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oh, felicia. where the fuck are we (the expanded version).
so, london yesterday with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
servalan and cannons_at_dawn. we were intending to go price second-hand instruments for what we insist will be a really excellent cover band; when the pricing turned out to be Yeah, Way Too High in every single instance, we settled for wandering around and being happy to be in london. (and we caught the Reduced Shakespeare Company as well. yay! have finally seen their shakespeare show live; it was the only one i hadn't seen.)
we left for the train station at 9:30 or so and got the 10:05 to paddington, which was running late because of line congestion. (rar, privatisation. rar.) train was packed -- football match in reading? or somewhere -- and we stood most of the way there. but no matter. we rolled in and hopped on the tube and fetched up in Embankment around 11:00. had some lunch, wandered about for a bit, got our RSC tix, discussed some future plan to come down for Mamma Mia and/or We Will Rock You, wandered around some more. lunch, coffee, extremely expensive guitars, wandering. show. got out of the show at 7:00.
which is when the fun began.
let us go for drinks at this really excellent pub,cannons_at_dawn says. great! so we walk from the theatre district to fleet street, which takes about half an hour; no problem, only it's also getting to where i, at least, have used up my lunch and must eat before becoming the angry low-blood-sugar monster who's no fun at all to be around. we reach the pub, and are directed to the room in which they claim to serve food from noon to 10pm. the girl behind the bar is surprised to see us, and i hear her on the phone with some manager-type person. this is a direct quote: "Are we still serving food in the Cellar Bar, now that it's open? Just drinks, okay. Thanks!"
guy in the front said that was where there was food to be served. sign said 12 noon to 10pm. girl confirms that because that part of the pub is now open, they are no longer serving food.
the logic utterly escapes me.
anyway, so we wander off to see if we can't find somewhere that will feed us. initial plan is to take a tube back to westminster, but because of engineering work, there is no service on most of the district line or any of the circle line. we wander for another while, finding no tube stops where we can get on a bloody train and no cafes, sandwich shops, or anything at all open (saturday evening in a business district -- i get it, but still), but finally find a pub where they're serving food at blackfriars. thank god. food, drink, we all feel better, and we leave the pub around 10:00.
and try to find a tube stop. again.
we finally do find a tube stop served by the central line, which is mercifully actually running, and we get back to paddington at about 10:45, where we discover that the last direct train to oxford left at 10:00 and the 11:03 will take us as far as didcot parkway (which we've at least heard of), where we can transfer to a bus that will take us the rest of the way home.
grr.
so we get on the train, which is (shock of shocks) packed, manage to find seats (across from a very nice couple from new zealand, on the way to visit his sister in sacramento for thanksgiving -- really, he was drunk enough that we learned a great deal about these people in the short time we spent together; she found the whole thing v. amusing), and stopped at every station along the way -- stopped for about half an hour, in fact, where there was no station, because for a stretch there was just one track, and we had to wait for two trains to pass us in the other direction. half an hour apart.
rar.
finally rolled into didcot about 12:30, i'd say, maybe a little later. got on the bus, which apparently took the LONG WAY from didcot to oxford -- the woman across the aisle from me was shocked at how long it took to get home. got off the bus in oxford and walked home through the drunkenness of a saturday night, including a block or so where we wondered who'd been bleeding on the pavement, and then saw the answer to our question (guy whose friends were trying to get him to tell them what happened; the police were there as well). urgh.servalan and cannons_at_dawn walked me home and then went back to their building, and i came inside and tried to understand where my headache had come from, before i remembered: it came from london.
i do love london. don't get me wrong. like new york, somehow i feel happier just from being there. but, honestly, i'd forgotten what the place does to my sinuses. maybe if i lived there i'd get used to it, and it eventually wouldn't bother me as much, but at the moment? as much as i love it, dudes. (seriously: spend a day in london. then blow your nose.) anyway, ibuprofen, water, and sleep. and i slept and slept and will shortly be off to choir practice.
