london saga, aber drama
Okay, I realise I never got round to recounting Rachel's visit and the London trip. So here we go. The London House hostel was a good choice; no one was booked into the other 2 beds while we were there so we had the whole room to ourselves. On Tuesday it was windy but sunny so we walked around Bayswater, up and around Queensway, Gloucester Road, ending up at Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Wandered around South Kensington and Earl's Court--both very posh neighbourhoods. Rachel was amazed at the age and beauty of the architecture. Passed the massive Victoria&Albert Museum and had pizza in a decent restaurant on Old Brompton Road, on the way to Earl's Court. It seems to be a gay district--lots of rainbow flags and a couple gay bars. Then we crossed into Knightsbridge where all sorts of high end shops sprung up. We perused the famous Harrod's, which was posh and sanitized and stifling. The Egyptian architectural motifs in the ladies restrooms were nice though. But why do they need a hair drier? Then it was getting dark so we walked back through Hyde Park, entering at Hyde Park Corner and continuing up Bayswater Road. We got lost after turning up Leicester Road and walked all over Bayswater before finding the hostel. Our feet were killing us by that time so we crashed. Rachel wasn't too jet-lagged so we got going around 10 Wednesday morning. It was pissing rain but we went straight to the Bayswater Tube Station and got day passes. We went straight to Covent Garden where there were a few street performers and human statues. The Market is okay, but a lot of the shops are chains. We had a Thai lunch in a restaurant on Strand Street. Didn't walk up far enough for Fleet Street but it was still raining so we caught the Tube for Tottenham Court Road to find Soho Square. I've decided Soho is my favourite neighborhood in the city. The sun came out just as we entered the Square, where there's a statue of Charles II and a little Tudor bellhouse in the center. The word Soho comes from an old hunting call "So-hoe!" which goes back to when the area was popular for hunting hare and foxes. Evidently, it was still rural enough for that purpose when the Square was commissioned in 1671 for Charles II. Soho is colourful and full of bookshops, cafes, theatres, and jazz clubs. We found Ronnie Scot's, the club that Rhys recommended. It did look really cool, but it's £15 to get in at night, so we gave it a pass. We walked back up to Tottenham Court station and caught the tube to Charing Cross where we saw the famous Trafalgar Square. I had no idea how high the statue of Lord Admiral Nelson was! We walked down Whitehall, where we passed the State for Wales House--must be Wales' voice in Whitehall. Took pictures of Big Ben and wandered around the free bits of Westminster Abbey and the Jewel Tower. We walked over countless tombstones--the oldest I saw dated to 1082. We entered a side garden where a man was training falcons. Then we walked across Milennium Bridge to Waterloo Station where we caught to Tube to Blackfriars and walked across Blackfriars Bridge and got a double-decker bus to Oxford Street. Also full of high end shops, which continue down Regent Street. We stumbled upon the famous Carnaby Street, which has lost its hippie bohemian charm. We went back to Baywater where we had dinner in Prince Alfred's pub, not far from the hostel.
We decided to check out the London club scene (all centered around Leicester Square) so we got the bus for Piccadilly Circus. There were plenty of clubs trying to drum up business but some looked a bit rough. We settled on Walkabout since I've been to the Cardiff one and it seemed moderately busy. Lucky for me, it's free to get in with a student card and almost all drinks are £1.50 if you're a student. To my amazement, Rachel and I became the center of attention (and we weren't the only Americans there either). Unfortunately, all the guys were drunken twats. One asked us no less than 5 times our names and where we're from. Another became convinced I was Swedish and one "winner" told Rachel she was "stunning." She didn't like him of course but was quite flattered nonetheless. She said British men are so gentlemanly. "Gentlemanly?" I said. This is solely because they introduce themselves. She says that in Seattle clubs they don't say a word, just start grinding on girls. Towards the end, all the guys backed away to form a circle around the two of us as we danced, all trying in various weak ways to pull us. I think they wanted to believe we were lesbians. We managed to leave Walkabout unaccompanied and got the bus back to the hostel by 2.
