I came back to London relaxed and happy, only to find a part of the ceiling in my apartment on the floor. Upstairs neighbour's shower leaking, apparently. So for the next couple of days, I am going to have builders in and out all the time. Living in a studio, it makes it kind of tricky ... but I am not going to grow more wrinkles over it. I've survived worse things - India, yes, I did love you, you taught me many things, especially patience.
So in the interest of keeping the remainder of 2008 as peaceful as possible, I left the builder alone and went to have breakfast at the Turnham Green Café. It's not somewhere I have been before, I just picked it out at random and it turned out to be a Thai-run greasy spoon but their bacon sandwich and coffee was nice enough for the price. The bacon was nice and crispy, just how I like it. I sat there for a while, reading Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner and I was, ladies and gentlemen, feeling utterly and blissfully happy. (The reviews say that the Thai food at the Turnham Green Café is supposed to be very good, so I might come back. I miss Bangkok and eating cheap pad thai on the street!) The staff were lovely and attentive and waved me goodbye.
Afterwards, I strolled around Hammersmith, did some window-shopping, some book-shopping and sat in Starbucks reading my book again. I wanted to go to the cinema to see Australia, but it wasn't playing until the afternoon. With no New Year Eve plans, I called my old school friend Syn and arranged to join her and her friends.
We had dinner at Inn Noodle near Tottenham Court Road station, which is a lovely, lovely Chinese restaurant and their dumplings and char siew are awesome. Even tried a dessert, a golden red bean pancake, which was interesting. Afterwards, we were off to Embankment to watch the fireworks. We stood there for three hours and I was so grateful for my new sheepskin boots which kept me warm all the way through. We drank Starbucks instead of champagne, to keep warm and it was nice not to be drunk, actually. We danced along to the music, provided by a BBC Radio 1's DJ ... watched Boris and Homer Simpson and Rod Steward and a few other people wish us Happy New Year, projected onto a building next to the London Eye.
Syn's friends were all lovely and we had a good time together. One of boys even gave me a back massage, which is like birthday and Christmas combined! I love massages! The entertainers projected a number of text messages onto the building next to the London Eye as well, including "Free travel on the tube all tonight. Luv u xx Boris" and "Will you marry me?" and "Will you have my babies?" (For the record, the last two were not from Boris.)
The fireworks were truly spectacular and I was glad they didn't try to save money on the display due to the credit crunch or something. I have already had enough of these cost-saving measures in 2008, especially the credit crunch Christmas lunch that our office put on. At one point it looked like the whole sky was painted with glitter and it was coming down onto us. Soo cool! I have become too lazy to carry my SLR camera everywhere, so I have no pictures, but here's one that a friend took. (New Year's Resolution: Will take more pictures for my blog.)
And thanks to YouTube and the BBC, you can see the whole thing for yourself here:
Getting back home was a bit of a nightmare, as there were massive crowds walking towards Trafalgar Square and all the other central Tube stations. It was like the Pushkar Camel Fair, minus the pickpocketing. Queueing for the Tube at Leicester Square, I overheard a husband saying to his wife: "Next time I suggest doing something alternative and special for New Year's Eve, remind me that alternative and special means staying at home." Dear readers of this blog, next time I find someone special, please remind me not to date men who take you out somewhere and complain afterwards. Or worse yet, men who moan when you take them out somewhere. Or worst of the worst, men who puke all over themselves and afterwards take the Tube when it's packed, spreading their goodies all over their fellow passengers. Those should be shot!
And with that, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
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