This weekend I had the great pleasure of staying with my carbon copy, the right dishonorable Ash Snaddon. Because of the nature of our relationship and our unsettling similarities, we decided not to make a plan ahead of time and wing it. This is what happened...
Its the second time I have been to London to see my brother since he moved to the big smoke. I am not a fan of long journeys for starters, so the 2 and a half hour coach ride was by far not the highlight. I made this as tolerable as possible, adopting my tried and tested technique for bagsy-ing 2 seat to myself... putting my rucksack on the chair next to me and falling asleep with my headphones in. Judge me all you like, but I'm not in the business of making friends with people who are sharing my leg space. You at least have to buy me a drink first for that kind of action.
The coach pulled in at Victoria around 23:00, so after waking up my sleeping "upper leg" area and cracking my neck back into place I went off in search for Ash. Me and him go way back, we met in the 90's and hit it off so well we decided to start living together. The city suits him, he is way more laid back than I am and it shows.
After the ceremonial and borderline homoerotic male embraces were over, we went through our loose itinerary for the weekend. When you enter Ash's house share, you are immediately sent back to the 1800s'. I always feel like I've come to look after the Banks children. The entire house is like something the national trust would blush over and I make a significant effort not to touch let alone break anything. After a swift coffee and a drop of my backpack we call it a night.
The next morning, I am swept out of the door and taken to Ash's favorite "crappy cafe" for a breakfast. I have always had problems with IBS and the result is usually to feel shitty (sometime quite literally) for the first few hours of my day, however this was a rare opportunity that my gut was allowing me the privileged of eating this morning. Suitably fueled we moved onto a full day of walking around not knowing what to do with ourselves. To most this would sound like a nightmare but we are experts in the field and cracked out a full 10 km worth of doing not much at all. Bliss.
We then decided that we would end up going onto more social en devours, meeting up with Ash's roommate and 2 other of her close friends. "Do you like Korean food?" I was asked. In typical fashion I lied, and said I loved it; I have never eaten Korean food. We meet up with our group at a Korean restaurant and I scanned the menu desperately trying to find something familiar and won the jackpot of opening on the Ramen section. Also bliss.
Dinner was accompanied by great conversation. The 3 women we were with, were all, at least in my opinion, everything that is great about a spontaneous evening with new people. They were all intelligent, compelling and most importantly very funny in their own unique way, making me and Ash look like the simple apes that we are. I am always an advocate for strong women, mostly just to bask in the light of how much better they are then I am. My fiancee Rosie is by far the most powerful being on the planet and I will definitely be playing meet and greet should we both be in London visiting Ash in the future.
And now for the downhill section. I don't drink to excess often but, due to the spicy food and great company, today was another exception. Clearly I was not in the mindset to treat my stomach with the same courtesy that it had shown me for the start of my day. A quick stop at the shop for a bottle of gin and some snacks and we were back at the house, educating one of the company the joys and immortal wisdom passed down by The Wurzles. Somewhere between "Morning Glory" and midnight the gin was all but gone and so was my balance. Cue the stomach's revenge sequence. One of my close friends once told me the legend of the chunder dragon, and truly seeing is believing. You know when you empty a hot water bottle into a sink. I am the water bottle. Bliss over.
After one of the company helped undo my shoelaces as I clawed up the staircase, I settled in for the night spooning one of Ash's saucepans. Lesson learned until next time is suppose. This weekend has been the 3rd time in 5 years me and Rosie have been away from each other longer than a day. Although the quality time with my sibling is priceless, I always miss her terribly and my aim for this evening is getting through the train journey home to be with her again. I can almost hear her now asking, "did you buy me anything?"
*Spoiler alert*
I haven't.
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