Onward!!

I’m heading South, and being optimistic. After a gloriously summery weekend London is back to dreary cold wind and drizzle. I’m hoping the weather across the channel will be better. The plan is to spend a little over a week in France, both relaxing and getting some reading done. For the latter, I got books out and did some photocopying. I’ll worry about printing journal articles if I actually manage to get through the theory chapters.

My sleeping pattern has been ridiculous ever since the epic party weekend (house party, mad night on the town and a gig on Sunday). My housemates get in late too so it’s all right I guess. We hang around in the kitchen and then say good night, since it’s easy for me to pop my head out the door of my room when people come in, being on the ground floor. I’m not too worried about the sleep, though. If I’m tired tomorrow I’ll nap on the Eurostar before getting in to Paris just before 2pm. I will then get to go to a gig of a band I’ve liked for quite a while but who tour rarely. They’re arty enough to suit Paris really well.

If I wasn’t slightly worried about exam results and the next paycheck, I’d be truly carefree right now. I mean, I get to travel to different cities, meet new people and go see live music and do other stuff I really enjoy. That’s pretty cool.

Walking due East through the 5am frost from the night bus to my house, I noticed the sky is turning a slight aquamarine colour tinged with orange where the sun will rise in about an hour and a half. I haven’t stayed up to watch the sunrise for years. I’d kind of want to but I’m exhausted from the end-of-term house party I went to. People came and went but my coursemates and I grooved through everything from Andy C to Pendulum to old Guns ‘n Roses. I had fun just kind of letting go and dancing like no tomorrow. Not that I can, for the life of me. Didn’t matter.

I remember dancing at some point and making my way across the room. As my path crossed with this Square he pu this hands up within a few seconds and told me “I’m not into guys.” I got confused and said that hey, neither was I, and asked him if he was homophobic. “Oh no, no” was his answer. Hah. Later on the guy told my friend that he would be taking a cab home. To Trafalgar Square, when the party right by Russell Square. I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of that guy.

Now the ringing in my ears is mixing with the birds outside, heralding the coming morning. I must sleep and prepare for another day of fun.

They’ve gone and released Google Street View for London (and selected other UK cities). It is pretty amazing how much of the city they have managed to cover. It’s almost like being there yourself. Except, you know, without the bad weather and terrible food.

On my way to work this morning a group of Swedish teenagers on a trip to London rammed themselves onto the rush hour tube at Russell Square. They then proceeded to get off with me at Holborn, the next stop over.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with taking the tube. I just wish that more tourists would understand that in central London (where most of them take the tube) stops are very close together, never more than half a mile (800m) apart. And that is exactly the walking distance between Russell Square and Holborn meaning it takes ten minutes. That’s probably the same time as you spend waiting for the lift at Russell Square, walking to the platforms, waiting for the train, travelling and then going up the escalators at Holborn. Also, I have first-hand experience of friends visiting London who clamber onto a bus for the first time and, upon flopping down on the top deck seats, exclaim “Hey! You can actually see stuff from here. This is pretty cool!”

Oh yeah, and rush hour is not the happiest time to get a dozen or so kids, mostly in matching hoodies all push onto the train.

God I sound like such a boring prick.

I came home after 11pm to find one of my housemates in the kitchen preparing a quick snack before bed. As we talked about music, bands we’re going to see, and my plans for the weekend following my final week of university here, two more showed up. So we talked some more, laughed at one’s antics making cheese on toast and suddenly it’s half past midnight!

I’m still not tired, somehow. Really screws you up, this last stretch of term. And I was meant to be up and at ‘em really early tomorrow…

I really like my housemates.