Thursday morning we went straight to Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guard. Nice but boring. Then we met up with my future flatmate Louise at the Tate Modern. I'm not a fan of postmodern art, which most of it was, but the Rodin sculptures were impressive. We walked along the Thames, past the Globe Theatre, the Clink House Prison Museum, under the London Bridge where there's a pub called the Mug House I think--yes a pub UNDER the bridge! I definitely want to go back there. I hope it's frequented by trolls! The weather turned and we got absolutely soaked as we walked all the way up to the Tower Bridge. Then we had to hurry to since we had our train for Aber to catch in less than an hour. We went back to the hostel to collect our things then beat it for Euston. There were lots of delays so we didn't get into Aber till 9:30.
Once in Aber we had dinner in Shilam where that waiter gave us a free glass of Cobra and free poppadums. The weather was absolutely frigid but we went out nonetheless (it's warmer in the pub than Grosvenor House anyway). We met up with Eve and Matt and Marijan in The Bay, which was dead since the students hadn't returned yet.
Friday Rachel slept till 1:30 then we went for lunch at the Treehouse. We ran into Ashwin walking up to the Castle and he invited us back to the postgrad lounge in the Old College for tea. Rachel got a heavy dose of the Belgian Diplomat, who quite liked her of course, but she wasn't offended. He seems to have been one of her favourite characters of the trip, in addition to Edd and his party tricks (giving his big toe head), and Rhys and the Welsh boys. Rachel said my impressions of Ashwin were dead on. Ifor joined us and we all went for a bite in the Inn on the Pier. I said we'd be at Rummers around 10 and they should join us. Jim and Derek and Edd's friend Veronica came out to Rummers with us and we all sat outside in the freezing cold since it was full inside. Bear in mind this was the day it had been snowing! Rhys and a few of his Welsh friends joined our table as well, which was pretty funny. I spent most of the time speaking Welsh at one end of the table while Ashwin was busy chatting up Rachel and Veronica, occasionally whispering in my ear that old man Derek wants to shag me (which is total bollocks) and that I should shag Rhys. Usually he doesn't want me to shag anyone but him, "I must protect your body", but he likes Rhys so he was willing make an exception. That was only because Rhys was the only one at the table who didn't take the piss out of Ashwin for carrying a leather Gucci handbag. As it happens, Rhys bought me a drink and gave me his friends' cd (they're in a band called Radio Luxembourg).
Saturday Rachel and I visited Helen in Carmarthen. Her parents were delighted to see me again and fed us well--her mum even did special veggie sausages for Rachel for Sunday lunch. Rachel wasn't very conversational but she told me later that she could only understand about 1/3 of what Helen's dad was saying. He does have a VERY strong Carmarthen accent. Rachel and I brought 2 bottles of wine, which we polished before Helen's dad drove us into town. I'm sure Rachel thought Helen and I made a useless pair since both of us were incapable of doing our hair. Helen even spilled her glass of wine all down her front! And she wasn't even tipsy. Then, while straightening my hair, I somehow made my bangs stick out at a 45 degree angle! Helen was the only one able to flatten it down. Rachel just shook her head and said "blondes." We met up with Helen's friend Anwen in town where we first hit the Wine Bar and polished 2 pitchers of cocktail. A pink-shirted meathead with bad breath kept on trying to chat me up and hold my hand. He asked if I had a boyfriend and I said yes. Then he said "Are you happy with him?" Tosser. Another guy was chatting Rachel up in Welsh. That was funny. We went to the Spread Eagle pub after that where one of Helen's friends was having a hen night (bachelorette party) and they were all in angel costumes. We went the Australian-themed bar next, where we ran into Helen's kind of-boyfriend Aled. He's very nice but too nice for Helen, she says. He's a docile rubgy boy--very unusual combination. He left to join his rugby friends in Tenby so we decided to take a chance and try to get into Savannah's, the 25 and over club. Luckily we got in, no trouble at all. Again, we were the youngest but it was still packed with mid-to-late twenty year olds. The music there was pretty good on the whole; unfortunately there weren't a lot of fit men out. Rachel was sure popular though, without even advertising the fact she's American. At one point she decided to dance with a guy who seemed to be more interested in singing along to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" than snogging her! I guess no one gets between him and his Whitney. Then Helen's friends from the hen night showed up and we ended up with some of the angel accessories. Helen wore the wings and put the halo on me. A guy in a dark green shirt came over a few times while we were on the dancefloor and played with my halo. He was half bad so I tried to snog him but he got all nervous and ran over to dance with his GIRLFRIEND. Hmm, trying to pull other girls when out with the girlfriend: smart. I wasn't bothered, and pulled his friend instead, who was wearing a light green shirt. I danced with him for a bit, snogged him, then left to join the girls again. They had been watching the whole thing and were quite amused. They were like "You took his friend, and left him!" Oh well, what can I say? I was done! Now when I bring up Rachel's Whitney incident, she brings up the Green Shirt Boys. Considering how much we drank I'm amazed we weren't wrecked. 2 bottles of wine, 2 pitchers of cocktail, and about 7 rum/jack daniels and cokes.
