My god, how bad can my blog title-puns get? Probably much worse, so I'll just keep trying to come up with new annd worse titles for everyone to enjoy! I keep telling myself that I'll update my blog more often, and it's unfortunate that I've proved to be an atrocious liar when it comes to making blog-related promises to myself. I will shoot off a quick update and add further details only in the parts that demand such satisfaction... or at least that's my plan.
I discovered that when you know that snow won't be coming down on you with an all-consuming power for 4 months, it really can be a lot of fun! The snow started melting after 4 days and was gone in a week. Now complete strangers refer to it with the unexplained intimacy of survivors. "Remember when it snowed... must have been 30 cms... couldn't get my car out for days..." I got drunk, played in the snow, had to re-arrange my days off because trains were cancelled, and was otherwise laughing. I was sad that I couldn't go through with my London rocking plans, but I had a great few days at Nikki's place filled with watching TV, playing in the snow, and lots of drinking. Good times were had by all. I originally was to have Monday and Wednesday off (for reasons unknown) but because I was snow-stranded they pushed my days off together, and I was back at work on Wednesday.
Nothing of dramatic importance happened for the next few days of work, but on Sunday, because there is no dinner shift that night and we always finish relatively early, Tytti and I decided to finally check out the local Spanish restau-bar "El Torito". Gosha, who works at the Cedar House, also works there and was gong to have a drink wth us after her shift finished. By the time she finished, her other friends who were there eating dinner, had decided instead of drinking there to head to the other (completely hidden and obscure) local pub called "The Plough". Wait a second! There's another pub in this one-horse town? No way! We headed over to the Plough and discovered (to our shock and amazement) that the 12+ staff are all under 30 and cool as hell. We spent the night drinking and making friends, and left with a much higher opinion of Cobham's younger crowd (ie: that there is one).
Earlier on in the next week our beloved hotel got a visit from the Fire Inspector. In England, because so many buildings are very old, he Fire Inspector is a very common and much feared local authority figure. The rooms that Tytti and I stay in at the hotel are only accessible by one set of stairs, and therefore cannot be rented out as hotel rooms. They were told, however, that staff could live there because they are more familiar with other menas of escape (the window) in the event of a fire. This, aparently, was not the final judgement, because the Fire Inspector decided that staff can no longer occupy those rooms until there is another fire door installed in the kitchen. So, between my split work shifts that day, I had to haul-ass and move all my stuff from my room to another room in the hotel. Tytti had to do the same, and we now share a room in the hotel part of the building. I was pretty angered at first, because I like having a room to myself, and I hate unnecessary packing, but our room is pretty pimp and Tytti and I are friends so it's not like I'm sharing a room with someone I don't like. Also we still have our own beds, which is a necessity.
Over the previous week I got a message from my beloved old college chum Justin that he was finally making good on his years of vague plans and constant talk and would be embarking on his own European adventure. Originally he was going to land in some eastern European country, then come visit me sometime before I have to leave in March, but had changed his mind and bought a (apparently very last-minute) ticket to London; giving me just over a week's notice. I secured Thursday (his arrival day) and Friday off, by working 9 days in a row before-hand, and had garnered permission for him to stay with me at the hotel weeks before when I first heard faint notions of him taking this trip. My room move proved problematic, though, because I didn't want what would inevitably be a loud and boozey reunion to disturb Tytti, and I wanted some time alone with my friend. Because they had originally promised me this visit and because the hotel was skint for guests those nights, I was given one of the fabulous hotel rooms for Justin and I to stay in for two nights. This gave me the rare afforded chance to completely spoil my friend with the most pimp accomodations and a full tour of London.
My 9 days of work were beyond rough, and I wasn't very excited by the prospect of having to wake up at 5am in order to meet Justin on time at the airport. Excitement to see a friend won out over being tired, and I met Justin at the Gatwick airport when he landed. After gathering Justin from the airport, we went back to the hostel so he could shower and drop off his huge back-packing bag (I know the feeling), then we headed out to London to do some sight-seeing. We walked through most of the South-Harbour, and spent about an hour in the Tate Modern museum of modern art. I was really excited to finally go into the Tate and was really impressed by some of the exhibits they have there. After the Tate it was getting cold and we were getting hungry, so we headed to the BYOB Indian restaurant that Nikki had taken me to before, stopping first at the grocery store to buy a full supply of liquor. We then spent a few hours sitting, eating, drinking loads, and catching up. Lovely, lovely dinner.
