June 18: a day in the life of a freeloader

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June 18th: Another fun part of jetlag; waking up at 4 or 5am and not being able to get back to sleep. Around 6am I decided to just get up and make the most of the day... so of course it was raining. i tried to be quiet out of consideration for my roommates, but this was made impossible by the world's LOUDEST FLOOR, it creaked and squealed like an 8 year old learning violin!
Went out to get breakfast but nothing was open! earls court could learn a trick or two from auckland airport. got a paper and read it in the hostel reception area, until the reception guy came out and harangued me "those seats are for guests who are checking in or checking out (apparently I should have instinctively realised this), you should be sitting in the guest lounge" apparently i should have known this too... i asked him the location of said lounge and he gave me an amused look that said "how can you not know this stuff?!"

Anyway i've got out for a nice greggs breakfast adn have a decent day lined up, even looks like the weather is starting to "playball"!

~later~ the weather is (after a couple of false starts) glorious, after a wander around hyde park (no squirrels today... boo) i tracked down all the cool free museums i intend on visiting tomorrow, and the brompton oratory that (given nick cave's beautiful song about it) i wanted to see.
feeling comfortable with the tube now, headed to tottenham court where i met my mate Di, she paid for our coffee (i am a scab) we had a nice catchup, though sadly it was all to brief as Di had to go to work that arvo.

I went to the huge 3 levelled HMV store in the area and ended up feeling slightly giddy at all the great music and movies there... spent money.
after that it was off to meet another friend, Emily, and her boyfriend Mason for lunch in Chinatown. we had delicious dumplings, which Emily paid for (see, i am such a scab), we bid farewell to Mason (who is a nice bloke) adn went for some jetlag curing coffee... which emily also paid for (scab, scab, scab) we drank it in the park in the sunshine and had a big old chat just like old times... then, sadly, she too had to go back to work (working on the 'total recall' remake no less) so we parted company and i tooled around chinatown, looked at some 2nd hand bookshops, then decided it'd be good to put up my feet for a bit... so, back on the tube to the hostel. i farewelled the italian roommate and chatted to a really nice young bloke from Brazil who is also staying in the room... that reminds me, 2 of the people in our room are a spanish couple who (for some reason) have opted to share a top bunk single bed... the one above mine to be precise. luckily they're not up to any hanky panky cos these beds are easily as noisey as the floor! it does worry me though that their combined weight might bring the whole top bunk crashing down to squash me!

~later, grr~ wow, ok mr reception guy; asking if you sell half hours on the net because i don't need a full hour is NOT like buying a cheeseburger from mcdonalds and only eating half of it, if anything it's like buying a cheeseburger because you're not hungry enough for a big mac. you seriously need to work on your customer service skills... mind you i guess guests come and go and they'll always have people staying no matter what sort of word of mouth they get.

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Photos

Emily & I
flatmates reunited

phonebox chinatown styles
ooh yeah