Woke up at Flick and Gerry's slightly hungover, packed my bags and bought a coach ticket to London then went to lunch with Flick and Gerry at a nice place called The Vine. Oh and Gerry emailed me the kindle version of his latest book, which so far looks awesome (Sitting In by Gerry O'Brien).
Jumped on a coach and headed back to London. Lewis was meant to be meeting me with Cumu but somehow managed to get Victoria Station mixed up with the whole Victoria train line so I had to jump on the tube to Brixton and wait outside a KFC for half an hour for him. But it was made better by the pair of black midgets and the fact that while outside a KFC a black guy walked past eating half a watermelon. Stereotypes coming true are hilarious (I'm not racist, but midgets are funny and we don't see a lot of black guys around our area). All in all Brixton struck me as the London equivalent of Redfern in Sydney.
Finally got to Lewis' mates', Justin and Meredith, place and dropped off my stuff before Lewis and I headed out to Shoreditch, which we were recommended. Don't go out in Shoreditch if your not an overly rich, pretentious hipster. Apparently there is one good street to go out on but we certainly didn't find it. The first place we went in was called Cargo, £10 entry each and then we ordered a drink each and it was £15.50. We did not buy another drink. It was a shame because the venue it self was cool, high rounded roofs, decent music, nice outside area, cool decorations, just super expensive. After Cargo we wandered around looking for somewhere better and walked past a club, called Avalon funnily enough, where we were given fliers promising £5 entry and were told it was £2 beers. Intrigued by this apparent nirvana of inexpensive alcohol we entered, paid our £5 and were then forced by the bouncer to hand our jackets in at the coatroom where we were charged an extra £2 for them to be stored. I want to reiterate we had to do this, because it seems so ridiculous. We then retreated to the bar to take advantage of the £2 beer offer. Beers were £4. We went home.
The next morning, finally on a nice summer day, we lazed around a bit before Lewis gave me a ride to Stockwell Station (the closer ones being closed due to a strike) and caught the tube to Archway, then walked to Clem's (an old friend from when I went to school in England) place for a bbq with Clem and Pete (another old school mate). Spent the afternoon with them, catching up, hanging out, drinking a little and then wandering up to Hampstead Heath, which has spectacular views out over the whole of London. Wandered back down towards the station with them, had a last drink at a pub and went our separate ways. Was awesome to catch up with them both and really good to see them both doing so well, Clem's now the editor of a magazine and Pete doing his PHD.
Got the tube back to Stockwell and walked an hour back through nighttime Brixton to Justin and Meredith's place, stopping only for KFC, to ward off beggars and, for one terrifying moment, be suddenly surrounded by 3 huge black prostitutes.
Got back and found Lewis, Justin and Meredith, and a couple of their friends (one of whom earned my instant friendship by having toured with MSI in his old band) hanging out and drinking. Joined in.
Awoke the next day (I was going to type morning but that would be a lie) to summer finally being in full swing, 33 degree, cloudless day and Lewis offering me bacon and eggs. Excellent way to wake up, despite Lewis' constant inability to be a hot blonde girl. Spent the day lazing around the garden, drinking (Pimm's is awesome) and eating bbq.
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