28 Tuesday Sep 2010
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Lizzie showed me this yesterday morning after printing out my boarding pass – it’s absolutely brilliant! Have to admit I got a bit nervous when we landed in Sevilla and they told us to leave by the back exit – one of the passengers must have seen this too because she turned to me and said, “I hope they’re not going to make us jump!” 🙂
26 Sunday Sep 2010
Posted in food & drink, friends, london, travel, trips
Yesterday I said goodbye to Clare & Joe and their pretty Hackney flat where they really made me feel like home. But before heading off to Bristol, Sara & Steve took me out for my first ever Vietnamese meal – it was amazing! Then they even came with me to Paddington and saw me off so I could be there in plenty of time without worrying about missing my train, and so I wouldn’t be there alone. We had one final drink and chat at a bar there and then I headed out to Bristol, where Lizzie picked me up at the station and took me to her very comfortable house. A couple of old friends were there for a quick visit before heading back to London, so we all had dinner together. Then Lizzie and I sat up drinking wine and chatting until well past midnight. Today we are planning a trip out to the HUGE Marks & Spencer here, but other than that I am happy not to have to plan anything or be anywhere at any specific time … just happy to be here. Haven’t seen Lizzie since the summer of 2001 and it feels like no time has passed at all. It’s so nice to have these couple of days to just relax and catch up before heading back to Sevilla.
25 Saturday Sep 2010
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Coffee in bed, then ran out at 10.30am to meet Ben (friend of JosĂ©’s) in deepest darkest Hackney, and afterwards whipped back down to St Pauls to meet Teutcher, who then asked me how I felt about fish… thought she was talking about lunch but she was in fact talking about fish eating ME. But lunch first. Off to Covent Garden to sample 32 Great Queen Street West, which was fabby, then off to Kensington to have feet nibbled upon by tiny fish. Loved it. And also the half-hour foot massage afterwards. And then – eep! – was getting late, so planned to meet up with Annie and T’s husband for a drink in Charing Cross before Annie & I headed out for dinner with twitter friends. Needless to say we arrived late after racing there on foot for a good half hour (buses were not making any sense by then). Met Rachel, JosĂ© & Alessio in gastropub… had okay meal (the company was much better than the food) and around midnight Annie walked me to my bus stop and sent me safely on my way home. It was a day and then some. Click to enlarge the pics…
Today I leave for Bristol at 5pm…
24 Friday Sep 2010
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What a day! Got up feeling a bit fuzzy after having stayed up way too late with Joe sampling his lovely Spanish wine collection… so at 9.30 this morning I found myself flying out the door with wet hair and in a state of semi-panic thinking I’d be late for the reason I came here in the first place. As it turned out I caught the bus straight away and just about made it on time (10-ish), and had quite an interesting day meeting other SimonSpeaks experts and learning more about the whole thing. When things finished just after 4pm I invited Florence Expert Nicky to come out with Madrid Expert Annie and me for a drink and a chat, which was quite fun. After that I went in search of an M&S to pick up some food as I had been promising Joe an “az carbonara” since the Hackney Gang was in Seville…
And so had a lovely comfy night at home with Clare & Joe.
A few pics above of stuff I saw and did.
22 Wednesday Sep 2010
So I’ve just printed my boarding pass and am pretty much packed – am way under the allowed suitcase weight, so that’s good. And of course, I am a NERVOUS WRECK. Will be leaving for the airport in a couple of hours and should arrive in London at 4pm. And then make my way to Hackney. Oh, and I might be flying in the cockpit… eep!
casa azahar 