UK Trip! Thurs Aug 31/06

Last day of August - last full day in London *sob*

We'd made plans to meet MMM for pastries before hooking up with SJ&ST, so we left DK's place nice and early to get some shopping in. Oh, we were bad in Next, I bought four - yes FOUR - tops, and J* and I ended up with one the same! Have I mentioned that we're always drawn to the same clothes?

We met MMM in Soho as planned and strolled over to Patisserie Valerie, went upstairs and chatted - Pah met up with us there, so we were four, and when we were done we all strolled along Carnaby Street and met up with SJ&ST for some more shopping (oh yes) - ooh, tall socks! Along the way we somehow lost Pah, but he knew where we were going later so we weren't too worried.

It started to get late, and I had made plans to meet a group of folks at Shakespeare's Head in Holborn, so we said our goodbyes and J* and I headed that way - and ran into our friend Waz on the way! He knew as well that we were going there and decided to meet us for an hour or so, how nice! And my very good friend L came too!

Of course, now here's the dilemma - the friends I'd made plans with (let's call them Group Tavern) were from a completely different circle then J* and Pah and Waz and L (and they'll be Group Bowlie), and I really didn't know that they'd all mesh, so what to do? Well, I'd seen J* for the whole trip, I'd seen Pah twice already this trip, and I was going to be spending five days with L up in Yorkshire after today, so it was easy really - meet with Group Tavern briefly, spend time with Group Bowlie until Waz had to be off (since I'd only met with him briefly at the All-Dayer), and then move back to the Group Tavern. Confusing? Well, only now that I'm writing it down *grin*

Anyway, that's what I did. Sat with Group Bowlie for an hour or so until Waz had to leave - got some nice chatting in with them all, but more with Waz since I knew our time was limited (and ooh, got a Gresham Flyers '45 from him!), and then when he had to leave I walked him out to say goodbye and then re-joined Group Tavern.

And before you ask, of course my guilt reflex was screaming over this. But what could I do? I told the others I was going to move back over there, and they should come join if they wanted to of course - and they did, sort of, they came over and hovered a wee bit, and then kind of regrouped around the corner from Group Tavern, but I could tell they didn't feel like they'd mesh, so I got up and chatted with them. L had to work in the morning, and J* wanted to have an earlier night than I knew I'd be having, so the two of them walked each other out to the Tube, and Pah left shortly after that.

So anyway, that left me in the hands of Group Tavern, who were all a lot of fun - I'd only met one of them before, when he was in Toronto a couple of weeks earlier (and of course I haven't blogged that at all, man this summer's been insane), and I'd been chatting with PK (who actually found a maple leaf under the table, how weird is that?) a bit and texting so we could meet up, but everyone else was completely new to me. What a fun bunch of people! We drank and caroused until quite late - R showed up later as well, which was really nice, I was hoping I'd get to see him again before I had to leave! I left there, somewhat reluctantly, at 11 (S walked me to the Tube, what a doll) and got the last train of the evening, getting back to DK's house quite late - he was still up, but going to bed soon so I just said goodnight and retired for the evening.

Some rather silly photos of this full day can be found on my Flickr page...