I arrived in London on Friday evening, a little after the time the host and I had agreed upon thanks to a late flight departure. It was still earlier than it would have been if I'd caught the multi-stage flight that was on my itinerary.
The flat was lovely. Small and with many stairs, but neat and clean, and the room was very decently sized (and had an air-filter/air-conditioner, not that it was needed). The host was very courteous, but also tended to stay out of my way. I guess that's the thing - I've noticed a few of the places where I stayed with someone, they kept very much out of the way which...I don't mind, but it's their place. I'm just a guest in it. At least, that's the attitude I take when travelling and staying at other people's homes.
Anyway, on Saturday, I caught the train out to Peterborough to meet![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rmc28 and we had a grand day talking, going out on the steam train (where I saw Thomas the Tank Engine, and took photos to send to my nephews back home), and just generally hanging out. Got back to town in the late afternoon, and bought a mango and a fruit juice. And that was dinner.
Gosh it was nice to eat something light after weeks of never quite feeling hungry!
An interesting moment in London - I caught several East Asian women - young, pretty, with a kind of 'china doll' look to them - giving me sideways looks as I passed the in the street. Not just one, but several. And I'm curious as to what it was. I'm pretty tanned after Italy, but also, I don't wear makeup to cover it up. And all the women I passed were wearing makeup at least one shade lighter than their untanned skin colour. And makeup has never been my thing anyway (my mother did minimal makeup).
Anyway, I don't think I look my age (the women on the Georgia tour were astonished at my age), but I don't imagine these young women give older women a second glance anywhere else. I just felt like I was being sized up by all the young twentysomethings of my racial type, which was very odd.
Sunday was watching a midday game between Chelsea and Leicester City withrmc28. There are two Aussies from the national team playing on Chelsea (Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter) and one on Leicester City (Emily Van Egmond), but I didn't realise EVE was on Leicester City until at the end of the game when the team came over to support the Leicester fans (who were in the stands near us) and another Aussie called for EVE to take a selfie. I wish I'd asked - no way was I going to get to SK or EC at a Chelsea game - but I couldn't think because I wasn't expecting it. So, uh, I photobombed her photo. *shame* I didn't think, it was stupid, ARGH, DUMBARSE.
She'll probably use AI to remove the stupid person in the back of her photo. I hope not. But I also hope so. So sorry, fellow Aussie. Dishonour on me, dishonour on my instincts...
(side note: I've noticed I can't think of words since I got COVID in HK. I'll spend a while trying to think of the word I mean and it's there, I know what I want to use, but I can't remember the specific word I'm looking for, which I've often had in the past yes, but it seems that much worse. Just then, I was trying to think of the word "photobomb" and came up with "roofied" which...no. NO.)
Funny story about ticketing:rmc28 bought tickets for us in one of the stands, which we assumed was seated stands. Nope. Standing only. We ended up buying a second set of tickets for actual seats, which was right next to the Leicester City supporter bracket and got...a little rowdy. Luckily both rmc28 and I had the spare dosh and were happy to support women's sports. But they really need to mark it as 'standing tickets' - apparently they usually do, but for some reason these weren't.
Anyway, Chelsea won 1-0, lovely goal, but not Sam or Ellie. And after that,rmc28 and I went for fish and chips at a local chippie and WOW IT WAS REALLY GOOD. Huge fish and chunky chips. So good. Then she had to go assist admin for an ice hockey game for a London club, and I had to get back to Central London to take a rest before heading out to watch Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre.
Thanks so much,rmc28 for coming out and meeting me on not just one, but two days! It was so great to catch up, talk, see a bit more of the UK, go steam-training, and watch women's football!
And then I went to see Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre - the old-fashioned style theatre that Shakespeare's plays would have been shown in (ever seen 'Shakespeare In Love'? That kind of theatre). Six or seven years ago, there was a Popup Globe that came to Australia, and I saw shows in Sydney and in Melbourne, dragging various friends along, and it was just the best fun. Highly recommended.
On the way home, went and picked up some wagamama munchies - not for dinner, but for lunch the next day while I was on the train. An EastAsian-fusion restaurant, wagamama went out of business in Australia a decade ago and more, but apparently is still doing pretty well here. Not entirely surprising, I guess. We have so much food from Asia - East, South-East, South, not to mention all the other types of food from non-white countries we have in abundance - that something that's 'Asian lite' is not going to get much traffic here.
I got back to the room, and chatted a bit with the host. A nice longer chat, we touched on a bunch of topics, and I was a little disappointed that I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him earlier.
But the place was excellently positioned, near an underground station with three lines passing through it. My only complaint was that it was a little close to a couple of pubs that were very noisy on a Friday night, although they quietened significantly after 11pm.
And the next day, I caught a train up to Chesterfield to meet the tour group for the Pride and Prejudice pilgrimage...
