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Notes -
How.
A few weeks back, I'd gotten in touch with an old buddy of mine living down in London. We hadn't met for ages, and I offered to come visit during the last dying days of what passes as a summer around these parts.
You can see below that my experience catching a red-eye flight (one that threatened to give me pink-eye to boot) didn't go so well. A small price to pay, I told myself, as I landed at the airport an hour or so back, and caught the train towards where my friend lives. I dropped him a text letting him know I was on my way, and looking forward to seeing him in a few hours.
At which point came back a rather incredulous message. "self_made_human, you were supposed to be come visit next weekend."
Well. Shit. I have no valid explanation, barring chronic severe deprivation brought on by too many night shifts and dissolute living. He'd been very clear on the dates, I just ended up mixing them up, only remembering that I was supposed to see him the last weekend of this month.
He called to figure out what on earth had happened, and I was in the process of explaining the above when the train went through a tunnel and lost network. I made small talk with my fellow passengers, and took to heart their advice to make a picnic out of my misfortune. Call it self_made_human's most spontaneous (and first) solo day trip. Not kidding about that, I'm not one for travel, and I never go any significant distances unless it's on some kind of vacation or to visit someone. This is quite literally the first time I've found myself in a different city with no plans or fixed agenda.
I'm furiously asking ChatGPT for advice on how to kill the time until I hear back from my friend regarding his ability to accommodate my stupidity. I've already promised to come visit again next weekend, as he'd already made time and spent money booking things for us to do.
So uh, what do I do now? Any suggestions? Tottenham looks profoundly uninspiring, and I don't even know what sport the local team, the Tottenham Hotspurs, even play. Worst case I go to a pub. Or maybe I wander around Central London, with far more discretionary spending potential than the last time I was here.
(My family is never going to let me live this down)
Edit:
If it wasn't Anita Sarkeesian I saw at the Tate Modern, then this lady is her long lost twin. I should have said hi.
Edit 2:
Brother, they're playing a film where a bunch of clean-shaven Asian twinks are jerking off with/to plants. Modern and postmodern art outdoes itself.
The Piccadilly area is pretty nice for shopping: it’s got a couple of good, big bookshops (Hatchard’s especially), Fortnum & Mason’s for food, and Jermyn street etc. for top-end clothes, jackets etc. (I think you were quite interested in fashion but maybe not that kind?)
Very crowded and expensive obviously, but nice.
Or there’s the historical stuff: go to Bank and see the old City of London, or to Westminster/St. James’ Park.
I'd be very leery about calling myself interested in fashion. I buy two, maybe three, articles of clothing a year, but I do try to make sure I look good in them.
Visiting the book shops might not hurt, but I haven't bought a dead tree book (that wasn't a textbook) in almost a decade. Libgen rules.
Thanks!
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