A very busy, but very enjoyable day.

The plan for today was quite cool, maybe a little tight at point on the time line, but doable...

Well up until the point when the very first bit went tits up, causing a cascade effect for the rest of the morning! Best laid plans eh!

I had to get up and pick up a parcel from the post office, then head down to Borough Market and get some essentials (Black Pepper, I cannot live without pepper!), then drop the groceries off at home, and finally get ready to meet Sandy at Waterloo station at some point in the early afternoon.

So what went wrong... I decided to just brush my teeth and leave the shower/primping and tarting up until I headed off to meet Sandy. I jumped in the car, and found that it was only firing on three cylinders, so I then had to take the car to my mate Johan's place and get the thing fixed. That took a couple of hours (who says that managed engines can't coke up their spark plugs?), mainly because I had a chat with Johan.

Then I headed of to Borough Market, and just as I arrived, got a text from Sandy at 10:50ish saying she was on the train and would be at Waterloo in about an hour! I wasn't expecting her until at the earliest 1PM, that's what early afternoon means to me. Assumption, the mother of all fu.... You get the message.

So I jumped in the car, managed to make it home from the city in 25 minutes (God was on my side to some extent this particular day!) and texted Sandy to let her know the car had given me some gyp and I may be a little later than planned. She was OK with that, so it was all good.

Dashed home, one shower/shave/dental hygiene session, some smell-nice and a clean set of clothes later I jumped on the tube and was at Waterloo for 12:10. (God was going with a benevolent travel theme for the day obviously.)

I met up with Sandy and all was good. She seemed as cool and talkative as she did on line. Yay. The nutter magnet was finally switched off. Or was it? (More later!)

We grabbed a coffee, after the morning's shenanigans, I was still in mucho need of caffeination! And then we set off for a walk down the South Bank, it was windy but not rainy and a little cold but not too bad at all. Bracing you might call it if you were thinking straight as you started that last sentence, instead of typing on auto-pilot like a fool. (Ooops, the internal monologue is externalising, YOU back in the box!)

I did suggest we went on the London Eye, but it seems that Sandy is afraid of heights, so we nixed that idea.

We stopped at the gourmet pizza place and had some great food. All the time the conversation was good, never a pause, lots of laughs, even a couple of belly laughs from me, something I have not done in too long!

Then we headed on the tube up to Camden, we had a great look round the market (I may have bought a few CDs of thumping trance) I didn't realise that there is a whole section of Camden devoted to furniture tucked around the back, that was a cool find, and I have my eye on a couple of additions to the new house (should it ever get bought!)

After that, I had a little thirst, so I suggested we head to the pub, we had a few drinks and I realised that my nutter magnet is very definitely switched on still (or may be function intermittently, I can't be sure...). While Sandy and I were chatting, a drunk Italian chap wandered up to me and the following conversation ensued:

"How to get North of here?"
Being the helpful chap that I am, I asked him, "Where in the North?"
"North, just North, how do I get North from here?"
You're probably thinking what I'm thinking here... "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhkay..."
So I gave the most comprehensive answer I could, I pointed him in the direction of Camden Tube station (over the road from the pub) and told him to head North on the Northern Line for North in London, head South on the Northern Line to Kings Cross Station and get a train for North of London, and head south the Kings Cross and change to the Piccadilly Line for Heathrow for North of the country.
At this point, I realise he's taking the piss, but I'm having fun!

He starts talking very slowly to me like I'm a fool (understandable), and eventually he manages to convey to me that he wants to know where the cardinal compass point North is. At long last we have resolution, I point in the direction of North, and then he corrects me!

We have been wittering away for the last 10 minutes by now, and I'm not prepared to take a correction from a foreigner on compass points in the city I live in, without offering some challenge back in exchange. I decide to question his facilities for navigation in his own country of origin.
"What direction of the compass is Santa Margherita Ligure from Milano?"
"Santa Margherita, is a person, Saint Margaret, not a place!"
"No, its a town I have been there, its named after her, but it is a place I'm sure, in fact there are so many towns called Santa Margherita, that they have to suffix the name with the region so the post gets to the right town, that's why it has a 'Ligure'!"
"No, its a person, a saint"
I give up! I declare myself the winner, we shake hands, and Sandy and I make good our escape.

We headed back to my place, I had planned to cook the steak I had bought in the morning, but we ended having so much to drink, that I ended up ordering Chinese food then going to collect it.
We chatted for the rest of the evening (once I had kicked her ass at Teken Tag (totally, and she was soooo convinced she would destroy me)), then we realised she had missed her last train.

So now she is sleeping in the spare bedroom, and I, my lovely reader, I am going to my pit too.

I'm drunk and tired, so goodnight.