w/c 28.09.08

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Sunday 28th September 2008
Lots of chillage, because I was meant to play squash (again!) but the spicy pancake really didn't agree with my tummy :-( So I spent the day at home drinking tea and watching TV and generally chilling with the mother.

Monday 29th September 2008
My backpack arrived in the morning - yay!! It's nicer than I thought :-D

So, instead of rescheduling my contact lens check, I went to it. Unfortunately, because they couldn't tell what type of contacts they are, they said they could either start from scratch with trial et al - which would take over a week - or get the contact prescription from Islington and then they can order them, because they won't keep them in stock. So basically I can't get them from Specsavers before I leave (potentially). So I decided to get them from Islington instead, especially as they keep mine in stock! I did, however, manage to pick up my glasses - yay! Although they'll take some getting used to...

I walked back home, pondering whether to drop in on Adrianne but decided on chips instead. So I got a small portion and couldn't wait to get home 😊 After eating my yummy yummy lunch, I called Islington to make the appointment and he called me back a few minutes later(!) with an appointment slot of 14:30 tomorrow. Sorted. I can go after the Thai Royal Embassy in the morning. That won't be too much fun, having to leave at 10:00...

My lens and remote control also came through - woohoo!! :-D Lots of playing around with the new toys, yay!

Tuesday 30th September 2008
We have to sort out our 60 day tourist visa for Thailand and it takes 48 hours, so we need to do it this week in order to be sure. That meant getting up earlier than I've gotten used to over the last few days and it kinda sucked. But I made it and I got to Gloucester Road station with time to spare. While I was waiting for Alex to arrive, all I could think about was how I should've brought another jumper because I was a bit cold. He got there after what seemed like ages but was probably in fact just a couple of minutes, and we started walking out and down the road. We both assumed the other had looked up where the embassy was and realised that neither of us knew! So we checked out the map on the bus stop and started walking in the other direction. We managed to find it and went down the steps to the visa and passport office. There were two rolls of numbered tickets - blue and green ones. I looked at the signs above each one and proceeded to take a blue ticket, as it said 'visa application' above it. Made sense. The office was pretty busy, but 2 seats became free at the front after a while and we went to sit on them. We waited a few numbers on and I realised that most people were actually waiting for the other window - in which I noticed a sign saying it was for the green tickets for people who want to collect visas or Thai passports. Must be one in window and an out window. We thought we'd have to wait a while, but the few numbers before us kept on going up without anyone seeming to have that ticket, so we didn't actually have to wait that long. We went up and finished the form and paid the GBP 28.00 each for the visa and left our passports there. In return we got a ticket and were told to come back in 48 hours.

So Thai visa application all sorted and it was only the beginning of the afternoon. We went into Boots on the way back to the station and I got a Double Decker because it was the cheapest chocolate bar there - I didn't even want anything, it was just too tempting! Alex got a cereal bar and a drink. I told the till guy that I had a Boots card but not with me, and when Alex paid and got his change, he told the guy to keep the receipt - unintentionally in a rather standoffish tone. So the guy shouted after us and said I should take it to put points on my card. And not in the friendliest of tones. Bloody men. Why can't we all just get along...

We both got on the tube back home and while we were on the train, I realised that by the time I got home, it would've been time for me to leave again for my contact lens check. So I got off at King's Cross instead to get the Northern line to Angel. I had quite a bit of time to kill, so I rang Dickie who might've been able to meet for lunch, but he was already eating his sausage roll :-( So I found a Mac's to wash my hands in so I could put my contacts in before the check. There was a queue for the tiny toilet and not much space for me to put my contacts in there, so I put them in while I was walking back to the station! I then made my way to Angel and walked slowly down Chapel Market. I popped into every shop I passed - Marks, Iceland, Black's.... - but finally walked back to the N1 Centre and started reading in Borders. I couldn't find the Danny Wallace book I'd been reading, so I started on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (or something like that). When it was time for my appointment, I walked to the optician and was greeted rather friendlily by the Asian dude I'd spoken to the last time. He even offered me a cuppa while I was waiting because they were running 15 minutes behind. I had my paper so I didn't mind. Eventually it was my turn so I did the check and got the lenses - but when he told me the price, I'm sure it was a tenner over what he'd quoted me before. So I questioned it, but he said it was right and even showed me another person's card to prove the price of the check. I didn't like his style but not much I could do about it, so I gave him my card only for him to say he'd knock 6 quid off for me if I get cash out instead. So I walked to M&S and got the money out. I made a decision there and then not to get contacts from here ever again. Specsavers it is from now on....

