Weekend in London - Day 1
So last weekend we had arranged a little gathering to celebrate Stu’s birthday, and since it was in London and all twas the perfect excuse to extend it to last a nice four days to spend some quality time with Bob 
We’re both working full-time now so our time together gets a bit crippled, but it’s very very very fine.
I took advantage of my flexitime option at work and took Friday afternoon and the following Monday (03/12) off work, and booked me some nice cheap train tickets down south for a weekend with the boyfriend
Ace. Let’s get cracking.
Day 1 - 30th November
Exciteddd! I have only been to London twice before (not counting the time when I waited around Heathrow airport for four hours… but that’s another story), so I still get all touristy and noobish and excited when it comes to stuff like the tube :$
Work was even quieter than usual, but still went nice and quickly. I left at 1:30 and caught the 2pm train to Leeds. As per my usual self, I was far too early (train wasn’t til 4pm) because I always allow too much time for getting to places. But hey better to be early than to be late.
I got a Twitter update from Bob saying he was enjoying a yummy lunch at Wasabi, which made me have a sudden urge to go get some sushi too. I wasn’t overly keen on the idea of heading off into Leeds with all my bags to carry and stuff, but y’know, time to kill + no lunch yet = let’s do it!
On my way to Yo! Sushi I bumped into someone called Marco, he stopped me as I walked past, one of those people with a clipboard and leaflets for some kind of charity. I usually stop and talk to them if they greet me, it’s only polite after all. He seemed nice and friendly and I had lots of free time anyway so I stopped for a chat. He was probably a Leeds uni student or something, but told me he was originally a farmer from Norfolk haha. Then he started telling me about his charity work, was some kind of charity for children and it did actually sound interesting. But apparently you have to be over 20 to help out, so when he checked with me how old I was it kind of ruined our conversation. I felt a bit guilty for having then wasted 5 or 10 minutes of his time when he could have been talking to someone else… but hey ho not to worry. Off I went on my sushi quest.
I went to Yo! Sushi then where I ordered a salmon and tuna box set to take out (so I could munch on the train). Adam the French chef made it for me and it looked yummy yummy! I was tempted to get some vegetable ISO as well, could have just nicked them off the conveyor belt and and paid the extra, but meh. Didn’t want to be overfull. I then went back to the station and found my train was ready at platform 8.
Yummy.
And before long, we were off! I love travelling on the train. It’s so easy, y’know? There’s something so relaxing and enjoyable about getting on a train at one station, and just sitting there while it takes you hundreds of miles to another city, in only a couple of hours. I played a bit of New Super Mario Brothers to pass the time, but it frustrates me because I’m so terrible at it so I stopped and did some Phoenix Wright instead.
It was a dead quick train with only a few stops, and before I knew it I was coming into London Kings Cross station! It had started to rain on the way down, which was depressing because I was wearing a skirt and my hair was straight, but no point worrying about little things like that What was more important was that I was seeing Bob again in just a few minutes yay!
However he was a little late to finish work so I hung around inside Kings Cross for about 10 minutes. I was so excited to see him! I stood by one of the pillars infront of the platform entrances, and every time I saw someone tall with dark hair go by out of the corner of my eye I was turning quickly, thinking it was him. But it wasn’t 
He wasn’t long though. We had a bit of time to spare before we would meet Kazzie and co a bit later on, sooo… Bob took me to see the Platform 9 & 3/4 in Kings Cross! It was amazing haha.
We went to the Underground (yay) where I got myself an Oyster card, makes tube-travelling a lot easier (and cheaper) than having to buy day tickets every day and stuff. And from there we got the tube to Brent Cross (I think - I get confused with all the stations and things… :$). Bob led the way and I don’t remember where we went haha, I could get SO lost there.
We got out the other end to find it still raining hard outside. On the tube Bob had found another umbrella to steal claim as his own, so he had that and I had my rubbish one, which is falling to bits but I can’t be bothered to replace it. We had to get to Brent Cross Shopping Centre to meet the others, so we set off out of the station, but realised we had no idea which way to go. Bob asked a couple of French people up ahead if they knew, and they directed us (although it looked like we were then following/stalking them as they seemed to be going in that direction too and we stayed right behind them…).
We got a bit lost a few times, but got there in the end, and went inside to the lovely warmth. Next challenge: find Stu! He was at Costa’s apparently, so we walked round and round the centre before we eventually found it, and crept up on him while he read Harry Potter
We phoned Kazzie to tell her and Inn to pick us up at the shopping centre, as we didn’t want to get back to the tube in all the rain! We bought some M&S cookies (these are not just cookies, these are M&S cookies. Indeed they were!) and headed out to the car park to meet them. Kazzie was driving so we all piled in her car and were off!
First stop - Leisure World (I think that’s what it was called?)
The rain was still coming down so we literally jumped out of the car and ran over to the side where it was sheltered. We went in and got slightly richer by having a couple of wins on those machines which are full of 10p pieces and you try and knock them off the tray. Inn discovered she had lost her phone and was panicking, so me and her went back out to the car park to see if it was still in the car. She found it just outside her car door on the floor! Good job she noticed soon eh.
When we went back in we were approached by a security guard asking us for ID. I’m used to getting ID’d but Inn looked mortified! Haha. I started to get my driving license out of my bag to show him, but Inn was like “I’m 23! I’m 23!”. Bob was there and was in hysterics at Inn getting Id’d bless. The guard looked a bit shocked when Inn showed him her license hahaha xD
Bless.
Anyhow moving on. Twas time for Bowling! I was a bit worried because I am hopeless at bowling, really really terrible, and I didn’t want people to laugh at me but luckily hehe Kazzie put the barriers up on the sides so I was half-way decent! Haha ace. Stu won in the end with all his strikes and half strikes, but we had great fun experimenting with different ways to throw the ball down the runway. I think the best one was when Bob stood backwards and threw it between his legs, without really looking to aim, yet ended up getting a full on strike! Lucky sod haha.
There were some balloons tied to our bowling lane, saying Happy Birthday (I think?), and so it was only right that we claimed them for our own, what with it being Stu’s birthday weekend and all. Sooo we sucked the helium out of them and spoke in high voices hehe. Fun times.
That was pretty much that. We finished off and afterwards went back to the car and drove to Tesco’s next door to pick up some food and stuff. Stu bought some Swedish beer and Bob a bottle of Champagne. And we all got lots of stuff for a full breakfast tomorrow morning - bacon, eggs, sausages etc, you know how it goes.
Back in the car again and on the way to Kazzie’s! We stopped off first for a Chinese take-away just round the corner, before getting back to hers, setting all the stuff down and eatinggg. The food was okay, mine was a bit dry though. Bob’s beef dish wasn’t so great 
We ate up and had some general banter. Stu had one of his Swedish beers, and after we ate we opened the Champagne to drink. Bob and I mixed ours up with some Tropicana (mmm juice) for Bucks Fizz effect. Was good. We sorted some candles in the cupcakes for Stu’s birthday too.
Anywho… I played Loco Roco on Bob’s PSP for a bit which was fun, and then we set up the Wii and did some brain training! I think we took teams, me and Inn vs Bob and Stu (ie the girls vs the guys), but they always won dammit. Me and Bob had a 1 on 1 then but he still beat me (I blame the tiredness- at this point I had been up nearly 24 hours straight and was feeling exhausted). Eventually we called it a night…
Me, Bob and Inn slept downstairs. Mmm comfy bed. Mmm sleep. Mmm.
