A friend of mine needed a place to sleep last night. She was on her way from Lithuania to Calgary and cheap flights being what they are, she had 14 hours in London to kill, between midnight and 2pm. So, I arranged to doze on the couch at a friend's place near Victoria Station until she called to tell me that she had arrived on the bus from Stansted Airport. As the bus goes directly to Victoria Station, it was then simple to pick her up, and catch a bus back to Brixton. I anticiapted her calling sometime between 1:30-2:00. Just after 1 my cell rings and she announces she is at Liverpool Street Station. The bus driver, who knew she wanted to go to Victoria Station has made it sound as though this is the normal place to get off. So, we are now at opposite ends of town and there is no easy way to navigate night busses so that we will find each other. After deciding to risk a cab (how much can it cost when there is no trafic!), I wander out the door of my friend's house and head to the end of the street where they have said that the traditional Black Cab's wait. I see two drive by as I sprint downt the street...when I get there -- nothing.
However, within a minute a cab pulls up, but the light on top, indicating it is for hire, is turned off. The cabbie pulls up, turns off the engine, gets out and goes into the public toilet that is standing on the corner. While I am contemplating how long I should wait for the cabbie another cab pulls up and is nice enough to notice me waving my arm. Luckily there is very little traffic at this time of night and to my surprise, I know the streets the cab is taking to cross town! I normally only take busses or walk when I am not on the Tube as cabs can get quite expensive! Knowing that the streets of London are no longer impenetrable, I feel confident that this will all turn out in the end. I do love driving along the bank of the Thames at night in London. There are so many lights and well known sights that I always feel a little awed that I am really in London!
Barely 15 minutes later and I am jumping out of the cab - the driver did tell me that the public toilet at the end of Maunsel St is the only toilet available to cabbies at that time of night in London. So if you ever need a cab, that is the absolute best place to get yourself to! Back to jumping out the cab and doing a fairly good immitation of competitive walking (which is now an Olympic sport) to find Meaghan (yes, I have friends with my name...different spelling). Waiting on street corners in foreign cities is never one of my favourite things to do...especially when I haven't anticipated having to do so! Walking aound three sides of the building twice (the fourth side adjoins other buildings) did not produce the anticipated Meaghan. By this point, everyone who is waiting for busses, and the cabbies trying to convince someone to pay more for a ride think I am a little strange, when on my third trip around the main corner, I spot a figure looking at the bus map! With the traveller found, tired, but generally well, we head for the night bus to Brixton, which is just pulling up. 30 minutes later we are back at my house and eating toast.
After sleeping for a scant 5 hours we are back out the door, on our way to Victoria Station. A little bit of shopping for marmalade, tea and biscuits is followed by a traditional English 'fry up.' Breakfast felt well deserved after all the running around the night before, although that much grease is never good for the stomach! Just after 11 we got on the train to Gatwick (an impulsive decision on my part to take a train ride...but there just hadn't been enough time to talk!). Meaghan has recently bought a house in Edmonton (these people with real jobs!), so we looked at the house plans, paint chips, carpet and countertop colours...if only there was time or money to decorate anything on a PhD salary! Once at Gatwick we discovered that Zoom was checking in two flights to Canada and that everyone had turned up at the same time! But the line moved relatively quickly and within an hour I was watching security guards patting Meaghan down for sharp metal objects...ah international travel!
After all that, I am quite impressed that I managed to get any work done today at all!
(And the image is from Paris in January - view from near the Louvre, looking at the Left Back.)
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