Wednesday 1st October 2008
Fun day of film watching with CC scheduled for the day, so had to make sure I was ready for when she arrived at 14:30. We'd planned to have a late lunch somewhere - she'd even suggested a large pizza, side, and bottle of coke from dominoes for 8 quid each just because it was a good deal. Then I reminded her that we could get chips for a quid!! So she came round and after a little chat, we ventured into Edgware to see what was about. We passed the chippie and all the pizza joints, and after umming and aahing about nandos, we finally decided on Burger King, what with it being affordable and filling. As we passed Edgware station, some random dude asked CC how old she was, to which she replied '32' and he told her she didn't look it. Duh! He then started chatting to her as I walked out in front, and stopped at the pedestrian crossing. They chatted for a bit and I heard that it was about cosmetics(!) - I avoided eye contact as much as I could, but in the end he caught my eye and asked what perfume I wore. I told him I don't wear perfume and that's where it ended...

I had to break it to her that it looked like BK had in fact shut down. Oops! So we pondered upon Nandos and Pizza Hut, deciding on Nandos in the end, which was probably the better choice. I got a quarter chicken of medium spiciness, chips, coleslaw and a bottomless drink, while CC got a veggie burger pitta, peri peri chips, peri peri mayo, and a bottomless drink. And hers cost more. Guess they specialise in chicken so that's what they wanna sell. It was really tasty - hadn't had Nandos in years. We eventually left, thinking about getting ice cream from Baskin Robbins for dessert, but thought it was too cold for ice cream, so we ended up going to Sainsburys to pick up some cheaper snackie-doodles. While we were there, CC decided to get a Sky remote as well - as you do. We ended up getting a Wispa bar each, honey popcorn to test out, and 2 chocolate sponge puddings. I even got away with getting CC to hold everything! Joker.

When we got back we started the film watching and chose Little Miss Sunshine, which turned out to be quite good :o) While we were watching it, Egypt texted me and we arranged for him to come round with a cable to hook up the laptop to the TV so we could all watch The Eye later. He said he'd get here about 21:00 so we waited til then, only for him to pull out the cable he'd brought, which I noticed wasn't the correct one! So we spent ages trying to find a cable and burning the film onto discs, none of which paid off :o( So in the end we watched Family Guy, after which he left to go home and watch something on his PC. That did however, leave CC and me to watch The Eye on the 13 inch laptop. Turned out not to be that good anyway, so maybe it was a good thing we didn't inflict it onto Egypt...

Thursday 2nd October 2008
Cec was meant to come round today, but I hadn't heard anything back from her so I figured she wasn't coming. But I still waited at home all day just in case. It was nice to relax though, and not have to do anything. Alex came round though, and noticed that the JET application had opened, so I started to fill it out and get it all ready, hoping to hand it in tomorrow.

Friday 3rd October 2008
Our visas were ready yesterday but I didn't want to spend GBP 7.00 just for that, so we went to pick them up today instead, because I was going out in town today anyway. I wanted to get there earlier than last time, because most of the people in the room were waiting for the other window the last time, and that's the window we need this time. So we got there for about 10:30 and it seemed more full than the other day. I grabbed a green ticket, which Alex wasn't sure about and proceeded to take a blue ticket as well, just in case. No faith! I explained to him that the blue one was for applications and the green one was for picking up visas and passports, and that the left window was for green tickets and the right for blue (as indicated by the signs by each window). There was also a number calling system above each window - the left for the green and the right for the blue. Pretty damn obvious I thought, but Alex didn't believe me til a few people with blue tickets had gone to the green desk only to be told to go to the other. I was actually quite astounded by how many people didn't get the system. I worked it out pretty much straight away last time. Maybe I'm just super clever. Or just logical. So we waited for our turn, which wasn't for ages - took much longer than last time, as I predicted - and I was thankful for my seat. Some English dude was applying for a visa at the blue desk, and he was pretty loud so we could hear everything he said. His plan was to go to Thailand for a couple of weeks, go by train to a bordering country, go back to Thailand for another couple of weeks, go by train to a bordering country, then back to Thailand for the last time for less than 30 days. Really this guy doesn't need a visa at all!! He can just get a tourist visa stamped into his passport when he arrives each time, but he obviously hadn't read up on it properly, and ended up paying GBP 84.00 (28 per entry) - that's 84 quid more than he needed to. What a joker! Eventually our number came up and Alex went to the desk, only to be cut in front by some old geezer who was trying it on. Alex was having none of it so he said he was next and showed the guy our ticket. He asked to see the old geezer's ticket, to which he tried to blag it by saying random shit but the guy knew and told the old geezer to get a ticket from the roll. The oldie said he'd been waiting ages already and if he got a ticket now he'd have to go back to the back of the line, but the guy insisted on him getting a ticket. So the oldie tried to get one out of the used tickets tub, which the desk guy saw. It was all quite amusing to watch. For me anyway. We got our passports back with visas in them and left - it was just before 12:00 by now.

