Episode 18: The South Bank Afternoon

Oh I just know I am going to have a kid someday and fate will find it fun to mess with me by making that child love the water. I saw kids dancing and playing in this fountain today and thought, "Someday, in a funny twist I will have a child and she or he will want to dance in the water and then come hug me. And I will totally hug them because they will be my baby, but I will cringe internally at the water touching me."

But, I've hope ahead a little in my day. Let's go back to this morning and work our way forward. When I woke up this morning, I was overjoyed to find that my internet had returned! YAY!!!!! Yes, it is sad how addicted to the internet I am, but as vices go, it's one of the least harmful I could have. And I can still sleep and leave it alone when I need to work or go to school (well, okay, if I'm working on homework I sometimes sneak on and play Bejeweled as rewards for finishing paragraphs. It's a motivation technique.)

Anyway, I posted yesterday's blog post and got to play on the 'net for a bit. It was lovely. Then I took a shower and I think I've figured out a process that makes my hair mostly unsticky. I take a normal shower, then at the end, rinse my hair with bottled water (yes, okay. The stickiness bugged me so much I did what I said was ridiculous. I get the irony). Twist my hair up in a towel (which I do mostly so it can dry a little before I deal with it and so it isn't touching me) for a bit, then take it down and, without combing it out, blow dry the heck out of it. Like, when I think it's dry, keep going for another minute or two. Oh, and do this while upside down. Then, without flipping up, comb out my hair, flip up and do the part, then comb it down into the respective sides. Yes it makes my hair big and a little frizzy and once I get home it will most likely not happen again, but the process has eliminated most of the oily feel.

After my hair was dried, I made lunch and was watching Wipeout on YouTube, thinking I didn't have to meet at Waterloo until 3. Then I realized the event was at three, double-checked my email and found I needed to be at Waterloo at 2:30. It was already 1:30 and I allow an hour for travel, so I hightailed it out of there. And since the already unreliable bus service is even scarcer on weekends, I decided to just walk to Surbiton Station (yes, please quell your amazement and horror. I did walk all the way there, and it was sort of my choice).

Plus the day was really, really beautiful. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze and it was only about 70. I was wearing jeans for the first time since I've been in London. Yes, I finally got to break out my jeans! I thought I looked pretty good with my olive tank top and my sweat jacket loosely tied around my waist. I know I felt good and smiley.

At least until disaster struck (okay, at least until annoying mild inconvenience struck) I got all the way to the station and realized I'd forgotten my travelcard in my room. I'd put it in my backpack last night so I didn't have to struggle to get to it and never remembered to put it back in my purse. There was no way I could go back to the dorm, grab it, and make it back to the station on time, so I had to buy a day pass for the train. Oh well. Maybe next time I'll remember to check. Or maybe I just need someone to remind me of these things. Like Mom.

Anyway, I made it to the train and made it to Waterloo on time. Where it was just me, Yulia, and Anna going to the reading apparently. But at least now I don't have to try and fit something in on my own. We walked over to the hall where the event was and on the way we passed people who were barbecuing. It smelled delicious! And I don't know if Anna has ever had barbecued hamburgers because she turned to us and asked what that smell was. As Dad is the barbecued hamburger king, I answered right off that it was cheeseburgers. Mmmmmmmmm, now I want one.

It was walking up to the hall that we saw the munchkins running through the fountain, a few in swimsuits, but many just in their underwear. And standing a little ways back I thought "Aw, that's so cute." Walking past it though, I just thought "Please don't touch me, please don't touch me." Yay for childhood, but I still have water issues. I can look at it and be like "Ooooo, it's so pretty (or blinding depending on what it looks like and whether the sun is directly on it)!" But I don't want it touching me.

Inside the hall was this awesome wall and pillar that was covered with book, spines in, pages out. The point was to randomly flip through a book, find a phrase and then add it to this book that made a sort of never ending poem thing. It was actually kind of cool. And you know what a sucker I am for books.

