Weekend
Monday 26th June
A great weekend.
Leicester Pride on Saturday, then a trip to London (oooh!) on Sunday. We took advantage of the £12 return tickets you can have if you:
a) Book fifteen years in advance
and
b) Travel at horrible antisocial hours
So… we caught the 9:25am rail-replacement bus to Leicester which had a wide-angle video camera on the front and a TV screen in the ceiling so you could watch the road in front - fun! Then the train to London St. Pancreas*.
The train was interesting - rather short-staffed, so the guard was also the ticket collector and the buffet-car server. We were hoping she hadn’t also popped into the cab to press ‘go’ before she started her rounds and had to rush back to press ’stop’ before we ploughed into the buffers at the end of the station.
Next, the underground to Brixton where we visited an empty shelfa bookcrossing zone for Sarah to drop a couple of books off. Then a walk for a mile up Brixton hill. It’s not steep, but you notice it after a mile. We didn’t get stabbed, raped, mugged OR murdered - it was terribly disappointing. Where were the gunfights and drug-dealing gangs we were promised by the media?
Then a quick pair ofcups of tea at the Talls’ house. Then off to Clapham Common for a pick-a-nick. Fran brought her little kite to play with which paled in comparison to a man’s big inflatable aerofoil style one with thick lines and girdleharness. However, Fran’s kite spend much more time in the air, and caused more joy for more people, so enjoyment per pence was probably way above that of girdle-boy and his fancy thing.
After the picnic, a quick whizz up the tube to the Black Friar pub to meet some imaginary friends. The pub was lovely - all done out in marble and mosaic and wood carvings and brass signs. No photos seem to do it justice. What’s more, they had Addlestone’s Cider on tap - something I’ve not seen since my student days. Yum!
Then a quick whizz again in the tube and onto a big fast train at 22:30, and a bus and home by 1am. Phew.
(*yes, I know)
And I hope you did the housework when you got back
Lordhutton
26 Jun 06 at 10:56 am
At 1am? No chance!
stu
26 Jun 06 at 11:11 am
*looks around at the state the house is in*
Oops!
sarah
26 Jun 06 at 11:12 am
fun-filled day eh.
boo
26 Jun 06 at 11:57 am
I love thoses buses with the TV pics of the road…. sad aren’t I
Mr Hedgehog
26 Jun 06 at 12:00 pm
Addlestones is yummy. It tastes of banananas to me.
And it certainly “gets you there”
Rich
26 Jun 06 at 12:19 pm
I’m sure Fran will be muchly chuffed to be henceforth known as Fran’s Tall throughout the intermaweb.
By the way, I notice there are rather a lot of corrections in your blog entry today. Perhaps you should write everything out in rough and make changes there, before typing up the final version? Just a suggestion!
Simon's Tall
26 Jun 06 at 12:41 pm
BTW, Is Leicester Pride anything like London Pride? (Link above)
Simon's Tall
26 Jun 06 at 12:48 pm
A few years ago, aboard a Boeing 757, a steward was messing with the LCD screens etc for landing and he managed to display a view from a camera underneath the body of the plane! How cool. I was well impressed and managed to talk him into leaving it on for landing, which he did and apart from the front landing gear obscuring the view slightly, it was ace!
Glad you had a good time in the village.
doggasblog
26 Jun 06 at 1:03 pm
Gay beer, Simon?
stu
26 Jun 06 at 1:08 pm
The train had wings? I’m confused
Max
26 Jun 06 at 7:13 pm
Train? Wings? What?
stu
26 Jun 06 at 7:42 pm
You had a whizz in the Tube? You’re a disgrace to society.
Omally
26 Jun 06 at 8:04 pm
Glad you enjoyed the day. Was worried you’d be blogging that we smell of asparagus and forcefed you quiche.
My kite is indeed a bringer of joy. But as it can be flown by small children, it lacks the machismo of one that needs manly grappling, so the man probably thinks his is better.
Fran
27 Jun 06 at 7:57 pm