We walked back to the station, passing the old geezer on the way. He was wearing shorts. It was freezing. Obviously a complete joker. I headed to BM's office near Fleet Street so I could pick up the JET application print outs she'd kindly done for me. We went up to a meeting room, where Janice very kindly made me some tea and gave me a couple of packets of biscuits! I prepared the application packs and all was good to go except for the second reference letter I had to pick up later. I had a lunch arrangement with Saj for 14:00 but BM kept on at me about lunch, so we went to Poppin's, where she had a chicken curry and I had scampi and chips. It was OK. It was really full, and we had to sit at a table for 6 between 2 single guys either end, and one of them had put his bag on the chair next to him. For some reason I thought BM had put it there, so I was about to move it when he grabbed it. Oops! He then suggested I sit on the next chair, to which I asked if someone was sitting there. After that he just took his bag and I sat on it. Damn cheek - why the fuck would I sit in the next chair opposite some random when I was there with someone??!?!! I wasn't doing it just to piss him off, although I wish I had.

After lunch mark one, I headed to Chancery Lane where I'd arranged to meet Saj and Su over Facebook. I was 30 minutes early, but didn't know where there were any bookshops for me to kill time in, so I just waited at the station. It was pretty cold, so I went downstairs where it was still cold but at least I could try and hide from the wind by standing against the paper ticket machine that I saw only 1 person use the whole hour I was standing there. Saj eventually arrived, and we waited until 14:30 for Su, but then left as it was too cold to just wait around and it was clear he wasn't coming then! We walked down Chancery Lane, onto Strand and past KCL and all the way to the other end of Strand. I popped into Jessops and bought a filter for my new lens. We then popped into the tea shop so Saj could find a mug and got a sampling of some tea with honey and other stuff in it. Very sweet. He didn't get a mug. We then walked back towards KCL, deciding to get something from Pret a Manger. I got the crayfish and avocado salad and he got the mango sarnie (with some sort of meat or fish I can't remember - not just mango in bread...that would just be lame) and we walked back to KCL to eat it, passing another Pret on the way, just a minute away from KCL! We walked towards the canteen, passing the Great Hall on the way and finding a Study Abroad Fair going on. We checked it out, signing up for something with fake details, chatting to the Toronto Uni girls, picking up some BUNAC stuff (with her telling us all about the student programme and Saj continually asking about the non-student programme. Wonder if she caught on). We then finally got to the Macadam Building, and decided to eat in the Terrazza instead of the canteen. It was nice. It was then time to go see our old favourite lecturer, so we went up to the second floor, only to find out we'd past it and it was actually on the first floor. Oops. We got there in the end though. We had a nice chat with him and I sorted out the reference letter with him, which was a relief. We ended up meeting Su at Temple station at 17:00, for which he joined us and chatted on the way back up Strand.

We went to Cafe Nero but there weren't any low seats available so Saj decided to go somewhere else and we walked towards Covent Garden. We ended up at the coffee place in that indoor mall area where Bunker and that Chaos snowboarding shop are. Saj and I got a white hot chocolate - it was soooooo good!!!! We chatted for a while before it was time for us to leave, and I left them at Covent Garden station while I walked to Leicester Square so I could get the Northern to Edgware.

I would've been at Adrianne's on time had I not waited for the bus, but I had to go to the toilet first so I wanted to go home first and it was really cold out so I waited and waited and waited. It finally came and I went home for a few minutes. Then walked to Adrianne's, where G answered the door for me (he always seems to do that!) and I walked into the nice warm house. As I peeked into the dining room I saw all nice plates and cutlery out, which I wasn't expecting. Adrianne said they do that every Friday. It hadn't clicked what it actually was until I saw the covered bread and wine etc. I was secretly excited about it - my first ever Sabbath! I wanted to light a candle too but I wasn't sure what the dealio was with that so I just sat and did as I was expected. Dinner was really good. Loads as usual, but ended up having a slice of chocolate pie AND a slice of apple pie made by Bob. Yummers. Alex and I ended up being the last guests - that's never happened before. But Adam was talking about buying a car so I guess that caught Alex's interest. We ended up leaving rather late - not actually sure what time, but I was yawning like crazy.

Saturday 4th October 2008
I didn't end up handing the JET application in yesterday, but I decided I'd definitely do it on Monday, so we decided it was time to buy our flights to Thailand - finally! So we found a return flight for 8th Oct - 30th Dec for just over GBP 500 and we bought it. SO exciting! Now all that's left is to book the hotel in Bangkok and sort out travel insurance.

Alex ended up staying for dinner, which was followed by Japanese hotcakes - yummers! I love that stuff.

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