The actual event I went to was pretty cool. It was about Elizabeth Bishop, who is a lesbian American poet that lived in Brazil for a long time. If you've ever seen In Her Shoes with Cameron Diaz, the poem Cameron Diaz's character reads to the old guy, The Art of Losing, is by her. In the event, there was one woman who played Bishop and sort of told the story of what happened to her starting with when she came to Brazil and ending with her lover's death. There were also some voice over points that read poems Bishop had written. It was a rather entertaining way to learn about her life.

After it was over, I decided since I was close now and might not get another chance before leaving, that I wanted to take a picture of the Millennium Bridge from London Bridge to go with the one I have of London Bridge from the Millennium Bridge. So I went for a walk along the South Bank, since I was already on the side with the Millennium and figured to get to the London, I just had to follow the river.

At the end of the ramp I walked down to get to the walkway, there was a carousel that I really thought about riding. But I had no one with me to take pictures so I decided not to. The same reason why I decided not to ride the Eye, even though it was abso-freakin'-lutely gorgeous out and I could totally have walked right over to it.

On the way over to London Bridge, I also passed this little skate park area that was completely covered in graffiti. Like you couldn't see one inch of bare wall that showed what the wall looked like originally. But the graffiti was actually pretty cool looking so I don't think any officials planned on coming to wash it off soon. They're content to just let the skaters have their own place.

Something distracted me for a moment (which I'll talk about after this next bit) but I made it up the stairs and walked across the bridge to find a good point to take a picture of the Millennium Bridge. After I had the pictures I wanted, I even stayed up there a little longer, just looking at the view because the wind felt so nice and the view was lovely. As you know, I'm not a real big fan of the outdoors or sun in general, but I just felt filled with joy and grinned.

Eventually I figured I needed to get going and walked back down the stairs. Only to once more be distracted by the thing I mentioned before. That thing was the London Book Market. Tables with rows and rows of books in no discernible order, all under London Bridge. I spent quite a bit of time looking through the rows, but couldn't find anything I wanted to buy and finally decided I needed to get going to the train station as it was already five'o'clock.

Also, and as a book lover I'm a little sad to admit this, while I love the idea of places like The Book Market and will lovingly run my hands over the books as I browse, I need a little bit of order in my book shopping. I like knowing where the Young Adult books are versus the fantasy books or nonfiction biographies. Which I found in Foyles as I was headed back to the train station.

Foyles was a bookshop Anna had mentioned one day when giving us places we could buy our books at and as a book lover in search of a bookshop, I sort of got sucked in. And while the selection was a little small and about half was stuff I'd never heard of before, it felt nice to be in a bookshop again. And I found a book! Something light that I can read without feeling like I've connected my soul to it and cannot put it down right now (which the book Mom lent me, Velvet Promise, has started to do. I can still put it down, but it haunts me and says "Read more!")

The book I found is called Life Swap and is about a girl from LA who goes to Oxford (for the summer I think) while a girl from Britain comes to school in California. It looks pretty interesting. And fun. And partially appealed to me for the relevance to what's happening to me now. Yes, sometimes I do want the world to revolve around me. Just not all the time. Or else I'd have to create a fake me, place her in the center and duck out to get some solitude and peace.

After that I really did go back to Waterloo and get the train back. It took for freakin' ever because it stopped everywhere, but I did make it back. And I had to walk all the way back because I didn't think my train card would work for the bus. But hey, it wasn't too bad. And when I got back I made mushroom risotto (frozen dinner, but gluten free!) for dinner. I only ate half so I have some for dinner tomorrow or something like that. Plus I finished my paper for Theatre, which means unless I go back and edit Austin (which Anna gave me back today) I'm done with my homework. Whoo-hoo!

Today's lesson: walking will not kill you and is much more enjoyable when strolling at your own pace during a beautiful day that makes you grin. Also, books=awesome. Ciao