STILL no place like London!

First off, yesterday was my mother's birthday. And before anyone asks, she's twenty-nine. Happy (belated) birthday, Mum! <3

If you hadn't guessed from the title, I just got back from London again. This time, I went with some of my flatmates -- taking the train there with Love (seriously) and Matt, then meeting up with Robyn and Isa and Baya (Bea? Beya? someone correct me here please. I don't know how to spell it because she doesn't actually live in our flat) for lunch and general wandering. Isa had obtained buy-one-get-one-for-one-pound vouchers for gourmet burgers at...someplace near Soho? I cannot remember the name, but my burger had guacamole and bacon on it and was delicious and also huge. And I paid five pounds for it, which was very cheap considering the size of the burger (i.e., comparable to my head) and the fact that it had avocado on it, and the fact that we are in England. :3

We checked ticket prices for musical matinees at Leicaster Square -- which I still can't pronounce quite right. However, the girls were none-too-enthused by either the choices or the prices (Grease and Chicago were playing, both for about thirty pounds, and I don't remember any others because I am lame). They also had their hearts set on seeing Wicked, though, so I can't really blame them. It was decided that we would go shopping instead, so we spend the afternoon on Oxford Street, which has all the really big clothing shops. The ones I remember hitting are H&M, River Island, and a place called Primark (yes, Disser, it's pronounced like you think it is) which is kind of like a British Sam's Club but only for clothing. In all the shops, I tried on a ton of things -- including some awesome heeled boots that I couldn't really walk in -- and had a good deal of fun because I still hadn't quite figured out British sizing. I didn't buy a lot. Actually, I bought exactly one item: a River Island shirt that was on sale and fit me very well. :) I also tried Ben's Cookies for the first time. Triple Chocolate Chunk, which was basically three large chunks of chocolate held together by a small amount of chocolate cookie. Friggin' delicious.

After Primark, we decided we were all tired but too full from lunch to go get dinner, so we spent 30-45 minutes or so trying to track down the boys. The directions we were given over the phone amounted to something like this:

"We're somewhere off Regent Street. On Kingsomething. In a pub. Take the first left and the first right. The pub's name is C-A-somethingsomething." (In the boys' defense, they'd already been there a little while.)

We still found it, though I think I can take full credit for finding the boys themselves, as we initially thought we still had the wrong pub and were about to give up when I checked upstairs. Found 'em, and they'd been joined by Charles at that point as well. The girls and I sat around for a bit, debating about where to go. I was heading back to Colchester for the evening, but the rest of the girls had more local lodgings. During the discussion, I snagged a rum and coke from the bar (it was overpriced but tasty). The girls decided to just grab some fast food and head home. I decided to finish my drink and head home, and so we said goodbye to the boys and left, the four of us parting ways at Oxford Circus.

Robyn said she felt bad about leaving me to head home alone. I, er, may have laughed a little. It was nice to hear, though.

Also, earlier this week, while I was trying dragonfruit* for the first time in our kitchen, Robyn and Matt jokingly suggested that I post descriptions of all my flatmates in the blog. I won't be doing that, because it could lead to trouble, and also there are thirteen of us so I don't know everyone that well, and also because I am lazy. But for the record, Matt is a comfortably-closeted individual whose favorite pastimes include kicking puppies and playing ultimate Frisbee, and Robyn is secretly a unicorn.

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*Verdict: Interesting but not as tasty as expected. Kind of like starfruit, but with white flesh, no funny shape, and a lot of little black seeds like kiwi. And less flavor. It is from a cactus, after all.