London for a spell

Wednesday 25^th November, 8pm-ish: 

I walked down from college to Parker’s piece, with two big bags and my bright woolly coat folded over my arm. I caught the 010 national express to London, a 2 hour turned 2 and a half hour journey to Victoria coach station, where I met Yingying and we took the bus to Abbey Road, and tumbling into the warmth of Megan’s lovely house, which is just in front of the zebra crossing which the Beatles famously walked over.

It's funny but one of my best memories with Megan was when we were on out choir trip in Secondary 2 in Spain. I had brought along Mum's digital camera, and I had spent most days taking pictures of the architecture and scenery of the places we'd been to. It was a really hot day as I recall and I was wearing one of my favourite tops - a sunshine yellow cotton one from India - and Megan suddenly asked if I wanted to have my picture taken on my camera since I hadn't any pictures of myself on it yet. I thought that was so thoughtful, and so now I have a picture somewhere of myself sitting in front of a lot of flowers in the sunshine in my sunshine top, to remember Megan who kindly thought of me. 

It's incredible that despite Megan being in America, Ying ying in London, and myself in Cambridge, we could all sit on one bed in one warm room and talk until after midnight.

Thursday 26^th November: 

I had 4 bananas for breakfast I think, or maybe 5, of maybe 4 and an apple. Anyhow, by the time Megan, Yings and I were near Leicester Square and had popped into a little Italian place for lunch, I still wasn't hungry. Megan had some sort of sea creature pasta that I think was oil based and yings had a cream based one. It's funny how I like to know which people prefer which pasta bases. I know Hannah likes cream based (carbonara in particular) and so does Tim I think. I was always a tomato based person. 

After that, we went into the very snazzy Picturehouse to buy tickets for 'The Lady in the Van'. I also got a little tub of vegan ice cream to take into the cinema, because why not? Maggie Smith was very good as usual, although I felt like most of the funny bits in the film had already been shown in the trailer or in film clips on Youtube, which was slightly disappointing. I found myself thinking of how different that old lady is to Grandma, who is much more docile and quiet. Sometimes I wish Grandma would be more assertive and live out the last few years of her life doing everything she wants to. I've asked her if she wants to come to Singapore next year when I fly back - perhaps she'll be able to see Ama and the Gardens by the Bay and have Roti Prata again, and dragon fruit...

We trailed around Oxford Street for a while, popping into Boots to get Yings some throat medicine, John Lewis to get Meg a hat and gloves, and the most wonderful vegan cafe, Vantra, for me to get lunch. I had the most delicious broccoli, thai coconut curry, chickpea moussaka and lentil dhal on a bed of wild rice. I also tried some 'sunflower seed cheese' which didn't taste anything like cheese really, but was still delicious! Meg and I bought a chocolate cake to have for dessert later on, and then we headed to LSE for a welfare party.

Since Meg and I aren't LSE students, we had to think of a game plan should our imposter-isation be discovered. And so Meg was supposed to be an economics student, and I a philosophy student, which is truly bonkers when you consider that I get Socrates, Plato and Aristotle mixed up, and can't even quote Wittgenstein properly (and the only reason I remember his name is because it sounds like my friend Samuel Wittberger)

Anyway, as I was pouring some mulled wine into a glass, a girl came up to me and said 'You look so familiar I'm sure I know you from somewhere.' I was so surprised I don't think I even gave an answer, but just smiled weakly and floated away, glass in hand. The second close shave was when I was introduced to someone else, and Yings told them I am 'studying Philosophy'. I had to stop myself from saying 'I am?' We left soon after that, Megan confessing she had been quite unfriendly to one girl who had been talking to her because she didn't want to give away the fact that she wasn't supposed to be there! 

Yings headed off for a debate, and Meg and I headed back, stopping to buy posters (Van Gogh's almond blossoms and a JAPAN poster) and dinner. In the dinner place, we overheard a lady at the next table being incredibly rude to her waitress, returning a dish she had ordered saying 'I'm not having that. I've had it before and it looks different.' Despite the waitresses patient explanations that it was because the menu had been overhauled and the presentation of dishes changed, which was clearly stated on the menu, the woman refused to be polite, insisting 'I won't eat this. I'm not having this.' The poor waitress had to take the dish back and get them to prepare another dish, and then she went outside the restaurant for a much-needed smoke to relax, poor girl.

