So my first evening in London was very chill. It was a 4.5 hour train ride from Edinburgh to London. It was quite uneventful; I slept for some of the ride. I’m quite positive that I yelled in my sleep on the ride over. The reason why I’m sure of what I did: you know that feeling when you’re half awake and your body jerks or does something involuntarily (where you’re awake enough to know what you did but not awake enough to really have done anything about it?) Yeah….that….except I yelled.

It’s ok, you can laugh at me. I’ll give you a few moments to collect yourselves/wipe tears of laughter from your eyes/etc

…

Anyway, my cousin Anna-Sofia (Fia) was already at King’s Cross waiting for me. That’s right King’s Cross…but I arrived at Platform 6, not 9 3/4 like I had hoped. Oh well, close enough, right? Fia picked me up and in less than twenty minutes we were in West Hampstead at the front door of her flat. We lugged my things up the flight of steps to her flat (luckily on the second floor and not the third like my B&B in Edinburgh).

I got settled in just in time to have dinner with some of Fia’s friends from Luxembourg. I may have met her friend Ana back in Lux but it’s been years and I’ve met so many of her friends that it’s been hard to keep track. 😛 We went out for dinner and it was delicious (sea bass nom nom nom!). Then we headed back to the flat to catch up (it’s been a year since we’ve seen each last). Then we both went to sleep relatively early. Fia had to work the next morning and I needed a night where I got more than 4 hours of sleep.

Day 1 started out as a day of leisure. I slept in, took a looooooong shower, put on a face mask, paid my bills online then I decided to actually make myself look decent (which is impossible to do….I know, I know) and make my way around the city.

I stayed nearby, luckily Lucy lives around the corner from Fia. I went to her parents’ house and went out for coffee/tea with Lu.

Actually while I was on my way to the Underground, you’ll never guess who I saw: Bill Nighy.

….

For those of you who know who it, I just gave you a brief pause to digest this information. Bill. F-ing. Nighy. It took all my strength to not through myself at his feet and say “OMG WTF BILL F-ING NIGHY I’M YOUR BIGGEST FAN AAAAAAAAHHHHHHIWELKNMLAVDKJGHOUAIWRTAIEORHGEFJLKSDJAGIWEROIAEHGDJLAWHEOPIRWUEF!!!!!!!!” Luckily, I had to figure out how the hell to get an Oyster card so he went on ahead to the tube.

For the rest of you who are not familiar with Bill Nighy (or maybe who would know his face, but not his name) here’s a little youtube video to give you an idea Billy Mack Interview from Love Actually

We had to a good time…it was the longest amount of time I had spent with her since I first saw her in Edinburgh. It’s the most relaxed we’ve felt in a while. I did not realize how exhausted I was in Edinburgh until I came to London. Essentially because while at Lucy’s, they were constantly running around and working (it was not a relaxing atmosphere after a day of wandering the city), there was hardly space for me so I made due with who I had, when I wanted to see Alex – I had to wait until he got off work (which was late even after a long day of wandering the city), there was a two-day road trip in the middle and I got, on average, about 3-5 hours of sleep a night only to wake up and do it all over again. *groan* It was definitely worth it, I love Edinburgh, but I’m surprised at how hard I had pushed my body and still pulled through. I’m even more surprised that while I looked my worst while in Edinburgh, I still managed to catch the eye of an attractive Romanian. Well, I guess he just likes the ‘hobo’ look 😉 hehe.

Anyway, Lucy also introduced me to her gerbil babies. The two that caught my eye were named John Risley and Patrick Hercamp. According to Lucy, the whole family was in for quite a shock when little Patrick impregnated Johnny (yes, yes….John was actually a girl). Of course, as someone who knows the real John Risley and Patrick Hercamp, I found the whole story hilarious. Those of you who know these guys are probably chuckling right now (whether you had heard the story before or not).

I hung out with Lucy until later in the evening when she had to go see a show and I went back to the flat knowing Fia would be heading home within the next 20 minutes and I had the keys.

Fia and I ended the night with a nice dinner and more catching up. We also talked about seeing a West End show together. I had planned on seeing Woman in Black because I had heard nothing but great things about it (Fia had already seen it twice); however while on the tube coming back from seeing Lucy, I saw this poster:

I realized that if I did not see this fiennes (see the pun? Fiennes vs. fine? Thought I was clever) man then my mother would probably disown me. For those of you not in the loop: my mother has made it clear that she would leave my dad for Ralph Fiennes (back in the 90s it was all about Richard Gere…but then he got old…her words, not mine); that is, if Mr. Fiennes burst through the doors and declared his love for my mom….though the chances of that happening are quite slim. So, dad….you’re safe! 😛 I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get tickets, but Fia is in if I can get them. I will do what it takes to get them!!! For those of you not familiar with him, you may remember him from The Constant Gardner (yum!), The English Patient (double yum) and, recently, as Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies (yum?) I admire this man greatly as an actor and I would just love to see him perform live!!!!

Anyway, that’s about all I have today. I apologize for not having pictures…it would just have been of Lucy and I sitting at a cafe drinking tea and coffee; it’s very boring imagery, I know.

Tomorrow I will venture further into the city!

besos,

MLT

Location:West Hampstead, London, England