Shopping and torturing my feet

I survived a night in the shoe-box :-) And it was a restless one as (yes, I am probably one of the luckiest people alive) my room overlooks a power plant and the spoiled little me says the bed is lumpy. But being tired hasn’t stopped me from aimlessly wandering around London.

The day was an excellent one. I went to HSBC and opened a bank account - woohoo! I bought a new UK cell number (cos I stupidly left my old SIM card back home) and then I got another UK cell number with the bank account - hmmm.... So, now I’ve got 2 different numbers at my disposal. Then I went to Waterstones as life without books is no life at all and got 3 books since I can never resist a 3 for 2 offers and afterwards I spent some time reading at Starbucks, which kind of summarises my usual London routine. Throw in a visit to Banana Republic and Carnaby Street, a huge credit card bill, which will to my luck remain hidden from my eyes until September and you’ve got my perfect day out.

Having all day to my disposal and since it was sunny I walked around the streets I’ve never walked around thinking how clever I am to avoid the crowds of tourists. This resulted in some not-so-pleasant encounters with the smells of not-tourist-infested streets, which didn’t exactly make my day. But a visit to TGIF did. My boyfriend would be so proud! I’m turning into a Yankee :-/ I am in one of the most beautiful, vibrant, historical European cities with food I’ve been craving, think Indian, pies, pub lunches, etc. and I felt like I could kill for a Swirl (=frozen Margarita) and a proper American meal. How sad. So that’s what I had for lunch. And I loved it! I needed that Margarita and the food was delicious, just as I remember :-) Grilled chicken with cheesy mash and shrimps in sauce - yum! I am a food junkie!

By the end of the day I came up with an idea how to spend 50 pounds in one day on things you’ll forget about... Here it is: put 10 pounds on your Oyster card, so you can use the tube and buses if necessary, spend 20 pounds on a cocktail and meal, 8 pounds on coffee and antioxidant drink that will make you feel like you’ve done something good for your body, 12 pounds on a book you can read if you get bored or want to pretend you’re a local enjoying the sun. Then spend another 13 pounds on a cinema ticket which is basically over the 50 pounds, but I was never good at maths.

But let’s get back to my day. While walking towards Covent Garden and back to the rivers of tourists I’m pretty sure I saw the guy who plays the doctor on the Midsommer Murders. I’m convinced it was him, despite the fact that I wouldn’t recognise a celebrity if they crashed straight into me and spend 20 minutes apologising to me.

After all that hard work I went to Nero for my beloved Iced Chai Latte and I got an email from my employer saying that I should bring clothes for a black tie casino night, Hawaii disco and something I’m not overly emotionally attached to as it will probably get ruined. Hmmm.... Black tie is alright as I have a dress with me, but Hawaii?! I really wasn’t thinking of colourful garlands, shirts and sarongs when I was packing for England. Yikes. I guess that means I’ll do some more shopping tomorrow. Any excuse is a good excuse. Which reminds me... I want to buy an iPad as I am also an Apple junkie. And now my sensible self is saying no and my more spontaneous self is saying yes - which one should I listen?

Sorry I have no photos of this wild day, but I didn’t feel like carrying the camera with me.

Tomorrow it’s off to Oxford in the afternoon. And hopefully a bigger room overlooking a quiet garden :-)