Chapter 128: Special Rainbow Jelly

nerd blog post#136

The last night in Birmingham was a goodie. UD and AS took me out for a delicious Indian dindins. B-Ham is famous for their Indian food, and it was very tasty! Later, AS and I had a hot date to see the new Ricky Jervais film. He is a funny man. I had one last sleep in that extremely comfy bed and left the next morning for Londontown. I'm not sure if I'll be back in England again this time, so it felt like a different goodbye than other times. I so appreciated their constant and warm hospitality.

Talia met met me at the train station on Friday and we walked the few short blocks to her house. She lives with four others in a sweet house with a huge common area and some nice guys. We went out around 4pm to the grad student pub (Tal's doing a Master's at LSE) and had pints there with her classmates. It felt a lot like Canada in there. I think because it really had the student pub vibe and I haven't been in a student pub since I was a student, sooo that's why.... We stayed there for a few hours. Her classmates are really nice and its an international crew, which is fun. Later in the evening. we went to a cheap pub to get some food. There, Rob Macnamera met us and it was awesome seeing him after 14 months of virtual correspondence. After that pub, the three of us took a walk along the Thames and across the Jubilee Bridge by the London Eye. The city and the water looked beautiful, and I had one of those surreal moments when I realize just where I am and who I'm with and how great everything is. The Guiness helps the positivity, too.

The cool (and by cool, I mean nerdy) thing about hanging with Talia and Rob is that we were all managers at the P&CC (the student union's copy shop at Queen's) and we all LOVE talking about ANY aspect of that job, and can do so for hours.

Talia and I slept in hard on Saturday, and by the time we'd had a coffee, breakie and a chat, it was 4pm. So I left her to do some work and I went for a long walk in the area, stopping in Middle Eastern stores and at a cool market and on a search to replace my boots that are worn out completely. No luck with that, but it was a nice outing. Upon my return, Talia's roomie had made KFC pizza and I tried it and it was delicious.

In the evening, we met Rob in Little Hanoi in the East End and went to one of the busy Vietnamese restaurants in the area. They were all cheap, packed, and offering the BYOB service with a tiny corking fee. We ate well there and stayed for awhile with the OB that we Bed and even tried a dessert called Special Rainbow Jelly, which wasn't so special after all. After dindins, we went to a small club called On the Rocks that played really fun and funky music of a trendy genre for a hipster crowd. We danced and danced and it was very fun. Then the place closed and Talia and Rob wanted food so we went to a kebab place and they ate and I had a beer and OPF. We took two night buses home and were very much looking forward to bed!

Today we are meeting up with Rob and Danny Mahoney, another friend from Queen's, and either going to a market or to the zoo in Regent's Park. I fly out tomorrow to meet Steve. It is his bday today, so he gets some points. I am having a fantastic time in London and it feels great to catch up with good friends and, of course, to dance.

With love,

Hincks.