Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 December 2006 07:54:02
So, those of you following the action on Auntie Doris' blog will now know not only how accurate your maths is, but also what I was doing last weekend. Disappointingly, however, she forgot to mention the dog we saw at the farmers' market on Saturday, which appeared to be wearing a canine-sized bright pink golf jumper. It was a special moment.
Anyway, we did have a little bit of time apart over the weekend, when I went into London to meet up with some friends. Now, I like the idea of visiting London, but I always find it too busy, with too many people in too little space. And I've never really experienced the, ahem "joys" of a Saturday night out in central London before... Well, I have now.
My friends had phoned to say that their train timetable had been disrupted and that they would be about half an hour late, which left me with rather a lot of time to wander around. First thing's first - somewhere with a toilet. Having found the local McDonald's (always good for a loo, if not for very much worth eating) I was a little diturbed to see that a TV screen seemed to be beaming pictures of people standing at the urinals to everybody in the place. Upon closer inspection, however, it turned out they were standing at those automatic hand washing/drying machines McD's have. Reassured, I went in, did the necessary, and then accidentally stuck my head round the door of the ladies' while trying to find my way back out again. The less said the better, there.
Back out into Leicester Square itself, and the whole place was dominated by an enormous fairground that had been set up in the square. Lots of lights, lots of music, and lots and lots of people. The most notable thing was the enormous - and I mean ENORMOUS - cuddly toys that most of the stalls had as prizes. I hadn't realised quite how big they were until a group of Japanese tourists came past, one of them carrying on his back a toy elephant that was almost the same size as him.
Then a quick look outside the cinema at the mini version of the "film stars' handprints in cement" thing they have in Hollywood. The most notable things here were: 1) Helena Bonham Carter has very small hands; 2) Clint Eastwood has very big hands; and 3) Ben Kingsley has not yet demanded that his plaque be changed to read "Sir Ben Kingsley" (there were a few Sirs in the line-up - Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Sean Connery, to name but the ones I can remember).
Anyway, eventually my friends showed up and we wandered through the enormous crowds to Pizza Express, where the staff were a little surly but the food was rather nice. A few hours later, we were heading back in our respective directions - mine involving the adventure of trying to walk down a stopped London Underground escalator after drinking half a bottle of wine (it's a disorientating experience when sober, so you can imagine the fun I was having). And then, as soon as I got on the train, the cold that had been brewing for a couple of days decided to manifest itself at last, as an unending stream of snot that insisted on flowing from my nostrils all the way back to Hertford. Lovely. But a fun time was had by all concerned, and I finally had the opportunity to say, "Farewell Leicester Square".