Posh Frocks and Tea at 3pm to Goth Rock and a Torrential Downpour at 3am
Oh Really? They Say and Try to Look Interested
Originally uploaded by inkognitoh. The photo encapsulates the organised chaos of the Historical Tour at Waldorf Hilton on Aldwych very nicely indeed. I love that they are trying to look interested when secretly we're all struggling to understand Flavia and are wondering why nobody has cleaned this particular room in a long time.
yokospungeon's birthday is always a good excuse to float something different past the group as it's guaranteed people will turn up and be open to something new. This year I told her we were going suggested we go to afternoon tea at a swanky hotel, as it's something I've wanted to do for a while. Having phoned The Ritz to find they were booked six months in advance, I handed reigns to the birthday girl and she found the fabulous tour and tea offer.
In a spot of splendid timing, atenea_nike was visiting from Spain and happily joined in the fray. It was lovely to meet her as she is one of the original names/faces from the early days of my involvement with Bookcrossing.com and I feel like I knew her already in a way. She is so glamorous and fits her screen-name perfectly. sirroy and lizmopuddy jetted in from Dublin for the day and silverjet_allie, Pete, fechtbuch, Marjorie, semioticghosts and Alex26 made up the rest of our party. The cucumber sandwiches, scones and sugary cakes were just fabulous as was the company. We enjoyed a few giggles and gorged on everything that's bad for you in a good way. I am still concerned about Yoko's mental health after I learned that she had ordered a cake to have after we had finished our cakes. Seriously, the woman has a sugar jones like nothing on earth. I've never met anyone how can consume so much sugar and live to tell the tale.
After cake, I dragged them down to the river bank for a quick pint on The Queen Mary where we discussed important things like the size of Pete's man boobs, the size of Harry Potter's wand and whether or not lizmopuddy was wearing a bra (yes she was incase you are curious). We said goodbye to the Irish who had hop a flight back to Dublin and Pete and silverjet_allie called it a day but three of us carried on into the wee hours of the morning.
When yokospungeon announced she was going to a Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction gig after the boat, we laughed and threatened to gate crash in our 'good clothes'... and we did.
As fearless fechtbuch, and I went dressed in our afternoon tea glad rags, we thought it was slightly unfair of our birthday girl to make a quick change into her rock and roll jeans and singlet top but it was quite funny being in the midst of all the painted and jaded goths and punks in my summery pink blouse. Yoko has been a fan/friend of the band for quite a few years and is involved in running their website for them. We met up with her lifelong friend Jason who was secretly thrilled and quite bemused as to what us 'normal folk' were doing in the Intrepid Fox ready for a Sleaze Metal gig LOL! Brilliant. The band were an hour and a half late on stage, the audience ripped the cammo netting off the roof of the pub and Yoko scored us all manner of promotional pieces such as tshirts, CDs and the largest stick of rock I've ever seen!
I fear that the three of us will now have pneumonia, as the walk from Soho to Charring Cross for a night bus occurred in the hour that torrential rain fell from the London sky. Rivulets of water were coursing down the Strand and you couldn't avoid sloshing through puddles. My clothes were hanging off me by the time I stumbled up the street to my warm dry, bed.
I'm quite sure that yokospungeon enjoyed her birthday and I'm certain that I did!