We slept in Sunday morning then were treated to a massive Sunday lunch made by Helen's mum. We went to Llansteffan Castle again--the weather was much milder than the last time! Then we strolled around a very dead Carmarthen town. There's a hungover Welsh Sunday for you! The only thing open were pubs and chip shops. Our bus back to Aber wasn't till 8 so we had dinner in the Carmarthen Wetherspoons, where we were surrounded all of a sudden by no less than 20 Americans, all about our age. They must have been travelling through, but how random was that! They were all loud and obnoxious. The girls all ordered salads; the boys, chicken burgers.
Finally, on Monday I showed Rachel around campus then I went to my 2 o'clock seminar. It was quite sunny and warm for a change--it was actually snowing last Friday! Then we had paninis and thick hot chocolate at the Spanish deli and said hi to Carrie in Galloways. Then Rachel got her return train ticket and I took her around a few shops so she could find souvenirs. Jim came with us to Cafe All Spice for Indian--he's been in a great mood for about a week now, playing guitar all the time, chilled out, the Jim we'd all been missing. Later we met up with Rebecca&crew in The Glen which was packed for Pound Party. Y Corff was there unfortunately, staring at me constantly, finally coming up to chat just as Rachel and I were trying to make our escape. Rachel commented that his boobs are bigger than hers! We also saw Swansea Tom, one of my lovelier coworkers from the Union who does Second Year History in The Glen with his girlfriend, who's also very nice. They were reasonably drunk and Tom kissed us on both cheeks and told Rachel that's a Welsh welcome. Rachel was quite smitten and said she wants a coworker like him. Nope, instead she gets the pervy Mexicans. Then we met up with Eve, Matt, Hannah, Jas, Georgie, & Amelia in The Bay, which was heaving with Pantycelyn kids. One Panty boy was going around with a plastic coin jar trying get charity donations. When he asked me I said "I've already donated" and he said "Dim i fi" (not to me). Rachel said if he came back she's beat him with the coin jar (he was shaking it in her ear). After The Bay closed we went to Spar since Rachel had a craving for macaroni and cheese of all things. We ran into Rhys outside who invited us to come round to his and Rachel could meet Ed and Dylan (two of the Pep Le Pew guys) who were once again crashing at his. Rhys showed Rachel how to use the microwave for her macaroni & cheese, which she was sorely disappointed by. I tried to warn her that British mac&cheese is not the same; i.e., they use white cheddar (and it's real cheddar) and it's low on salt...probably better for you than the orange shit she was craving! Rhys got out a bunch of spices and his favourite KC Masterpiece so she could doctor the offending dish. I don't know how it turned out; I certainly didn't want to try it! Ed and Dyl were quite funny taking the piss out of the Michael Jackson case. Dylan was completely irreverent and said "Honestely I could give a fuck about Jacko. And that kid should be grateful--a blowjob's a blowjob. Fuck knows I'd have loved one when I was 12!" Then Rhys tried to put in the film "Withnail & I" since Rachel hasn't seen it but the DVD player wasn't working. Rachel found the Welsh boys good fun. We finally headed back to Grosvenor House at 4:30 in the morning, in the pissing rain. Rachel can't believe how rough the weather can be here--especially on my corner since it's the Wind Tunnel.
And that's that. What a laugh.
We decided to check out the London club scene (all centered around Leicester Square) so we got the bus for Piccadilly Circus. There were plenty of clubs trying to drum up business but some looked a bit rough. We settled on Walkabout since I've been to the Cardiff one and it seemed moderately busy. Lucky for me, it's free to get in with a student card and almost all drinks are £1.50 if you're a student. To my amazement, Rachel and I became the center of attention (and we weren't the only Americans there either). Unfortunately, all the guys were drunken twats. One asked us no less than 5 times our names and where we're from. Another became convinced I was Swedish and one "winner" told Rachel she was "stunning." She didn't like him of course but was quite flattered nonetheless. She said British men are so gentlemanly. "Gentlemanly?" I said. This is solely because they introduce themselves. She says that in Seattle clubs they don't say a word, just start grinding on girls. Towards the end, all the guys backed away to form a circle around the two of us as we danced, all trying in various weak ways to pull us. I think they wanted to believe we were lesbians. We managed to leave Walkabout unaccompanied and got the bus back to the hostel by 2.