The flat was lovely. Small and with many stairs, but neat and clean, and the room was very decently sized (and had an air-filter/air-conditioner, not that it was needed). The host was very courteous, but also tended to stay out of my way. I guess that's the thing - I've noticed a few of the places where I stayed with someone, they kept very much out of the way which...I don't mind, but it's their place. I'm just a guest in it. At least, that's the attitude I take when travelling and staying at other people's homes.
Anyway, on Saturday, I caught the train out to Peterborough to meet
rmc28 and we had a grand day talking, going out on the steam train (where I saw Thomas the Tank Engine, and took photos to send to my nephews back home), and just generally hanging out. Got back to town in the late afternoon, and bought a mango and a fruit juice. And that was dinner.Gosh it was nice to eat something light after weeks of never quite feeling hungry!
An interesting moment in London - I caught several East Asian women - young, pretty, with a kind of 'china doll' look to them - giving me sideways looks as I passed the in the street. Not just one, but several. And I'm curious as to what it was. I'm pretty tanned after Italy, but also, I don't wear makeup to cover it up. And all the women I passed were wearing makeup at least one shade lighter than their untanned skin colour. And makeup has never been my thing anyway (my mother did minimal makeup).
Anyway, I don't think I look my age (the women on the Georgia tour were astonished at my age), but I don't imagine these young women give older women a second glance anywhere else. I just felt like I was being sized up by all the young twentysomethings of my racial type, which was very odd.
Sunday was watching a midday game between Chelsea and Leicester City with
rmc28. There are two Aussies from the national team playing on Chelsea (Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter) and one on Leicester City (Emily Van Egmond), but I didn't realise EVE was on Leicester City until at the end of the game when the team came over to support the Leicester fans (who were in the stands near us) and another Aussie called for EVE to take a selfie. I wish I'd asked - no way was I going to get to SK or EC at a Chelsea game - but I couldn't think because I wasn't expecting it. So, uh, I photobombed her photo. *shame* I didn't think, it was stupid, ARGH, DUMBARSE.She'll probably use AI to remove the stupid person in the back of her photo. I hope not. But I also hope so. So sorry, fellow Aussie. Dishonour on me, dishonour on my instincts...
(side note: I've noticed I can't think of words since I got COVID in HK. I'll spend a while trying to think of the word I mean and it's there, I know what I want to use, but I can't remember the specific word I'm looking for, which I've often had in the past yes, but it seems that much worse. Just then, I was trying to think of the word "photobomb" and came up with "roofied" which...no. NO.)
Funny story about ticketing:
rmc28 bought tickets for us in one of the stands, which we assumed was seated stands. Nope. Standing only. We ended up buying a second set of tickets for actual seats, which was right next to the Leicester City supporter bracket and got...a little rowdy. Luckily both rmc28 and I had the spare dosh and were happy to support women's sports. But they really need to mark it as 'standing tickets' - apparently they usually do, but for some reason these weren't. Anyway, Chelsea won 1-0, lovely goal, but not Sam or Ellie. And after that,
rmc28 and I went for fish and chips at a local chippie and WOW IT WAS REALLY GOOD. Huge fish and chunky chips. So good. Then she had to go assist admin for an ice hockey game for a London club, and I had to get back to Central London to take a rest before heading out to watch Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre.Thanks so much,
rmc28 for coming out and meeting me on not just one, but two days! It was so great to catch up, talk, see a bit more of the UK, go steam-training, and watch women's football!And then I went to see Twelfth Night at the Globe Theatre - the old-fashioned style theatre that Shakespeare's plays would have been shown in (ever seen 'Shakespeare In Love'? That kind of theatre). Six or seven years ago, there was a Popup Globe that came to Australia, and I saw shows in Sydney and in Melbourne, dragging various friends along, and it was just the best fun. Highly recommended.
On the way home, went and picked up some wagamama munchies - not for dinner, but for lunch the next day while I was on the train. An EastAsian-fusion restaurant, wagamama went out of business in Australia a decade ago and more, but apparently is still doing pretty well here. Not entirely surprising, I guess. We have so much food from Asia - East, South-East, South, not to mention all the other types of food from non-white countries we have in abundance - that something that's 'Asian lite' is not going to get much traffic here.
I got back to the room, and chatted a bit with the host. A nice longer chat, we touched on a bunch of topics, and I was a little disappointed that I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him earlier.
But the place was excellently positioned, near an underground station with three lines passing through it. My only complaint was that it was a little close to a couple of pubs that were very noisy on a Friday night, although they quietened significantly after 11pm.
And the next day, I caught a train up to Chesterfield to meet the tour group for the Pride and Prejudice pilgrimage...
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Ohhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait to hear about this!
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"HUGS"
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