Broken buses and Coffee shop clones
Today featured way too much stress for my liking, but it improved as the day went on.
After teaching a student this morning I wanted to go to 222 for their lunch buffet (£7.50 and worth every penny). This is usually trivial enough - I get on the 85 bus just past the end of our road, go to Putney and change there for a 74 or 430 to Fulham. On a good day it's 45 minutes, on a bad day it's usually an hour. If I take something to do, I don't really notice the journey. Today it was an hour and a half, because the 85 I was on broke down in the middle of a housing estate and couldn't get started again. As no other useful bus stops there, I ended up walking down to the main road to try to get a taxi - but it turns out that particular part of Roehampton is a taxi black spot and empty taxis rattle past with their lights off. Eventually I gave up and walked to the next bus stop, meaning that I'd walked a total of three bus stop-distances - which is more than my legs are happy for me to do. Fortunately the 430 stopped at the next bus stop, so I could get directly on that - but unfortunately I wasn't going to get to 222 before they closed at 3.30pm. However! I rang them up and spoke to Ben and he told me to just come in anyway! So I got filled with lovely food, which improved the rest of the day.
I saw a clone of artremis in the Costa in the Waterstones near college. This was somewhat alarming as Ludys are known for their liking of both coffee and books, and I often go to Costa and/or Waterstones with the real Ludy. The clone-grrl was the same height as Ludy and had the same shape & size face, neck, breasts and hips! She also wore similar clothes (a Uniqlo top and cotton tomboy trousers with pull-tabs to tighten them over the hips). She had the same colour and style of hair, but it was flat rather than spiky, and had rectangular glasses, but hers had normal lenses rather than pink. Also her skin was a tone darker than Ludy's. Nonetheless, it was a really good resemblance and I couldn't help staring! If I'd had any photos of Ludy on my phone, I would have said "You look just like my girlfriend" and asked to take a photo of her in return; but as it was I couldn't prove that I wasn't a complete nutter trying to take photos of strangers to perve over. So I didn't say anything. She ordered a small cappuccino, which was just as well, as if it had been a medium Fairtrade vanilla latte I might just have died of shock!
Later this evening, Richard & I went for dinner with pir, who we have not seen in far too long. When my course is over, I need to spend the summer going round seeing all the friends I have here in London that I haven't had time to see in months or years! I have satiated both my desire-for-gadgets and concern-for-the-environment by buying the iPod he wasn't using, which is Reuse of existing electronics and therefore even better than Recycling. And now I will have music wherever I go without running down my stupid mobile phone battery. I will have to buy a new phone soon because the one I have just doesn't work properly, but I'll have to deal with the guilt about that later. No time for it now.
And, in case you care, I got 93% on my mass spec coursework, which is another A+ to add to my collection. I think I'm going to have to remember how much I rock, because I really am very stressed about these exams now.
After teaching a student this morning I wanted to go to 222 for their lunch buffet (£7.50 and worth every penny). This is usually trivial enough - I get on the 85 bus just past the end of our road, go to Putney and change there for a 74 or 430 to Fulham. On a good day it's 45 minutes, on a bad day it's usually an hour. If I take something to do, I don't really notice the journey. Today it was an hour and a half, because the 85 I was on broke down in the middle of a housing estate and couldn't get started again. As no other useful bus stops there, I ended up walking down to the main road to try to get a taxi - but it turns out that particular part of Roehampton is a taxi black spot and empty taxis rattle past with their lights off. Eventually I gave up and walked to the next bus stop, meaning that I'd walked a total of three bus stop-distances - which is more than my legs are happy for me to do. Fortunately the 430 stopped at the next bus stop, so I could get directly on that - but unfortunately I wasn't going to get to 222 before they closed at 3.30pm. However! I rang them up and spoke to Ben and he told me to just come in anyway! So I got filled with lovely food, which improved the rest of the day.
I saw a clone of artremis in the Costa in the Waterstones near college. This was somewhat alarming as Ludys are known for their liking of both coffee and books, and I often go to Costa and/or Waterstones with the real Ludy. The clone-grrl was the same height as Ludy and had the same shape & size face, neck, breasts and hips! She also wore similar clothes (a Uniqlo top and cotton tomboy trousers with pull-tabs to tighten them over the hips). She had the same colour and style of hair, but it was flat rather than spiky, and had rectangular glasses, but hers had normal lenses rather than pink. Also her skin was a tone darker than Ludy's. Nonetheless, it was a really good resemblance and I couldn't help staring! If I'd had any photos of Ludy on my phone, I would have said "You look just like my girlfriend" and asked to take a photo of her in return; but as it was I couldn't prove that I wasn't a complete nutter trying to take photos of strangers to perve over. So I didn't say anything. She ordered a small cappuccino, which was just as well, as if it had been a medium Fairtrade vanilla latte I might just have died of shock!
Later this evening, Richard & I went for dinner with pir, who we have not seen in far too long. When my course is over, I need to spend the summer going round seeing all the friends I have here in London that I haven't had time to see in months or years! I have satiated both my desire-for-gadgets and concern-for-the-environment by buying the iPod he wasn't using, which is Reuse of existing electronics and therefore even better than Recycling. And now I will have music wherever I go without running down my stupid mobile phone battery. I will have to buy a new phone soon because the one I have just doesn't work properly, but I'll have to deal with the guilt about that later. No time for it now.
And, in case you care, I got 93% on my mass spec coursework, which is another A+ to add to my collection. I think I'm going to have to remember how much I rock, because I really am very stressed about these exams now.