servalan and cannons_at_dawn. we were intending to go price second-hand instruments for what we insist will be a really excellent cover band; when the pricing turned out to be Yeah, Way Too High in every single instance, we settled for wandering around and being happy to be in london. (and we caught the Reduced Shakespeare Company as well. yay! have finally seen their shakespeare show live; it was the only one i hadn't seen.)we left for the train station at 9:30 or so and got the 10:05 to paddington, which was running late because of line congestion. (rar, privatisation. rar.) train was packed -- football match in reading? or somewhere -- and we stood most of the way there. but no matter. we rolled in and hopped on the tube and fetched up in Embankment around 11:00. had some lunch, wandered about for a bit, got our RSC tix, discussed some future plan to come down for Mamma Mia and/or We Will Rock You, wandered around some more. lunch, coffee, extremely expensive guitars, wandering. show. got out of the show at 7:00.
which is when the fun began.
let us go for drinks at this really excellent pub,
cannons_at_dawn says. great! so we walk from the theatre district to fleet street, which takes about half an hour; no problem, only it's also getting to where i, at least, have used up my lunch and must eat before becoming the angry low-blood-sugar monster who's no fun at all to be around. we reach the pub, and are directed to the room in which they claim to serve food from noon to 10pm. the girl behind the bar is surprised to see us, and i hear her on the phone with some manager-type person. this is a direct quote: "Are we still serving food in the Cellar Bar, now that it's open? Just drinks, okay. Thanks!"guy in the front said that was where there was food to be served. sign said 12 noon to 10pm. girl confirms that because that part of the pub is now open, they are no longer serving food.
the logic utterly escapes me.
anyway, so we wander off to see if we can't find somewhere that will feed us. initial plan is to take a tube back to westminster, but because of engineering work, there is no service on most of the district line or any of the circle line. we wander for another while, finding no tube stops where we can get on a bloody train and no cafes, sandwich shops, or anything at all open (saturday evening in a business district -- i get it, but still), but finally find a pub where they're serving food at blackfriars. thank god. food, drink, we all feel better, and we leave the pub around 10:00.
and try to find a tube stop. again.
we finally do find a tube stop served by the central line, which is mercifully actually running, and we get back to paddington at about 10:45, where we discover that the last direct train to oxford left at 10:00 and the 11:03 will take us as far as didcot parkway (which we've at least heard of), where we can transfer to a bus that will take us the rest of the way home.
grr.
so we get on the train, which is (shock of shocks) packed, manage to find seats (across from a very nice couple from new zealand, on the way to visit his sister in sacramento for thanksgiving -- really, he was drunk enough that we learned a great deal about these people in the short time we spent together; she found the whole thing v. amusing), and stopped at every station along the way -- stopped for about half an hour, in fact, where there was no station, because for a stretch there was just one track, and we had to wait for two trains to pass us in the other direction. half an hour apart.
rar.
finally rolled into didcot about 12:30, i'd say, maybe a little later. got on the bus, which apparently took the LONG WAY from didcot to oxford -- the woman across the aisle from me was shocked at how long it took to get home. got off the bus in oxford and walked home through the drunkenness of a saturday night, including a block or so where we wondered who'd been bleeding on the pavement, and then saw the answer to our question (guy whose friends were trying to get him to tell them what happened; the police were there as well). urgh.
servalan and cannons_at_dawn walked me home and then went back to their building, and i came inside and tried to understand where my headache had come from, before i remembered: it came from london.i do love london. don't get me wrong. like new york, somehow i feel happier just from being there. but, honestly, i'd forgotten what the place does to my sinuses. maybe if i lived there i'd get used to it, and it eventually wouldn't bother me as much, but at the moment? as much as i love it, dudes. (seriously: spend a day in london. then blow your nose.) anyway, ibuprofen, water, and sleep. and i slept and slept and will shortly be off to choir practice.
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Oh My Gawd, yes, I always forget that. Hideous. And your fingernails...
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used to live in london - don't remember any problems with the air but then again the tube has a bizarre melange of odors that might contribute to that... still a great system of travel, though apparently not when you most needed it.