I am back from my trip to the UK where I had a lovely time with the family followed by a weekend in London seeing friends and, as it turned out, catching a particularly nasty cold.
My journey from Angoulême to London was uneventful and, thanks to a laptop full of films to watch, it passed quickly. The final train from St Pancras to Bedford was expensive, hugely overcrowded and freezing cold: an unnecessary reminder that in Britain, the phrase “train service” is an oxymoron. Dad collected me from the station and we were back in Olney a little before 8.30pm, and famished. We had yummy homemade pizza that night, followed by an early night.
Mum conveniently had the next two days off work, so we braved the driving rain and wind and went shopping the next morning. Our first stop was a shoe shop in Olney where Mum bought me a new pair of boots. From there we went on to Milton Keynes where I scored some new jeans and a few other bits n bobs. After pizza part 2 for lunch, I went over to see Nan in the afternoon for a wee bit. That evening, Dave called in to see us on his way from from Heathrow where he’s been working lately. He’s well but travelling a lot so was tired and didn’t stay too late. Dad made a delicious cassoulet for dinner that night.
On Friday, it was still really cold and rainy so we stayed in the warm in the morning. Mum had a staff Christmas party lunch in the afternoon and left around 2pm. I took advantage of this opportunity to wrap all the Christmas presents I had bought with me / had had delivered to Mum and Dad’s. Dad got back from work shortly afterwards so we decided to brave the elements and have a drink at the only decent pub left in Olney, the Swan. We had a couple drinks a-piece and then Mum joined us a for a third, having gotten back from her lunch. We ordered a takeaway curry for dinner that evening and stayed up chatting for a while before all turning in.
The next morning I squeezed in another visit with Nan before saying my goodbyes to the folks. My friend Anna came and collected me and took me to her town of Newport Pagnell, which is roughly halfway between Olney and the train station. There we hit the pub for a drink, which became two. When Bev showed up, two drinks became three drinks and I realised I wasn’t going to be getting in to London as early as I’d originally planned. I finally left Anna and Bev around 4pm and took a cab to the station. I got a train straight away and soon pulled in to Euston station with a fantastically full bladder. That was my first concern and then I bussed to Iain’s place in Dalston where I was staying. He was out at a party but his partner Giancarlo was home so I got caught up with him. That evening, Steve from next door (whose house we used to rent) invited me over for dinner, which was a nice surprise. Unfortunately, he and Ian are having some issues at present, so he’s living full-time in London these days. He made us a carbonara and then we watched a film, for which Iain and Giancarlo joined us.
The next day, the UK was on a country-wide weather alert: snow, gales and freezing temperatures. I woke early to what sounded like rain against the window so first assumed that London had escaped the worst. When I opened the blinds I was greeted by a snowscape the like of which it is rare to see in London, and realised it had been snow and not rain I’d been listening to. I had a few things I still needed to buy, but given the heavy snow, revised my plans and chilled out at Iain’s. He is in the final stages of getting a new kitchen built. All told the project has been going on for 4 years, and it had gotten to the point where no-one dared ask how it was progressing anymore. So we’re all relieved its nearly finished. In the interim, the ground floor is unusable and they’re subsisting on microwavable ready meals. Knowing my penchant for indian food, Iain served up a curry for lunch which we ate in the lounge, watching the snow outside. Luckily, the snow soon turned to rain and then stopped altogether so I did eventually head out briefly that afternoon and got most of what I needed.
Monday saw me up very early and I got to St Pancras in plenty of time for my train. The return journey was as uneventful as the outward one, except for a “chance of delays” in Lille due to heavy snow. In the end, a 10 minute delay was very quickly made up and I got in to Angoulême en time. I was plesantly surprised to find it was 8 degrees out. After the week I’d had, it felt positively tropical. Right, I shall stop there as that’s the end of my UK trip. I will do a summary of the week since my return on Monday. As a wee spoiler, it can be summed up in one word: Rain.