I was pretty rough when i woke up this morning. I went downstairs and had a bit of food and then went back to bed. But we couldn’t waste the day so we left the house about 11.00, after a bit more food and rest; still feeling pretty bad. Hamish was at work (although he went in late) and Yukari had taken the kids to school but had other thingsto do for the day.
Kaoru and i walked in to Hackney and got a hot drink, and i also bought an apple to get some sugar and liquid in me. We then caught a bus in to London, going through Angel where Kaoru used to live, but nothing looked familiar to her. We got off at London Victoria and still nothing familiar to Kaoru; i wasn’t expecting it to look familiar to me as i only came in to London a couple of times in 2001.
We walked around for a bit towards TrafalgarSquare, and stopped somewhere for lunch. After our food stop we went to the National Gallery; it was somewhere Kaoru used to go to regularly, and she was able to make her way directly to her favorite picture – Madam de Pompedeau. The route to the picture was probably the most familiar part of the day to Kaoru!
We walked around the gallery for an hour or so, looking at a number of the works of art. We then left and had a look at Trafalgar Square. This was closed off largely, for a cricket demonstration, of different variations of the game. So we couldn’t actually get to the main structure.
We walked around for a while longer, eventually stopping for an ice cream. We even found a Moomin shop! After a bit more aimless wandering we caught a tube to London Bridge, figuring we should at least see that. We had to skip the first two “tubes” because they were too full. We pushed our way on to the 3rd. They are the most uncomfortable design for the last people on because of their shape – if you are against the wall you can’t stand up straight. There was also no air conditioning, and it was hot and muggy, so a pretty terrible experience allup.
Once we got to London Bridge, we both realized at about the same time that we wereactually thinking of Tower Bridge! Well, we were here now so we took some photos and walked halfway across the bridge for a look. We then started to walk towards the Tower Bridge, and decided to stop for food. I was getting quite hungry now which meant i finally felt sober from yesterday. Kaoru had pasta and i had lasagne and salad. Still without a beer though.
It was then time to make our way to Kings Cross, where we met up with Eiko – another of Kaoru’s friends from the travel company she was working at in the past. We found theagreed venue and went to the table Eiko had booked for us. But the venue was really loud and it wasn’t easy to communicate. We had 1 drink and then decided to leave.
We found another place very close which was much quieter. We had to wait 5 minutes for a table but it was well worth it. Yukari arrived not long after to join us, and we ordered some food and drinks. The girls mostly spoke in japanese and i just passed the time, but it was easier for them to catch up that way. Eiko had travelled about 2 hoursto get there so a good friend.
About 11ish, Yukari, Kaoru and i caught the bus home. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the right bus to come but it dropped us <5 minutes from the house. Hamish was up playing music but i was too tired to join him, as much as i wanted to, so we went to bed.