After that we drank through the whole train ride back to Cobham, and my friend Gosha came to pick our drunken selves up and take us to the Plough to meet our friends for more drinks. My work friends and a couple of our new Plough friends were already there drinking, and I was really pleased to give Justin a proper British pub experience. The best was that my friend Pierre was working the bar, and a closing time instead of kicking us out, he sat down and drank with usfor about an hour. Since we were on a roll we invited everyone up to our hotel room for a few more dinks to cap off the night and we stubled into bed around 4am.
The next day I let Justin sleep in until about noon before I finally succumbed to my impatience and roused him for more sightseeing. We rolled into London at about 2pm and I wanted to get as much in as possible before the sun went down, so we had a whirlwind tour. We started with Buckingham Palace and surrounding parks and statues, then back to South Harbour to see the rest of that, then quickly to Leicester square to inquire on cheap tickets for Oliver (none, damn), then to China Town for dinner at a buffet restaurant. Someone in Leicester square had handed us a flyer for a comedy night happening there, and over Chinese food we decided to go. First we went to Camden market for a quick walkabout, thenback to Leicester square for the comedy show. We arrived late and I had to take an empty seat away from Justin and near the front and had to endure about 10 consecutive minutes of the comic ripping on me. It was all in good fun, though, and I didn'd mind. The funniest thing was that when I was Canadian the comic said that that means that I'm really American and I don't want people to hate me. I hear that a lot, but he actually convinced most of the audience that I was American, so that for the rest of the night any time a comic told an American joke everyone would look at me to see if I was offended. Haha!
The next day I had to work the ridiculous and awful day of Valentine's. The lunch shift was long but not too painful, bt the dinner shift had been fully booked for weeks and was the most awful thing ever. Smack in the middle of the night the floor manager and head chef (who are dating) had a big bitch-fight in the kitchen, which at least half of the customers could hear part of. Not cool. I managed to survive, albeit barely, and luckily the next day was Sunday, so there wouln't be a dinner shift. There was, however, a big fancy party on Sunday so I didn't finish until after 6.
Originally Justin was going to make his plans early and then take off on Valentine's day. This, however, did not pan out, because we had been rocking so hard since he landed Just hadn't actually gotten a chance to sleep off his jet-lag until V-Day. He slept until about 10pm or something, so after it became apparent that he would sleep all day I just stowed him in my room and said we'd figure his plans out after. Then on Sunday I found out that I would have Monday off, so we scrapped any previous plans and decided to go to Brighton. I was exhausted when I finished work, but I don't get theatre kids visiting me very often (see: never) so I sucked it up and we took a train to London. We had a bit of time to kill before our bus, so we went to Westminster Abbey and the other side of Big Ben, then hung out in Victoria Train Station for a bit. We took a bus to Brighton and arrived at about 1:30am. It seemed silly to get a hostel at this point, so we spent the whole night walking around the town and drinking on the beach. The next morning we got a hostel first-thing and slept until mid-afternoon. After this it was time ofr daylight exploring of Brighton, which is an adorable coastal town. It has one of the most exotic and cooly historic buildings in GB: the Middle Eastern style George V palace. We walked along the long beach, through the palace grounds, and spent a bunch of time in the way cool Kensington market where I purchased some cool vintage photos. I love how easy and cheap it is toget really neat vintage stuff here due to the large amounts of history. Yay!
That night we walked around a bit, but mostly hung out in the hostel. The next morning I had to leave super early to make a train back to Cobham, and Just had a ferry to France with his name on it. We said our goodbyes at the station and went our seperate ways. I now know exactly how my friend Will felt when I hung out with him at the end of his trip and the begining of mine. A mix between happiness, sadness, jealousy, and fulfillment. Strange.
Work that day was awful because I officially hadn't slept in a week, and Wednesday was no better because there was a huge B-Day party that night. Luckily I had Thursday (2 days ago, by the time I'm writing this section) off, and I finally gave myself a good rest. I spent the day drinking coffees in the local cafe, reading comics, reading books, and going to the library. The Cobham library is 100% dangerous, because every time I go there lately I tell myself that I have too many books to read right now, then wind up taking out 4 books anyway. Whoops. That night I went to El Torito then the plough with Gosha and her roommies, but I didn't stay out too late because I'm still recovering. Partying is so much easier when pesky work doesn't get in your way! Then nothing but work until now, speaking of which, I should go get ready for it.
