Boots & Trains in London

Apologies to all who have sent email and to whom I have not replied :)
Haven’t been near a PC since Thursday, not that I miss it ! It’s such a relief to put away all this for a couple of days.
Anyway I was in London for a long weekend, Friday was nice and sunny but then the temperature dropped overnight. I enjoyed myself thoroughly browsing the wonderful bookshops there but also window-shopping on ‘highstreet’, where else but Oxford street?
Things are ridiculously expensive in the UK but even more so in London.
My most mundane activity was looking for a pair of black leather boots. The joke of the day was that if I could not find my dream boots in Oxford street or Harrods then, we would have to fly to Italy specifically. Well I found superb boots, unfortunately another woman was wearing them. Being me I just walked up to her and asked: “ where did you get these boots they are fabulous?” I think she must have been shocked, as this is not typical British behaviour ;).

If you have the time the underground can be great fun, just buy a day pass and off you go riding all day long from on place to another. Mind you watch out for the zones, and remember not to fold that ticket in your pocket, I had the most embarrassing moments at the gate each time.
Anyway London was ‘cool’ but I still prefer Beirut.
It’s 3:30 am now and I can’t sleep as my routine has been disrupted so might as well blog. We went out to dinner with some dear friends and they knew I had to leave on the same day. Yours truly had previously inquired about trains departing from London to ‘X’ and was informed that there was one EVERY hour, so I was cool and confident, but what the information desk staff omitted to mention was that there were no trains in the evening anymore on weekends only coaches . So what do you do at 10.00 pm at the railway station, when your friends have gone back home and you can’t find a ride to your next destination ? Honestly I felt like crying, because no matter how independent some of us are, we Libyan or Arab women are very spoiled, there will always be someone to carry your bag, if you talk to people on the street they will be friendly and protective and though the station was pretty full I started having bad scenarios in my head, not forgetting that I was going to be late for ‘X’. Well if I wanted to leave London that night there was only one way, get a coach. That’s not my cup of tea, it was something I was trying to avoid, plus Victoria Station was not near. Now the underground did not seem so friendly anymore....was getting kind of empty. To cut a story short, I got to Victoria station and managed to secure a place on a very crowded coach to X, it seems everyone was leaving London on Saturday night? Of course when I arrived at X a few hours later, sleepy and frumpy, there were no more taxis at the coach station so I had to ring my best friend to come for me after all. Well what are friends for? will post this then go giggle with her a bit about our school days.