Today was nice in that it consisted of nearly straight conversation with another human being - Dominic, to be exact. After another nearly sleepless night (could it still be the jetlag giving me problems?), I awoke to a sunny, but cold day. London is far less rainy than I thought it would be...the sky threatens a lot with this whitish color, but it hasn't really rained that much yet. I think it was rainier in New Jersey for the past few months. Not that I'm complaining or anything - I like sun. I guess I was just bracing myself to expect something completely different.
So, after meeting Dominic at King's Cross Station, we headed off for a day with about three goals - go shopping, eat lunch, and find a trombone store so Dominic could find sheet music. Simple enough. So, shopping. It's pretty hard for me to walk around London these days. Why, you ask? Maybe just the fact that the city is immersed in the January sales, where the ENTIRE CITY is on sale. It's not just like one or two stores, it's every store. And even the supermarkets and drugstores get into the act. So, knowing how I act around sales, I've been pretty well-behaved, considering. However, today I bought a sensible pair of boots, and am glad for it. Will buy nothing else, though - at least not until I get my high-paying job. :)
So, shopping. Dominic got what he wanted at H&M, and we headed off to Chinatown for lunch. After almost being trapped in some shady lunch buffet (we were the only people there, and it was up on the 4th floor of the restaurant - it was hilarious....the buffets got less and less expensive as you traveled up the tiny staircase) we actually got a nice (and cheap) lunch special at a small restaurant on Gerrard (I think@?) Street, the thoroughfare complete with cheesy Chinese gates for tourist photo ops. After picking up a sweet bun for breakfast (mmm, sweet bun), we headed off for the trombone shop, which I believe was to be the highlight of the trip for Dominic. After walking twice down the street it was supposed to be on, we concluded that it must have closed. The trip was almost rescued by a stop into a crowded chess store promising an appearance from Gary Kasparov (sp?), but after only seeing some weedy little British guy cracking jokes about chess moves, we quickly headed out. Plus, that place was giving me the creeps - it reminded me too much of Chess, the Musical. Ahhh, bad memories.
So, that being a bust, we headed over to Foyles, a fabulous huge bookstore near Tottenham Court Road, where I longingly looked at sale books (and mostly the beautiful, expensive architecture ones) before trying out two new sweets (for me) - mincemeat pies (on sale at Sainsbury's), and Indian sweets. We were in Sainsbury's to look for pasta sauce ingredients - don't laugh, Denis - because I had explained to Dominic that it would be hard for me to make my mom's sauce here, without Hunt's tomatoes and all. But he showed me something that I actually forget the name of right now but which I think starts with "P", so that should be helpful in the future (if I can remember what exactly it is, of course).
So yeah, that's about the extent of my day. And I think that's the most I've written in this blog so far, which should give some idea about the poverty of my social life thus far. I see another person I know and go beserk. That seems about right. Everyone - come visit!
Oh, and good luck to Virginia, who leaves soon to study abroad in Italy. Lucky, lucky girl.
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