Thursday morning we went straight to Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the guard. Nice but boring. Then we met up with my future flatmate Louise at the Tate Modern. I'm not a fan of postmodern art, which most of it was, but the Rodin sculptures were impressive. We walked along the Thames, past the Globe Theatre, the Clink House Prison Museum, under the London Bridge where there's a pub called the Mug House I think--yes a pub UNDER the bridge! I definitely want to go back there. I hope it's frequented by trolls! The weather turned and we got absolutely soaked as we walked all the way up to the Tower Bridge. Then we had to hurry to since we had our train for Aber to catch in less than an hour. We went back to the hostel to collect our things then beat it for Euston. There were lots of delays so we didn't get into Aber till 9:30.
Once in Aber we had dinner in Shilam where that waiter gave us a free glass of Cobra and free poppadums. The weather was absolutely frigid but we went out nonetheless (it's warmer in the pub than Grosvenor House anyway). We met up with Eve and Matt and Marijan in The Bay, which was dead since the students hadn't returned yet.
Friday Rachel slept till 1:30 then we went for lunch at the Treehouse. We ran into Ashwin walking up to the Castle and he invited us back to the postgrad lounge in the Old College for tea. Rachel got a heavy dose of the Belgian Diplomat, who quite liked her of course, but she wasn't offended. He seems to have been one of her favourite characters of the trip, in addition to Edd and his party tricks (giving his big toe head), and Rhys and the Welsh boys. Rachel said my impressions of Ashwin were dead on. Ifor joined us and we all went for a bite in the Inn on the Pier. I said we'd be at Rummers around 10 and they should join us. Jim and Derek and Edd's friend Veronica came out to Rummers with us and we all sat outside in the freezing cold since it was full inside. Bear in mind this was the day it had been snowing! Rhys and a few of his Welsh friends joined our table as well, which was pretty funny. I spent most of the time speaking Welsh at one end of the table while Ashwin was busy chatting up Rachel and Veronica, occasionally whispering in my ear that old man Derek wants to shag me (which is total bollocks) and that I should shag Rhys. Usually he doesn't want me to shag anyone but him, "I must protect your body", but he likes Rhys so he was willing make an exception. That was only because Rhys was the only one at the table who didn't take the piss out of Ashwin for carrying a leather Gucci handbag. As it happens, Rhys bought me a drink and gave me his friends' cd (they're in a band called Radio Luxembourg).
Saturday Rachel and I visited Helen in Carmarthen. Her parents were delighted to see me again and fed us well--her mum even did special veggie sausages for Rachel for Sunday lunch. Rachel wasn't very conversational but she told me later that she could only understand about 1/3 of what Helen's dad was saying. He does have a VERY strong Carmarthen accent. Rachel and I brought 2 bottles of wine, which we polished before Helen's dad drove us into town. I'm sure Rachel thought Helen and I made a useless pair since both of us were incapable of doing our hair. Helen even spilled her glass of wine all down her front! And she wasn't even tipsy. Then, while straightening my hair, I somehow made my bangs stick out at a 45 degree angle! Helen was the only one able to flatten it down. Rachel just shook her head and said "blondes." We met up with Helen's friend Anwen in town where we first hit the Wine Bar and polished 2 pitchers of cocktail. A pink-shirted meathead with bad breath kept on trying to chat me up and hold my hand. He asked if I had a boyfriend and I said yes. Then he said "Are you happy with him?" Tosser. Another guy was chatting Rachel up in Welsh. That was funny. We went to the Spread Eagle pub after that where one of Helen's friends was having a hen night (bachelorette party) and they were all in angel costumes. We went the Australian-themed bar next, where we ran into Helen's kind of-boyfriend Aled. He's very nice but too nice for Helen, she says. He's a docile rubgy boy--very unusual combination. He left to join his rugby friends in Tenby so we decided to take a chance and try to get into Savannah's, the 25 and over club. Luckily we got in, no trouble at all. Again, we were the youngest but it was still packed with mid-to-late twenty year olds. The music there was pretty good on the whole; unfortunately there weren't a lot of fit men out. Rachel was sure popular though, without even advertising the fact she's American. At one point she decided to dance with a guy who seemed to be more interested in singing along to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" than snogging her! I guess no one gets between him and his Whitney. Then Helen's friends from the hen night showed up and we ended up with some of the angel accessories. Helen wore the wings and put the halo on me. A guy in a dark green shirt came over a few times while we were on the dancefloor and played with my halo. He was half bad so I tried to snog him but he got all nervous and ran over to dance with his GIRLFRIEND. Hmm, trying to pull other girls when out with the girlfriend: smart. I wasn't bothered, and pulled his friend instead, who was wearing a light green shirt. I danced with him for a bit, snogged him, then left to join the girls again. They had been watching the whole thing and were quite amused. They were like "You took his friend, and left him!" Oh well, what can I say? I was done! Now when I bring up Rachel's Whitney incident, she brings up the Green Shirt Boys. Considering how much we drank I'm amazed we weren't wrecked. 2 bottles of wine, 2 pitchers of cocktail, and about 7 rum/jack daniels and cokes.
