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Mother's Day and Dinner With Sarah (2008-03-02)

Category: Diary. Posted: 2008-03-04 07:53:40 GMT. Updated: 2008-03-05 08:05:00 GMT.

I said that I'd get to my parents' place my 1PM. According to TfL's website, the best way to go is:
Langley 11:52
Paddington 12:20
Paddington 12:27
Baker Street 12:32
Baker Street 12:35
London Bridge 12:48
London Bridge 12:54
Blackheath 13:06 [To be continued, I need to leave the hotel soon...]

[4/3/08 17:58 continued on the train to Woking....] I wasn't convinced by the timings, but TfL's website worked OK yesterday, so I had faith in it today. I eventually managed to get up to date with my e-mails, including replying to an author who had asked for apostrophe advice, and a fellow PlusNet user who reckoned he could justify the use of the double-possessive.

I left home just after half-eleven. The ticket machine still didn't accept credit cards, so I got another permit to travel, and got on the train. The queues at Paddington were much longer than yesterday's ones - why didn't I buy today's ticket yesterday? [4/3/08 18:03 to be continued, I need a kip......].

[4/3/08 22:04 continued in a pub near Woking station, having to wait over 30 minutes for the next train to Basingstoke] I didn't actually mind waiting in the queue, because there was a very nice woman behind me in the queue. Granted she had two or three pokey little kids with her, but she was quite chatty, very sexy, and about my age. I also think she was single, and quite fancied me (well, obviously, being a woman, she fancied me), but I was in a hurry to catch my connecting trains, and I was seeing Sarah later, so didn't ask her out.

The Bakerloo Line train arrived fairly quickly, but the Jubilee Line train arrived about 2 minutes later than it should have done, which was enough to make me miss my train at London Bridge. The next train to Blackheath was 30 minutes later, so I caught the next train to Lewisham (which went to Lee and Hither Green afterwards). According to the TfL website, I should have continued to Lee, and caught the 202 bus. I reckoned that getting a bus from Lewisham made more sense, but called my mother for advice. She agreed, so I got off at Lewisham. I walked past a taxi driver who was smoking inside his taxi, so I looked at his license number, and remembered it. Unfortunately, this meant that I forgot the bus numbers that my mother told me, so I asked some bus guvna. He said something totally different from my mother, which really confused me. I had more faith in my mother, but hoped that he knew something about cancellations that she didn't. It turned out that he was talking rubbish, but it actually ended up OK, and I only arrived about ten minutes late.

After being jumped over by their dog, and her jumping too much, and falling down the stairs, I made it upstairs, where my mother had prepared dinner. I had suggested that she didn't do anything today, but knew that that wasn't going to happen. Having been drinking from the start of yesterday's football match until about 3AM, my brother was feeling quite rough, and spent some of the time asleep doing a very good OB1 impression. Anyway, we had a really nice afternoon, but I had to leave at about half-five to meet Sarah at London Bridge. She'd called me earlier on to say that she would be arriving at 18:15, not 18:00, so I told her that I would just find somewhere to drink tea, and perve at totty, while waiting for her. She told me off for perving at totty, but said that she'd find me! I found a place to drink tea, but it looked like it might be closing. I asked the bloke whether they were still serving, and he said. "We close at about nine". He looked a bit confused when I said., "Is it before nine now?". Anyway, I ordered a tea, and sat down to drink it, and update my blog. [4/3/08 22:25 To be continued, I have to catch my train.].

[4/3/08 22:31 continued, I'm on the train] Realising that Sarah wouldn't know exactly where I was, I took a picture of my tea cup, and tried to send it to her as a multimedia message. I then realised that being inside a large steel structure, I couldn't get a mobile signal. Oh well, I was sure she'd find me eventually. I finished my tea, and then went to find Sarah. My phone started ringing, and it was Sarah. She'd already left me a voicemail message, and was calling me again. Ooops! We just wondered around a bit, randomly chatting, until we met each other (I knew I'd see her first!).

Sarah was looking even more gorgeous than normal, and I told her so. Unfortunately, I had given her a fair bit of jip on the phone, so I had a lot of making up to do! We tried to go for a romantic walk along the Thames, but it took us a while to actually find the Thames. We walked past the wine museum that Sarah wants to go to sometime, and I then remembered that we were close to the Golden Hind, and a pub that we'd drunk at before. Unfortunately, we still didn't get to walk along the Thames, but we did learn about the Golden Hind.

Being a top lass, Sarah had made some sushi, and some humus, we only had to find somewhere warm to eat it, so we decided to go to the "bring your own food" pub that I'd been to on my brother's birthday. I had no idea how to get there, but I told Sarah that it was near Barbican, so she led. On the way to the Millennium Bridge, I took a nice picture of Sarah in front of St. Paul's Cathedral (well, as nice as a compact camera can take at night). [4/3/08 22:48 to be continued, the train's just arrived at Basingstoke]. [5/3/08 7:53 continued over breakfast]. We then walked across the bridge, and got close to St. Paul's. Sarah then offered to take a picture of me, so I walked forward, and turned around to pose for the camera. I then saw lots of people with SLR cameras looking slightly annoyed because I was getting in the way of their shots, and Sarah was only using a compact camera!

We needed to walk past St. Paul's, and turning left seemed like the obvious way, although I'm going to have to teach Sarah the difference between east and west! On the other side of St. Paul's Cathedral, we found a map, and I figured out how to get to the pub. As we were walking along, I realised that remains of the old London Wall were near, so we took a detour to look at them. This took us past a Podiatrist's clinic, but I have no idea what a Podiatrist is. Anyway, after several detours, we eventually got to the Two Brewers, and found that it was closed. Fortunately, there was somewhere convenient opposite to eat our food. It wasn't the nicest place ever, but it did the job. Afterwards, we went off in search of a pub that was open, and found one not far away, although I can't remember exactly where it is, or what it's called. We had two quick drinks, before calling it a night.

I kept Sarah company to King's Cross, and we then got different trains back. I didn't have to wait long for a Hammersmith and City Line train, but, not knowing what time train I needed to catch, I actually walked past the Langley train as it was leaving. I had to wait for half-an-hour for the next train. The Isambard, and the bar were both closed, but The Mad Bishop was open. I had a quick pint there, but there was a sign on the quiz machine saying that it was out of order. Why didn't they just turn it off? Anyway, I supped my pint, and then caught the train back home.

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