You hear that, Mr Andersen?

Try some, buy some, fi fi fo fum.

Rrrived in Penzance safely, and spent the night in a backpackers. This was fine for me, and I met a very nice German girl and a couple of very pleasant Austrians on their Gap year, but apparently someone of the people in the room had trouble sleeping because someone was snoring. On the grounds that I had no trouble, and have been known to snore before, I suspect that I was the culprit - though the friend of the Austrian who stayed in my room told me last night that her friend snored, so perhaps I'm feeling guilt for no good reason. Unfortunately, I didn't book for two nights yesterday, so I've had to move on to a B&B; the upside is that it's my own room, I can leave my phone charging there, and I won't be disturbing anyone tonight. (If it was, indeed, me. :)

And I've arranged to meet up for dinner with the Austrians, so that will be nice. Eating by yourself is not particularly exciting. :)

***

It's actually a relatively sunny day outside (and I'm paying 50p/10 minutes), so I'll have to keep this fairly short. I'm sitting in a cafe in the Penzance railway station - there were free internet terminals in the library, but there was a queue of eight or so people, and you were limited to half an hour, so I scooted over here. Thought I should check my finances, and I'm glad I did - I was in overdraft on my current account. :p Luckily, there was still a bunch of money that I'd left sitting in my old flat account, so I haven't had to dip into my savings account yet - but I guess I won't quite manage to last the month on whatever I had on my current account. Given that I was eating out most of the time for the two weeks of the Film Festival, I think I've done pretty well. :)

***

Staying with Adrian for a while was, I think, a lot closer to the "typical" Antipodean experience of London. The night I got in, I went for a drink with him, a friend of his, and Leon (of "Leon is a God" fame), which was mostly the four of us trying the handful of pubs that don't close at 11pm. (The licensing laws here are a bit weird.) Leon is a dangerous man to go drinking with, though from what I hear I caught him on a more moderate night.

Adrian's flat is impressive - a few minutes from Mornington Cresent tube station, on the 19th floor of a block of flats that look mightily suss from the outside, but are fine once you're in the flat proper.

The next day, Adrian and his flatmates were going off to watch the South Africa/Australia rugby game at a pub with friends. (Adrian has fallen into bad company - most of the people he knows in London are Aussies. So we decided, in the interests of solidarity with the two South Africans there, to lend our support to whoever was against Australia. :) I was given a "snakebite" to try, and chatted with a bunch of people I'm unlikely to see ever again.

Then, back to the flat for a while, and then they went off to a show at the Soho theatre while I went to try to find somewhere to eat in Chinatown, and maybe meet up with Leon for a drink. I didn't get hold of Leon in time, and the Chinatown restaurants were unsurprisingly expensive, but it was pretty much fine - until I had to stand around outside the theatre, waiting for the show to let out. There were several people looking for change, someone wanting 10p to play a sea chanty, one shady-looking black guy who wanted to know if I needed anything, one blonde who wondered if I was looking for companionship, and a couple of guys who wanted me to call them a taxi. (I said that I didn't have a phone.)

In the end, I went and stood next to a nearby bouncer, which seemed to screen out all but the beggars.

After that - a bunch of Adrian's friends went off to something called a "Slovakian party" (which sounded... interesting, in a deeply dodgy way), and Adrian, his friend, her flatmate and I went off to get a drink. Which ended up meaning that we went to a nightclub.

Now, I'm not sure whether I've mentioned the dress sense of young women in Britain yet. If not... well, it's noticably different to the NZ idea - there seems to be quite a bit less of it, for a start. Well, the nightclub was the same again, but even more so - I felt distinctly underdressed. Or perhaps "overdressed" is a better term. :) I'm glad I did it, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be a clubbing type if I lived in London.

Then, back home, sleep, rearrange my stuff to leave a bunch of it with Adrian, and off to Paddington station!

***

Okay, I better go and pay for this, and then wander about for a bit while there's still daylight. :) Tomorrow - London, and dinner with some of the people I met with Adrian. And Wednesday, off to Oxford to pick up my passport, and then maybe Denmark!

Posted by svend at August 23, 2004 10:30 PM