We slept in Sunday morning then were treated to a massive Sunday lunch made by Helen's mum. We went to Llansteffan Castle again--the weather was much milder than the last time! Then we strolled around a very dead Carmarthen town. There's a hungover Welsh Sunday for you! The only thing open were pubs and chip shops. Our bus back to Aber wasn't till 8 so we had dinner in the Carmarthen Wetherspoons, where we were surrounded all of a sudden by no less than 20 Americans, all about our age. They must have been travelling through, but how random was that! They were all loud and obnoxious. The girls all ordered salads; the boys, chicken burgers.
Finally, on Monday I showed Rachel around campus then I went to my 2 o'clock seminar. It was quite sunny and warm for a change--it was actually snowing last Friday! Then we had paninis and thick hot chocolate at the Spanish deli and said hi to Carrie in Galloways. Then Rachel got her return train ticket and I took her around a few shops so she could find souvenirs. Jim came with us to Cafe All Spice for Indian--he's been in a great mood for about a week now, playing guitar all the time, chilled out, the Jim we'd all been missing. Later we met up with Rebecca&crew in The Glen which was packed for Pound Party. Y Corff was there unfortunately, staring at me constantly, finally coming up to chat just as Rachel and I were trying to make our escape. Rachel commented that his boobs are bigger than hers! We also saw Swansea Tom, one of my lovelier coworkers from the Union who does Second Year History in The Glen with his girlfriend, who's also very nice. They were reasonably drunk and Tom kissed us on both cheeks and told Rachel that's a Welsh welcome. Rachel was quite smitten and said she wants a coworker like him. Nope, instead she gets the pervy Mexicans. Then we met up with Eve, Matt, Hannah, Jas, Georgie, & Amelia in The Bay, which was heaving with Pantycelyn kids. One Panty boy was going around with a plastic coin jar trying get charity donations. When he asked me I said "I've already donated" and he said "Dim i fi" (not to me). Rachel said if he came back she's beat him with the coin jar (he was shaking it in her ear). After The Bay closed we went to Spar since Rachel had a craving for macaroni and cheese of all things. We ran into Rhys outside who invited us to come round to his and Rachel could meet Ed and Dylan (two of the Pep Le Pew guys) who were once again crashing at his. Rhys showed Rachel how to use the microwave for her macaroni & cheese, which she was sorely disappointed by. I tried to warn her that British mac&cheese is not the same; i.e., they use white cheddar (and it's real cheddar) and it's low on salt...probably better for you than the orange shit she was craving! Rhys got out a bunch of spices and his favourite KC Masterpiece so she could doctor the offending dish. I don't know how it turned out; I certainly didn't want to try it! Ed and Dyl were quite funny taking the piss out of the Michael Jackson case. Dylan was completely irreverent and said "Honestely I could give a fuck about Jacko. And that kid should be grateful--a blowjob's a blowjob. Fuck knows I'd have loved one when I was 12!" Then Rhys tried to put in the film "Withnail & I" since Rachel hasn't seen it but the DVD player wasn't working. Rachel found the Welsh boys good fun. We finally headed back to Grosvenor House at 4:30 in the morning, in the pissing rain. Rachel can't believe how rough the weather can be here--especially on my corner since it's the Wind Tunnel.
And that's that. What a laugh.