I was dreadfully tired by then, and then last thing I remember was talking about Harry Potter houses, before drifting to sleep...

(Megan if you're reading this, I did the test that shows you your percentages of which house you're in, and got an equal majority (is that an oxymoron?) for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, followed by Gryffindor and then Slytherin. But I was put into Hufflepuff!)

Friday, 27th November:

Megan had to leave quite early to catch her flight back to America, but before she left we trooped downstairs, Yings, Meg and I, and did the quintessential tourist-at-Abbey-Road task - the walking-across-the-zebra-crossing photograph!

Yings and I went back up to have breakfast, and I grumbled about how terrible ALDI apples are compared to Sainsbury's apples (Staunch Sainsbury's supporter here!) before we set off for the tube. I took the train to Westminster to meet Nathan. I was quite stuck into 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and since I got off the train a couple of minutes early, I waited by the side of the station with my nose in that short story, before realising that Nathan had been standing in the middle of the station for probably the same amount of time that I had been reading at the side of the station!

We went to see the Tate Britain first. The last time I was in London with my family I'd gone to see the Tate modern, which in all honesty didn't strike me as interesting. Perhaps I didn't know how to appreciate art yet or maybe it's just modern art which I find odd and unstimulating, but the art in the Tate Britain was incredible. You waft through galleries of different time periods, and see portraits and scenery and city scapes and busts and sculpture and more... 

In the gallery of the art of the 1500s I had a good laugh, because many of the portraits that were there were the same ones I sourced from google images back in 2012 for my project 'The Venetian Tribune' - where we created a newspaper based on Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. My group's newspaper had an obituaries section - and the portraits hanging in the Tate's galleries were the same ones we had printed in our obituaries! I laughed to myself as I looked at them, thinking not of the colours or the attention to detail in the dress and such, but rather of the things I had written in my newspaper 'Died of childbirth' and 'Died of fever'...

I also really liked the art depicting Mary the Madonna. One sculpture showed her so realistically - tired, her shoulders slumped, her face not pearly and smooth but rough and with the skin showing signs of age and weariness. Another painting showed her as terribly young - so so so young. To be given such a huge physical and spiritual responsibility when you were 14 years old... I know I hadn't the faith and fortitude of spirit when I was 14 years old to be made the Madonna.

We headed to Oxford street again, because my tummy was calling me to Vantra again (apart from the delicious food and the top notch dessert (Meg and I both agreed that it didn't even taste like a raw vegan cake, and Meg gave it top marks although she isn't vegan!) there was also the minor draw of a very handsome cashier - but unfortunately he wasn't there the second time I went!) Oxford street was packed because Black Friday sales were on, but I wasn't there for clothes - I was there for curry!

I stuffed as much as possible into my takeaway box, and then we headed to St James' Park for lunch. We sat on a bench near very many ducks and geese and overlooking a pond - I think London is lucky to have such large green spaces despite being such a big and bustling city. I had my curry and rice and Nathan had some pasta he'd made the night before. Just as we finished lunch, Nathan said "I hope you aren't too full for fruit" and, being me and being never too full for fruit, I said I wasn't. AND THEN (!!!) He pulled out a big plastic tupperware of DRAGONFRUIT!

I think my jaw literally dropped - I haven't had dragonfruit since I brought some over in September. They're a very rare find in England! They were such a thoughtful gift, and I was so pleased. After having about half of the box and then being completely full, I was replete, but Nathan sprung another surprise on me because he brought out 3 more dragonfruit, still in the beautiful pink skins! They were  a present ,but I felt I couldn't accept all of them, and so I took one for myself and one for Grandma, because I remembered how much she loved their exotic colours. That was a completely unexpected surprise.

The coach ride back took 45 minutes longer than it was supposed to, and I was very tired by the time I got back (and also late for my Chinese CF) but I met a lost Peterhouse student looking for St Edmunds college and so I led him through Medwards to the back gate of St Eds before getting into my room, throwing my things down (although in the case of the dragonfruit and my roll of posters very carefully laying them on my bed) and then tearing on my bicycle through bucketing rain to Pembroke for CF, and arriving looking like a drowned rat.