
arrived I was pretty sure this ought not to be called ‘London’ anymore but
apparently the village of Watford is part of greater London and thus I ended up
running in a forest, in London. But how awesome was that! Lots of greenery,
parks, forest, hills; English countryside really. And pouring rain to accompany
us for the last 30 minutes, great treat that was too. Dana has a decent pace so
it was actually a good exercise as well, plenty of reason to go again for the
all-famous ‘canal run’. Ostensible returning subject of conversation of Watford’s
most dedicated runners. Returning to her house a warm shower and a lovely meal
awaited me, enhancing the appeal of re-doing the entire experience. The
(expensive) train journey back late in the evening plus the fair distance by
bike through nightly London were less appreciated but that’s the price you pay
for sports in the forest when you live in Whitechapel.
Tuesday was actually scheduled Tony-time, which basically
entails a couch, a lot of tasty food, music / television / movie, and no people
around. Well, that was the plan, but Dana’s (again her) invitation to join a
birthday party of a friend of hers in a pub somewhere far from where I live was
too tempting to neglect and thus David and I took the tube for some pints and
an evening full of chatter and laughter. No elaboration.
Wednesday I watched ‘twelfth night’ by Shakespeare at the Globe,
a stunning three hour play that I enjoyed most thoroughly. Fun fact is that the
majority of the spectators had to withstand the rain whilst watching men
dressed as women and men dressed as knights kissing and fighting each other while
I was sitting comfortable on my wooden bench shielded by a roof. Despite its
ancient feel, the Globe isn’t as old as it pretends to be, as my colleague Tim
said that “the building wasn’t there when I first came to London”, and I wouldn’t
go as far as saying that he’s THAT old. He already calls me a straight talker
and I’m, naturally, behaving spotlessly hitherto, particularly at work. I even
learnt a new sentence that’s already one of my favourites and thus made it to
the title of this update. Meaning would be ‘yeah I pretty much intend to do
that indeed’ but then in old English. How cool!
Thursday was all about food. Lunch out, barbeque and drinks
at the office after work, and thereafter out for dinner, the former and the
latter accompanying Lotte to check out venues for the upcoming business course. Nice taste of what bliss is going to take place the end of November!
The weekend, finally, was full of Bo, who arrived Friday
evening after what felt like months apart while it really has only been three
weeks. Fortunately she’s back in another two and a half so that ought to be
manageable. Soaking wet and beaming with job we had Indian eh Pakistani food
Friday before heading to Jaguar Shoes which is becoming one of my favourite
bars already. The play by Charles Dickens that we reserved tickets for on
Saturday happened to be at the other side of the city, really, and as half the
tube lines were under construction I decided for a pleasant hour and a half
bike ride through central London. The Barclays bikes have been treating me very
well so far so I thought a bit of exercise and sightseeing made a blissful
combination and thus we set off well in advance so that in case we took a wrong
turn or two plenty of flexibility would guarantee us a timely arrival at said
location. So far so good, as indeed over half an hour early we gazed up at the
pretty mansion that hosts a pub on the ground floor and a theatre below, after
a satisfying and lengthy bike ride. Well, you may understand, that the bikes
have to be returned to these units, and once you click ‘em into one of these
units, the system knows you have returned your rental bike and they don’t
charge you 250 pounds for renting a bike infinitely. And these units, so to
say, are as plentiful in East London as bums in Katowice or moustaches in Delhi,
as you cannot take a turn here in the streets without bumping into one. Thus I
presumed this was the case in all of central London, which it wasn’t. So, in
the end, we end up looking for these racks for over an hour, we missed the
show, and had to cycle back towards the last location where I had seen the
stations. Frustration all over, but that was quickly washed away with a few
pints and a cocktail thereafter with a stunning view over St Pauls Cathedral.
By now I really feel like going to sleep as tomorrow will be
an early day full of ardent work and zealous dedication. Soon more and better!
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