Today was interesting, and you’ll notice that I am skipping yesterday. First, to today, then with a brief summary of yesterday following. To begin, I awoke a little later than I would have liked, at about 10:17 and needed to meet my friend Thomas at Paddington station (indeed the same place the famous teddy bear was discovered) at 11:00. I did make it there about five minutes later (luckily it is only three stops away from me), and apparently he had been waiting for about twenty minutes because his train was early. After we caught up, we went to Subway, where he kindly payed for my meal, and I need to pay him back in some kind return. After eating that delicious sandwich, we walked down the road to Kensington Park, where we proceeded to walk to the Royal Albert Memorial and mused over all of the points of it. Even though I had seen it very recently, it never ceases to amaze me and we tried to guess the significance to some of its symbols. Proceeding that, we walked back up by the Peter Pan statue in Kensington park and looked that over as well. Then we headed back up, because he needed to catch his train from King’s Cross to Cambridge. When we arrived at King’s Cross, from Paddington station, we found his train did not leave for nearly an hour and we hung out and went to WH Smith’s and I bought us some cokes, and I also got the first new resized issue of the Guardian (for free) which was much publicised these past couple of weeks. We went to McDonald’s (the first I’ve been to in London) and got some Mc-Flurries with Cadbury’s in them, and it was actually pretty good. We then returned to King’s Cross took a picture at platform 9 3/4, which sadly they actually have a cart set up to be going into the wall (from the Harry Potter book for anyone unaware of why such a thing would exist). He then left, and I returned home.
After getting here, I decided to make a list of all of the great London sites I want to visit, and then followed that by a list of all the places in Britain, and then tried to work out maybe getting a Eurail pass for autumn break. That is something I very much need to work on tomorrow. I decided later in the evening that I would go to Holland Park, because it looks beautiful and is fairly close to me. Unfortunately I arrived there about 20:00, which although was still light out, was not light enough, or early enough for the gate to the park to be open, bastards. So, I returned, and got some more looked at with my trip planning. I also started laundry for the first time, started but didn’t end, because we really only have a washer here, so, I need to (tomorrow as it is too late now) go and take it to a laundromat to do the drying. Other than that, I talked a lot to all of my flatmates, Alyssa, and tried to find a pub to visit, but thought better to stay in, and save some cash instead.
As to yesterday, there is not much to tell, I was fairly bored and unproductive. I went out to King’s Cross to meet Thomas, but never found him, and as soon as I arrived, half the city’s tubes shut down, including all of the Metropolitan lines (Hammersmith, District, and Circle), the Hammersmith being the only line that gets back to my stop, I thought it better to switch stations and get on the Central line, but that was only running to Marble Arch station, which is a good distance away from my flat (which would be far closer to Notting Hill Gate), so I had to take a bus there, and when I did return it was about two and a half hours gone. After that, I did not do much of anything, save to book a flight and hostel and such to Rome! It was great, the whole return trip was £40,00 which is pretty damned cheap if you ask me. Also, I decided (stupidly) to take a midnight trip by foot to just clear my mind. On the way, I got lost for about two and a half hours due to bad circumstances* and when I did return, I was exhausted, and very much ready for bed. That is really all there is to say, and I am now again ready for bed.
*These circumstances were that I very nearly got mugged! I did not write about this at the time, because I did not want to cause anyone reading at home to worry about it, but here is what happened: I was walking along, listening to my music on the headphones and this group of guys, ranging from about fourteen to probably about my age, were standing around in a very delinquently fashion, and as I walked past, perhaps at a quicker rate than normal, one of the little bastards (the one who seems to me to be no more than 14, he also looks of Middle Eastern descent not a big point but one that distinguishes him in my memory) tries to trip me from behind. At this stage, obviously I am quite alarmed as to the unfortunate situation I have just wandered into. I take my headphones off, and look directly at the kid and say in a clearly angry and startled voice “What are you doing!?!” He does not respond but one of the older kids, a black kid who looks to be close to my age, walks up to me and says something to the effect of “Yo, mate, what kind of phone do you got?” At this point, I am still looking at the kid in a very concerned manner and yell again “What are you doing” and then devote my attention, stupidly to the blackguard who has asked me the question. To him I reply in a most confused and irritated way “phone... what do you mean phone?!” Now at this point, the little Arab scoundrel comes up behind me and being a good deal shorter than me, he jumps up and wraps his arm around my neck so that he is directly behind me with the inside of his elbow at my Adam’s apple, and he then pushes his fist into my back trying to bring me down. But perhaps because of adrenaline he does not succeed and barely even moves me, I think because of this factor he decides that he can not win in a fight with me and gets off me. After this part of it, I am quite frightened and walk off in absolute disgust and rather quickly, until I turn to go down a bridge that goes over some train tracks, I walk so fast and with such intent of getting out of anything to do with these violent thieves that I soon run into a great problem, that is, I lose any sense of where I am, and since it was well after midnight, the Underground stations were all closed and I am lost to wandering around to where I am hoping to take a roundabout way of getting home, trying with all force to avoid the route I came from, for fear that these rascals would be there upon my return and not be as easy to evade. As a result of this, and the unfortunate circumstance that I did not have my London map with me, I was at the mercy of my own memory, sense of direction, and the street signs I encountered, which were rather unreliable all save the street signs. So, I was out until 3:00am when I finally arrived home.